"Louis" is about one of the most sensitive of all of America's social issues—the institution of slavery that kept millions of people in bondage.

The short story focuses on a specific aspect of the issue of slavery, the attempts by slaves to flee their bondage.

By sticking to the basic facts of a reallife case, Lester offers a view of what an escaped slave's experiences were like. There is little that is sensational about Louis's experiences; he is a fairly ordinary young man dealing with fairly ordinary people. It is probably this very ordinariness that makes the story compelling reading since the events depicted were commonplaces.

The fear, the brutality, the desire for freedom, the yearning for knowledge, and the pride in earning one's way in the world were almost universal emotions for slaves and runaway slaves.