The story happens in 1826. It starts in Topham, Massachusetts. Topham is not a real town. In the story, Joe Woods lives in Topham with his uncle, who is named Seth Woods. Seth Woods has a friend named Cornelius Gleazen. Cornelius is a very bad man. Cornelius makes Seth sell all his things and use the money to buy a ship. Cornelius tells Seth that they will sail the ship to Guinea in Africa and dig up a lot of gold that Cornelius has buried there. Seth takes Joe and some other men with him on the trip. But when the ship stops in Cuba, Cornelius tells Seth and Joe that he lied. He really wants to take a lot of the people who live in Guinea away from their homes and bring them back to Cuba. He will sell them to people who live in Cuba. The people from Guinea will be slaves.