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Where is airing: BBC One
For what age: 10+
How many episodes in 1 season: 3 episodes
July is born to a field slave Kitty at the Amity sugar cane plantation, run by John Howarth and his younger sister Caroline. On a spoilt whim, Caroline decides she wants to train the adorable July as her personal maid. So, as a young girl, July is taken from her mother and forced to live in the great house. As July grows up and becomes a teenager, she learns how to 'handle' her mistress with her own small victories along the way. The Christmas riots and the abolition of slavery turn the world of Amity upside down and throw July's destiny into question. But when order is restored and a new overseer Robert Goodwin arrives at Amity, July and Caroline are both intrigued by his seemingly revolutionary plans to improve the plantation. Could his ideals change everything?.
The harvest at Amity is ready to be taken in or the crop will spoil, but tensions are brewing between the workers and Robert. Robert expects the workers to put in long hours - the workers are now free to challenge his authority. With Robert feeling more and more humiliated with the 'ungrateful' former slaves, a dangerous stand-off develops between them. July can see Robert changing and this scares her.
Angry and frustrated by the workers' refusal to work to his orders, Robert takes unhappy revenge, hoping to scare them into working, to the shock and horror of July. With the crop starting to spoil and Amity in ruins, Robert's sanity starts to unravel - with possibly devastating consequences for Tamara and her child. Many years later as an old woman, our narrator July is in a desperate position and uncertain of her future. Arrested for stealing food, July appears in court - where someone she thought she'd never see again is an unexpected presence, and could help to save her life.