Summary

Chapter 1 opens on July 1, 1794, with Johnny Boylston and his mother, Eliza, traveling aboard a ship from Barbados to America. Johnny's father, John Watkins, had died a few months earlier. He was a master shipbuilder with a thriving business, and had offered the business to Johnny. Johnny wanted to go to America and John had approved of the plan, leaving the business to a boy named Isaac instead. The trip is brutal and Johnny's accommodations are deplorable for the more than two months of the crossing. Eliza asks if they have made the right decision, but Johnny, who has always loved America though he has not been here since infancy, assures her it is. He promises to “try to be a good white boy” (4). In Barbados, everyone considered him black and Johnny accepted that.

Johnny plans to attend Harvard University. Johnny is ashamed...