The book "Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt" by William James Edwards is a unique testimony of life in the Southern States of the United States during the period of rehabilitation after the Civil War. The author, who worked as a teacher and missionary in Alabama, offers his own observations about the social, cultural and political aspects of life in the South in the 19th century. The book reveals the cruelty of slavery, the struggle for equal rights and the importance of public activism in the formation of modern society. This is a detailed and fascinating journey into the past, which helps to better understand the complexity of history and the struggle for justice.