More than just a successful musician, Holland was also a dedicated humanitarian who worked all his life to promote and advance the causes of his race.  Adopting the principles that education and assimilation were the best methods of overcoming racial barriers and prejudices, he immersed himself in the Eurocentric middle class culture of the day.

Justin Holland left Virginia for Massachusetts after his parents' deaths in 1833. Several factors probably influenced his move.
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However their liberal attitude toward blacks changed as the increased demand for slaves in the Deep South's cotton belt, combined with their decreased supply due to the restriction of the African slave trade, again made them valuable property.

Holland left Virginia in 1834 at the age of fourteen and headed to Boston where he became acquainted with the guitar after hearing concerts by the Spanish guitarist Mariano Perez.  He began studying the guitar with William Schubert, a noted composer and arranger for the instrument.  Holland also undertook the study of the flute and piano at this time, though he maintained the guitar as his primary instrument.

In spite of Holland's economic success and musical training, Massachusetts could not provide him with the education he desired. For that he had to look to the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, founded in Ohio's Western Reserve in 1833 to provide in a Christian community a substantial education at the lowest possible rates to students of both sexes.

After returning to Oberlin in 1845, Holland married and soon moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he established himself as a teacher of guitar, mandolin, piano and flute, becoming the city's first black professional.

Between the years 1848 and 1854 Holland participated as an assistant secretary and member of council at National and State Negro Conventions, where he worked alongside such noted activists as Frederick Douglass.  He is known to have worked with the Underground Railroad and was secretary in charge of the "Central American Land Company", an organization which unsuccessfully attempted to purchase sufficient land in Central America to institute a free black colony.

Central American colonization proved infeasible when it was opposed by foreign diplomats of those countries, but in 1858 Haiti offered free passage and aid for black settlers and emigrants began moving there. Holland himself lived in the West Indies during the Civil War, but evidently did not find there the opportunities he expected for after two years he returned to Cleveland.

Holland was also noted for his linguistic abilities.  He spent two years in Mexico during the early 1840s learning Spanish in an effort to master the language in which the methods of the early Spanish guitar masters such as Sor and Aguado were written.  Later on Holland became proficient at several other languages including French, Italian, and German. 

Holland was not solely occupied with music but was also an active Mason after joining Cleveland's Excelsior Lodge No. 11 in 1862. 

He used his talents as a linguist when he became a leader in the black Free Masons (Prince Hall).  Because American white Masons did not consider the Prince Hall Masons to be legitimate, Holland began corresponding with foreign Masonic Lodges seeking recognition and support. 
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The Viennese Masonic magazine Der Freimaurer  published a biographical article about Holland in 1877.

Although Holland seldom performed in public, he developed a national reputation as a composer and arranger for the guitar.  To the average amateur guitarist of the day, his numerous arrangements made his a household name. Of his approximately 350 published works for the guitar, which include two acclaimed methods, only about one-third are extant.

Holland's writing for the guitar is modeled extensively on the works of early 19th century European guitar composers.  His arrangement of William Tell by Giacchino Rossini (1792-1868) is essentially a reworked and abridged version of William Tell: Fantasie, Op. 36 by Matteo Carcassi (1792-1853).  Both the Holland and Carcassi versions share similar thematic material, yet both works incorporate material from the Overture not duplicated in each other.  In light of this, liberty was taken with Holland's arrangement by inserting small sections from Carcassi's work.  This expanded version of Holland's arrangement displays all of the familiar themes from the Overture, forming a rousing tour de force for the guitarist.

Although comprised for the most part of his own material, Holland acknowledges that the finale to this work is a direct quote from an arrangement of the same work by the Italian guitarist, Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829).  This piece was one of the most popular of all 19th century songs and was utilized in compositions by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and a host of other composers, as well as several of the European guitar masters.  It is based on an earlier tune, Castle Hyde, which first appeared in print in 1806.

The years 1866-1868, during which time this work was copyrighted, represent one of the most prolific periods in Holland's life.  Holland's Oberon is a potpourri of thematic material from Carl Maria von Weber's opera Oberon, including the barcarole, Song of the Mermaids.  The opera premiered at the end of its composer's life in London in 1826.  It is based more on German legend popularized by the poet Wieland than on Shakespeare.  Holland's guitar arrangement was published in a series entitled 20 Choice Melodies from the Operas and was just one of several series of opera melodies Holland arranged during this time.

Carnival of Venice: Fantasie (1871), one of the best known tunes from that period, has perhaps been given to variation treatment by more instrumental virtuosi than any other melody of its time.  According to James Trotter, Holland's biographer, this is considered to be one of Holland's most celebrated arrangements.

Justin Holland and the American Roots of the Classical Guitar sound

Concert Info

Open Tunings & Slide - The American Legacy of "Spanish Fandango"

An American 2-Minute Opera: "The Last Waltzes of a Lunatic" - Justin Holland

In addition to his compositions in the operatic style, Holland arranged many American folk tunes and popular dances for solo classical guitar. Like his contemporaries in Europe, Holland often presented these arrangements in theme and variation or rondo form. It is his style of arranging the thematic material, however, that fits in with the American approach.

An entire chapter was devoted to Holland in the book Music and Some Highly Musical People by James Trotter. Trotter's book, published in 1880, represents one of the first attempts to document the lives of significant African-American musicians. 

Justin Holland died at his son's home in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 24, 1887. His son, Justin Minor Holland and daughter, Claire Monteith Holland were also accomplished guitarists, though they never developed their musical careers to the extent that their father had.  Nevertheless, Justin Minor Holland became a significant teacher and composer for the instrument.