The Known World by Edward P. Jones is a novel that does not follow a particular timeline. The novel switches between different times and locations to give various perspectives of the characters. The characters in the novel are of all different races, but they all have one thing in similar: they somehow have interacted with the novel’s main character Henry Townsend. Townsend is a man of the African American race, who has journeyed a path from being a slave to becoming a slave owner. Townsend thrived to be a better slave owner than his old slave owner, who was a white man. However, as the story progresses, Townsend forgets his morals. Slowly, Townsend becomes impeccably similar to the white slave owners. The novel opens with the death of Townsend,