As a young man, he becomes the leader of a group of slaves who decide to seek refuge with the Union army during the Civil War.

A small child when brutally separated from her mother Harriet Johnson, she finally becomes the slave of wealthy Eugene Leroy.

Although she is so white that "no one would suspect that she has one drop of negro blood in her veins",[2] the marriage results in the Leroy family becoming social outcasts.

The African ancestry of their mother is concealed from the children, and they are not allowed to pass their vacations at home, spending that time instead together with the parents in a northern holiday resort.

When he recovers, the Civil War has begun and he decides to enlist in a colored regiment, making the recruiting officer wonder why a white man should want to do that.

He graduated as a medical doctor and afterwards met his white grandmother, the rich mother of his deceased father, who offered to "adopt him as her heir, if he would ignore his identity with the colored race".

When Robert and his group seek refuge with the Union army, he stays behind because he doesn't want to break his promise to his absent master.

In a North Carolina town which is only identified as "C—", a group of slaves led by Robert Johnson seek refuge with the Union army that is approaching in the course of the Civil War.

The elder children, Iola and Harry, were educated in the North and their African ancestry (called "negro blood" in the book) was hidden from them.

When Eugene suddenly died of yellow fever, his cousin, Alfred Lorraine, had a judge declare Marie's manumission void.

Lorraine sent his agent to the northern seminary where Iola was preparing for her graduation and defending the institution of slavery in discussions with her fellow students.

The family is reunited when they locate Harry who had been fighting in the Union army in a Black regiment, and met with his and Iola's mother during the war.

Much space is given to discussions in which the characters talk about themes such as temperance, religion, the position of women in society, alleged white superiority, racism and lynchings, and the color line.

After Robert Johnson has found his long-lost mother, Aunt Linda pours three glasses of her home-made wine so they can celebrate the event.

When Iola's brother Harry learns that his mother and sister have been reduced to slavery, he asks how such a thing is possible in a "Christian country".

[10] Women in society: The female characters who exert strong influence on the men in their roles as "moral forces owe something to Stowe and the cult of true womanhood",[11] but they are neither "patterned after the white model"[11] nor are they silent or submissive.

"[13][14]Alleged white superiority: In chapter 17, Iola is teaching black children, when a "gentleman" asks to address the class.

[15]Positive view of black history: In chapter 30, Lucille Delany says, "Instead of forgetting the past, I would have [our people] hold in everlasting remembrance our great deliverance.

[17] According to Jennifer Harris in the African American Review, Iola Leroy was simultaneously first published in 1892 in Philadelphia by the Garrigues Brothers and in Boston by James Harvey Earle, whose father was the pastor A.

Recent scholarship suggests that Harper's novel provides a sophisticated understanding of citizenship, gender, and community, particularly the way that African Americans developed hybrid forms of gemeinschaft and gesellschaft before, during, and after slavery.