Few black groups in the United States carry with them the romance, the gripping history, the pathos, the indestructible spirit of the Coe Ridge colony during the ninety years of its existence. ". . . a new and long needed departure in American historiography. . . . This is in every way an impressive book. It contains detailed accounts of the informants, tables of folklore motifs, genealogical charts, a prologue and epilogue explaining authoritatively the hypotheses of oral traditional history, and handsome photographs of the Coe Ridge area." --Richard M. Dorson, Journal of American History. "Lynwood Montell has written an invaluable book for all those interested in the use of oral tradition as a tool in the reconstruction of history. . . . This is a book worthy of being on any folklorist's shelf." --Richaed A. Reuss, Journal of American Folklore.

William Lynwood Montell (1931-2023) was professor of folk studies at Western Kentucky University. A distinguished interpreter of the folk customs in the Upper Cumberland, his twenty-eight books include Ghosts Along the Cumberland: Deathlore in the Kentucky Foothills; A Study in Oral History; and Don't Go Up Kettle Creek: Verbal Legacy of the Upper Cumberland. He was inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and received the Kentucky Governor's Arts Award in Folk Heritage.