Includes bibliographical references and index.

'.....Through an exhaustive investigation of black songs, folk tales, proverbs, aphorisms, verbal games and the long narrative oral poems known as 'toasts, ' Levine argues that the value system of Afro-Americans can only be understood through an analysis of Black culture....His work ranks among the best books written on the Afro-American experience in recent years.' Al-Tony Gilmore, The Washington Post