Son of an aristocratic white plantation owner and a mulatto slave, P. B. S. Pinchback, the frist black governor of Louisiana, was a natural swashbuckler, whose free-wheeling gambling and love life entangled him in several gunfights, six formal duels, and torrid romances. Despite the unwritten social laws of the South, which prevented most blacks from rising above menial positions, Pinchback's accomplishments were wide ranging, long lasting and extraordinary.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES HASKINS, a Professor of English at the University of Florida, Gainesville, is the recipient of the Washington Post Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction and the author of over 125 books from adults and young adults such as James Van DerZee: The Picture Takin' Man (AWP 1991), Always Movin' On: The Life of Langston Hughes (AWP 1993), and Adam Clayton Powell: Portrait of a Marching Black (AWP 1992).

CATEGORY
Young Adult, Biography, History/AFRICAN AMERICAN