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The book is based upon the life of Andrew Durnford, an African American. He lived from 1800 to the outbreak of the Civil War. At the time of his birth, Louisiana belonged to Spain. Four years later, the land was given back to France and promptly sold to America. Louisiana prospered as an American slave state. Durnford prospered as a slave owner. Durnford built a large plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi, thirty-five miles south of New Orleans. As a physician, he treated both blacks and whites. As a philosopher, he read and wrote in French and English. But he was troubled owning black slaves, and wrote, "As to that part of my disposition respecting the class to whom I belong, I hope a day will come that I will be able to do better for them. He! Who sees the remotest part of a man's heart knows well that I mean well." Then he boarded ship with that year's sugar production and left for Virginia with Barba, his personal body servant, to buy slaves at bargain prices.