He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1976. He has written a book, The Upper Ottawa Valley to 1855, and has contributed a chapter, "U.S.C.T. Veterans in North Carolina," in Black Soldiers in Blue: African-American Troops in the Civil War Era. Additionally, he has authored a number of articles and presented numerous papers on varied topics, most importantly on the American Civil War. He is currently researching North Carolina’s African-American soldiers and their families during the Civil War and Reconstruction.