This annotated edition of Henry Flipper’s autobiography guides modern readers and researchers to better understand Flipper’s original work. The editors’ notes explain the significance of people, places, and events that Flipper identifies in shorthand; provide additional context and subtext to help readers better understand Flipper’s experiences; identify areas in which Flipper presented an ambiguous or incomplete narrative; and explore the literary qualities of the original memoir as an early work of African American autobiography. Readers of this work are given insight into the history of the African American struggle in the Reconstruction and to Black presence at West Point, as well as the publication and material history of Flipper’s original book and Flipper’s broader place in the literary tradition.