This book is the story of Parson Sykes, a curiously enslaved teenager in Southampton County, Virginia, historic self-liberation followed by his enlistment into the Union Army. The story takes place in 1864 near the end of the American Civil War on the slave-holding Jacob Williams' farm. During the Southampton Insurrection, the farm came under attack by Nat Turner and his insurgents. In the book, Parson and Jacob Williams are faced at opposite ends of the disputed points over the moral issue of slavery and secession, a political decision that led directly to war.