The Long Roll vs History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2
Both counted from their full texts, the same way, on the same day.
1,864words between them — 7 min of it
The Long Roll is longer — 260,587 words against 258,723 for History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2, a difference of 1,864 words or about 7 min of extra reading. History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 is the harder read, at grade 8.8 against 6.2.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions counted the same way·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Side by side
| The Long Roll | History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Johnston, Mary | Williams, George Washington |
| Words | 260,587 | 258,723 |
| Reading time at 250 wpm | 17h 22m | 17h 15m |
| Unique words | 17,066 | 14,835 |
| Sentences | 17,804 | 15,875 |
| Average sentence length | 14.6 words | 16.3 words |
| Reading grade | 6.2 | 8.8 |
| Reading ease | 76.7 | 60.7 |
| Long words | 7.6% | 13.9% |
Highlighted cells are the larger figure — except reading ease, where higher means easier.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·both editions, same counting rule·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How this is worked out
- Both texts are counted the same way, from the same source, with Gutenberg's header and licence footer struck first.
- The gap is stated in words and then in time at 250 words a minute — the rate is printed because a duration without one cannot be checked.
- Difficulty is compared on Flesch–Kincaid grade, which reads sentence and word length only. It cannot see irony or dialect, so treat it as a measure of surface, not of effort.
gap = |260,587 − 258,723| = 1,864 words 1,864 ÷ 250 wpm = 7 min of extra reading
The second question
Which is longer, The Long Roll or History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2?
The Long Roll is longer — 260,587 words against 258,723 for History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2, a difference of 1,864 words or about 7 min of extra reading. History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 is the harder read, at grade 8.8 against 6.2.
Colophon
Both figures computed from Project Gutenberg plain-text editions — ebook no. 22066 and no. 21851 — and from no other source. Neither book’s text is set on this site.
SOURCE·Project Gutenberg full texts·US public domain·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Word counts and reading levels are computed from a specific public-domain edition and will differ from other editions and from other counting methods — see the method page.
