How would you feel if you were told that you were too lowly to be educated, just because of the colour of your skin? This is what it was like if you were black or a slave during the American civil war.

Samuel has always been a good boy, and the priest in charge of the orphanage ( Father Mosely ) likes him, because he is polite, and is very good at reading and writing. Samuel’s younger brother Joshua is the exact opposite of him; he is naughty, rude and doesn’t like to learn. One day Father Mosely finds something disgusting on the altar. Everyone knows that Father Mosely will blame Joshua for putting it on the altar, and Samuel sees this and says that he did it to save his brother from being punished. The punishments at the orphanage were very brutal.

Samuel is taken away for slavery because of this, and is sold to a boy named Gerald in the slave auction. Gerald buys him for $600, and seems rather excited about it. But Gerald doesn’t know that Samuel can read and write, or even that his real name is Samuel, because the slave dealers changed it to Friday. Slaves weren’t allowed to read and write because the owners were scared that if they could, then the slaves would consider them selves equal. So ‘Friday’ has to be very careful where he treads…