comment on setting

Most of the book takes place in the early part of the 1900s although some of the historical background chapters go back to the slave plantations in the south. The author follows Sweet's ancestors from their days as slaves, through the Civil War and into the post-Civil War South. The Jim Crow South is a dangerous place for blacks. Even though Sweet's parents are the first in their family to own their own land in Bartow, Florida, the danger and violence and fear cause them to send their sons north in the hopes of a better life. The lynchings of the Jim Crow South are not prevalent in the North, but the Klan and other groups are quite prevalent.