This work investigates the complex relationship between Joseph Davis and Benjamin Montgomery to understand how a former slave managed to establish a successful, autonomous black community on the site of a former plantation. Janet Sharp Hermann, a historian specializing in the American South, utilizes primary source documents and plantation records to reconstruct the lives of these two men. She argues that the unique intellectual and professional partnership between Davis and Montgomery provided the necessary framework for the creation of the Davis Bend colony, a rare example of economic success for freedmen during the Reconstruction era.

Historians frequently cite this text as a foundational study on the complexities of post-emancipation economic structures in the South. Scholars note the author's meticulous research and balanced approach to the unconventional relationship between a former master and his intellectual heir.