Green Cottenham is the book’s central figure. Blackmon opens and ends the book by searching for Green’s body and regularly returns to Green as a connective thread through the exploration of the post-Civil War era of slavery. Green was the grandson of Scipio and the youngest child of Henry and Mary Cottinham, Black slaves on the Alabama farm of white landowner Elisha Cottingham who took slightly stylized versions of Cottingham’s last name after they were freed. Green came of age in a troubling era when the promised political participation was taken away from African Americans. Most Black Southerners lived in fear of mob violence or under the domination of white landlords.

Green became subject to perhaps the worst offense committed against Black Southerners during this time: neo-slavery. While hanging out at a train station, Green was arrested and charged with riding the train without a ticket, though there was no proof of this. Green was sentenced to three months hard labor and told he must pay a fine of $38.40. Because he could not pay, he was sentenced to extra labor time. He was taken to Slope No. 12 of the Pratt Mines. Eventually, Green contracted syphilis, and the unhygienic conditions, brutal punishments, and hard work of the mines made his disease progress rapidly.