Reformed pirate Thomas Marlowe is now married to the beautiful Elizabeth and owner of a tobacco plantation just outside Williamsburg. Thomas has taken the radical step of freeing his slaves and paying them to work on his land, which has made him hugely unpopular with his neighbours. King James, the huge ex-slave and captain of Marlowe's sloop, goes to the rescue of a ship in distress, only to find that it is a slave ship - a blackbirder. There is a fight and James kills the Captain. Realising that he cannot go back to Williamsburg, he decides to take over the slave ship and return the slaves to Africa. Unfortunately for James, amongst the slaves there is an evil black slave trader, Madshaka, who is determined that none of the slaves will be set free. The second part of the enthralling Brethren of the Coast trilogy.