Holly delivered this address to a literary society of young colored men in New Haven in 1855, after returning from Haiti, and repeated it through Ohio, Michigan and Canada West before it was printed. Its declared object is to defend the inherent capability of people of African descent to govern themselves and to build a civilization.

His evidence is Haitian history from the revolution onward. The defense is needed, he argues, not only against open contempt: many who profess to be friends of the race carry a private doubt about equality that surfaces the moment full recognition is pressed on them, and their reticence leaves the field to detractors until the oppressed half accept the verdict themselves.

The lecture then works through the events leading to the rising, the composure of the blacks under it as proof of fitness to govern, the intervention of free men of color, and the record of national enterprise and governmental stability since independence.