George

Effia, daughter of Cobbe Otcher, is born the night of a great fire in which Cobbe loses precious yams. He wonders if his family is cursed. Effia's step mother, Baaba, threatened by the daughter's great beauty, plots to have her leave in part by lying to the Fante king Abeeku that she has not had her period and that Effia is cursed. Thus Effia is married off to a white soldier, James Collins. The Fante have made a deal with the soldiers to sell other Africans into slavery. Effia lives with James, who has a wife home in England, as his wench, in a castle, that holds cargo - Africans - in its bowels.When Effia does not become pregnant quickly, she begins to wonder if she is cursed.