Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it.

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time" So remarked the British Foreign ...

Some months later comes the outbreak of the First World War. The farm is in financial difficulty but the outbreak of war gives Mr Narracott the chance to make some money by selling Joey.