"Shaped by the author's belief that capitalism inexorably led to the exploitation of Southern farmers during Reconstruction, 'The Quest of the Silver Fleece' dramatizes the economic conflict between cotton growers and Northern capitalists. W.E.B. Du Bois uses Miss Sarah Smith's controversial school for Southern black children as the fictional device that links wealthy cotton planters, their exploited black laborers, and the interests of Wall Street and Washington"--Page 4 of cover.