"An intriguing and textured portrait of a black family in the nineteenth-century North. . . . Arguing that those who have searched for black influences on minstrelsy have exclusively and mistakenly focused on the South, the authors seek to demonstrate the closely intertwined traditions of black and white music above the Mason-Dixon line. . . . Not only has blackface minstrelsy exerted ‘a pervasive impact on American music' . . . it has also served as both symbol and metaphoric expression of the complexities of American racial identity."
Drew Gilpin Faust, New York Times "A haunting and heroic story, which the Sackses tell eloquently. . . . The fullest, most finely detailed account I know of the musical life of a nineteenth-century African American family anywhere in the United States."
Ken Emerson, The Nation "The process of cultural exchange the Sackses have delineated is one of which all historians of race in America need to be aware."
Dickson D. Bruce, Jr., American Historical Review