Written in taut poetic language THE LONGEST MEMORY is set on a Virginian plantation in the 19th century & tells the tragic story of a rebellious fiercely intelligent young slave who breaks all the rules in learning to read & write in falling in love with a white girl the daughter of his owner & finally in trying to escape & join her in the free North For his attempt to flee he is whipped to death in front of his family & this brutal event is the pivot around which the story evolves