From Slavery to Wealth: The Life of Scott Bond »

Willard B. Gatewood is Alumni Distinguished Professor of History emeritus at the University of Arkansas,Fayetteville, and the author or coauthor of eleven other books, including Aristocrats of Color (University of Arkansas Press, 2000).

In an era in which African Americans were oppressed and deprived of many of the rights and privileges of citizenship, Scott Bond rose frombeing born a slave inMadison County,Mississippi, in the early 1850s to wealth and status as a farmer, merchant, and business entrepreneur in Madison, Arkansas, by the early 1900s. From Slavery to Wealth is the story of an extraordinary individual widely known and respected at the time of its first publication in 1917, for his integrity, prodigious energy, and strong work ethic. Throughout his career he never wearied of imploring African Americans to seize the opportunities offered them in the South in general and in the Arkansas Delta in particular. Scott Bond enjoyed an enviable reputation among blacks as well as whites. This reputation ultimately extended far beyond his local community to prominent blacks throughout the South and elsewhere, especially after he gained wider exposure as a conspicuous figure in the National Negro Business League in the early years of the twentieth century.

With this 2008 reprint edition, the current generation can be inspired by the man who has been referred to as the black John D. Rockefeller of Arkansas.

Michael Rogers - Library Journal

Scott Bond was born a slave in Mississippi but became a farmer, merchant, and top businessman, employing other African Americans and helping them gain status in the South and throughout the country. His story was first published in 1917.