While it references a past generation, the main narrative of The Longest Memory takes place on a Virginian plantation in the period before the American Civil War, between 1790 and 1810. The Northern states of a young United States have industrialised early, the Southern states have relied heavily on agriculture. The area is seen as a great opportunity for individuals and companies to capitalise on new unexplored farmland. In an era of slavery, it is not long until the south calls upon slaves to be used for manual labour to ensure economic viability of the cotton, sugar cane and tobacco plantations.

Virginia’s first Africans arrived at Point Comfort, on the James River, late in August, 1619. There, ‘20 and odd Negroes’ from the English ship White Lion were sold in exchange for food. Certain laws regarding slavery of Africans had been passed in the seventeenth century and codified into Virginia’s first slave code in 1705, about 100 years before the main action of The Longest Memory. The General Assembly of Virginia had decided that any child born to an enslaved woman would also be a slave. As a result, slaves faced the possibility of life servitude. Alongside the slave trade in Virginia were approximately 4000 white indentured servants working to pay back loans for their passage money to Virginia.

During the time of the narrative, many in the United States are unhappy with the ideology of slave-holding. The abolitionist view is held by some individuals but is discouraged by society. It will not be until around ten years after the death of the novel’s protagonist that the abolitionist sentiment becomes increasingly popular, coalescing into the abolitionist movement. The movement will demand the immediate emancipation of all slaves in the United States, culminating in the fight for their freedom and the end to all racial inequality.

Meanwhile, also gaining momentum is the Protestant movement known as the Second Great Awakening which renews the public’s interest in morality and sin. This strengthens the abolitionist movement’s claims that slavery is immoral, in contrast with those who believe that Christianity and slavery were not incompatible.

The deep economic and political tensions between the North and the South will lead, decades later, to the American Civil War (1861-1865). The abolition of slavery in Virginia will occur by 1865, with the end of the American Civil War and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.