Summary of a first-hand account.

At age ten Grimes is sold to William Thornton and taken to Montpelier plantation in Virginia. The other slaves regard him jealously because he is a house slave. They sabotage his work and hoping that one of their family members will replace him in the house. He is responsible for making the family coffee. Mistress's head servant laces the coffee with cough syrup and blames him for trying to poison them. He is eventually assigned to work in the fields. And he finds the hard labor preferable to the problematic politics of working in the house. The cruel treatment of his overseers. And Grimes eventually makes a half hearted escape attempt but runs out of food and returns to his owner. Grimes is then given to his owners son George. Who later sells Grimes to his older brother.