Johnny Boylston Watkins

Johnny is the son of Eliza Boylston and John Watkins. His mother grew up a wealthy socialite and his father was a slave for the first years of his life. Johnny has black blood in his ancestry, which technically makes him a black man in the eyes of the social and legal climate of the time. Johnny is a strong character, but he is also susceptible to peer pressure and he struggles with his feelings toward oppression, specifically toward slavery.

Johnny spends his childhood in Barbados where the locals apparently talk about his parents' unusual situation but accept it. Johnny remembers his time in Barbados with fondness and, at the moments of his deepest despair, longs to return.

When Johnny arrives in America, he has high hopes of accomplishing great things and becoming an important man in the American Government. He does not dismiss the possibility...