Told by Sgt. Richard Etheridge, the son of an enslaved woman and her former master, Black Cloud Rising is based on the true story of the African Brigade, an all-Black regiment led by General Edward Augustus Wild, a one-armed white abolitionist who terrorized the North Carolina countryside. Eager to prove his worth but deeply conflicted about his own notions of Blackness and whiteness, Richard must navigate a world of violence and moral uncertainty, never knowing whether the shot that could end his life will be fired by his own cousin, who's turned Confederate guerrilla, or his fellow soldier, the self- named Revere, who sees through Richard's racial self- doubt.