Rulon Tingey Burton was born 3 March 1926 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His parents were Fielding Garr Burton and Mela Stewart Lindsay. He served in the Navy in World War II. He married Josephine Omer. They had three children.
During that time, more that eleven million Africans were sold into slavery. A fictitious abolitionist preacher relates the story of the Atlantic slave trady and a true-to-life tale of of slavery as it was pursued in Jamaica.