Samuel Coe was born in the Coe Ridge Colony of freed slaves in the hills of Cumberland County, Kentucky in 1879. In this book he describes the Colony and its beginnings after the Civil War. The earliest days of the community are explored, as are its citizens; along with the fatal feud with a local white family, early logging of the Cumberland River, and the recurring problem of violence with those that lived around them. Chronicles of the Coe Colony had been out of print for almost 80 years before this reprint was issued. The book brings to life a period in this infamous community of freedmen, with their mixed heritage of African American, Native American and Caucasian blood, that has rarely been seen. Told in the words of one who grew up on the ridge and experienced many of the stories firsthand, it is sure to delight those that have an interest in former slave communities that emerged after the Civil War.