Summary

Bogle explains to Eliza that his father, Nonesuch, was born on Hope Plantation in St. Andrew, Jamaica, as a slave. The overseer at Hope is a man named Mr. Ballard. Ballard finds himself perturbed by the orders of Anna Eliza Elletson, the inheritor of the Hope estate, not to bring harm to the servants, whom she wants treated humanely. Ballard is good friends with a neighboring plantation owner named Thistlewood who is notoriously cruel to his slaves. One of the women on the Hope plantation, Big Johanna, puts a curse on Thistlewood’s land after he leaves, and Thistlewood’s plantation is summarily destroyed in a massive storm. Ballard punishes and murders Johanna for this offense in spite of Anna Eliza’s orders.

Nonesuch takes up a romantic relationship with a woman named Maya, who manages to give birth to Andrew Bogle before...