 I have worked in every Department in the Navy Yard and Dry-Dock, as a laborer, and this during very long years of unrequited toil, and the same might be said of the vast numbers, reaching to thousands of slaves who have been worked, lashed and bruised by the United States government ...

His narrative also contains important information on post Civil War Virginia, for he was an elected to and participated in the Virginia Reconstruction era government.He discussed critically and candidly the role played by African American delegates to the state convention; his efforts as a state senator to promote equitable work policies at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard; and the factionalism within the Republican party that led to his defeat.George Teamoh writes he was born enslaved in 1818 in Norfolk, Virginia.