The biography is set primarily in Boston and Virginia; Hamilton makes use of a flashback technique to alternate between courthouse scenes of Burns's 1854 trial and scenes of his earlier life on the plantation. Burns's story is inseparable from its historical setting. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was generally unpopular among Northerners; Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, written largely in response to the act, had already caused an increase in abolitionist ranks. The question of states' rights also factored into Bostonians' opposition to the capture and imprisonment of alleged fugitive slaves in Massachusetts. When Burns's attempt to gain freedom failed, he quickly became a cause celebre.

The events of Burns's earlier life, illustrated in flashback memories, involve a Virginia plantation of moderate size and means. Mr. Suttle, the owner of the plantation, hires out his slaves to other people, and therefore Burns spends much of his later childhood...