This volume, told through excerpts from the diary of Mary Ames, relates the experiences of two Northern white women, Mary Ames and Emily Bliss, who were employed by the Freedman's Bureau to open a school for the benefit of former slaves. It tells of their journey to Edisto Island, South Carolina, where liberated slaves had been settled after Reconstruction, and of the ruinous living conditions suffered by freedmen and teachers alike. The women managed to establish a school with well over one hundred students, both children and adults. The diary tells of Miss Ames's dealings with former slaves, documents their social and religious life, and reports on the daily difficulties of life in the Reconstruction South. The school was closed by the Freedman's Bureau after a little more than a year.