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This chapter discusses the interpretive ambit of James Robertson's Joseph Knight, reading it alongside another prominent text in postcolonial ‘slave fiction’, David Dabydeen's A Harlot's Progress. As in Joseph Knight, the act of writing history in A Harlot's Progress is constructed as a site of postcolonial contestation, where the political and financial power of Pringle the master attempts to exert leverage over Mungo the slave, whose own narrative is his only source of personal power. The short concluding chapter of Joseph Knight, in which Knight finally focalises, presents a contradiction to the meticulous historicising in the rest of the novel. Experimental and explorative novels such as Joseph Knight and A Harlot's Progress provide demanding, unsettling reformulations of history, initiating a precipitous departure from traditions of historical fiction, and casting doubt over the veracity and legitimacy of settled forms of history in favour of polyphonic narrative.

Joseph Knight and Josiah Stowell visited the Smith family on September 20, 1827. Two days later, Joseph and his wife, Emma Smith, rode in a wagon to the Hill Cumorah, and Joseph obtained the gold plates from the angel Moroni. William and Katharine Smith handled the plates but did not see them. According to Joseph, he also received other artifacts, including the Urim and Thummim, the Liahona, the brass plates, and the sword of Laban. Neighbor Lorenzo Saunders heard the story directly from Joseph Smith. Other neighbors ransacked Smith property searching for the plates. With the assistance of Martin Harris, Joseph and Emma arranged to move to Harmony, Pennsylvania.

This chapter discusses the issue of slavery in England within the context of the relationship between Francis Barber and Samuel Johnson. It begins by describing the friendly relations between Johnson and Barber as they relate to the nature of white-black interaction. It then considers Barber’s concern about the possibility of being reenslaved and sent back into colonial slavery and goes on to discuss the role of Granville Sharp in challenging the legality of slavery in England. In particular, it examines the incident which turned Sharp into a committed anti-slavery campaigner: his encounter with Jonathan Strong, a former slave who had been maltreated by his owner, a barrister named David Lisle. The chapter also analyzes two court cases involving James Somerset and Joseph Knight, the first of which marked the beginning of the end of slavery in England.

dLate in March 1829, Oliver Cowdery traveled from Manchester, New York, to Harmony, Pennsylvania, to assist Joseph Smith with the translation of the Book of Mormon. The two men had not met prior to this but begin translating on April 7 and translated at a furious pace, completing the project in about fifty-seven working days. Accounts from Pomeroy Tucker, Joseph Knight, and others offer views from both skeptics and believers. Cowdery’s letters to W. W. Phelps present the perspectives of both Cowdery and Smith. During this same period, Smith dictated several revelations that later were incorporated into the Book of Commandments and subsequently the Doctrine and Covenants.