This novel, the first of the trilogy, is the story of Parson Sykes, the curiously enslaved teenager protagonist, whose historic self-liberation is followed by his enlistment in the Union Army. The story takes place in Southampton County, near the end of the American Civil War, on the farm of slave-holding Jacob Williams, the antagonist. During the 1831 Southampton Insurrection, the farm came under attack by Nat Turner and his insurgents, which still haunts Jacob. In the book, Parson and Ja...