Daniel, a black man who is well educated and free, supervises Foundhaven, a rice plantation on the upper reaches of the Pee Dee River in South Carolina in 1776. Pox has decimated his Negro workforce, compelling the purchase of a rebellious lot from Barbados. He and his overseer leave for Charles Town to get them just as a South Carolina provincial congress delegation arrives to engage Foundhaven's owner in the Sons of Liberty conference in the state capital about a united front against George III's tyrannies. The master and mistress of the plantation are feting the military men when word arrives about a battle in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the harsh British punishment. As the delegation departs for their conference, Daniel buys the lot from Barbados and marries the black woman with them. The purchased men enable the rice harvest, and he turns to his plan to lead Foundhaven slaves and others from the Carolinas to freedom beyond the Mississippi. He calls representatives of Indian nations and slaves at other plantations. The nearer the meeting comes, the more doubts Daniel has about his role. The Barbados woman he has married forces him to decide his role. When he declines to lead the exodus, she has the blacks kill him.