Amos Fortune's story begins in 1725 in the At-mun-shi village, near the Gold Coast of equatorial Africa, during the spring ritual celebrating the earth's rebirth. Slavers, taking advantage of the one night the At-mun-shi abandon their weapons, capture the strongest men and women of the tribe and sell them to the captain of the White Falcon, a slave ship.

From July 1725 to April 1740, Amos lives in Boston as the slave of Celia and Caleb Copeland, Quakers who teach him Christianity and weaving. Amos then spends the next twenty-nine years as the slave of Ichabod Richardson of Woburn, Massachusetts, who teaches him the tanning trade. After he is freed in 1769, Amos stays in Woburn, working as a tanner, until March 1781. He then moves his family to Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and remains there until his death on November 17, 1801.