Journalist Chris Tomlinson grew up hearing stories about his family's cotton plantation in Texas. LaDainian Tomlinson, football great, spent part of his childhood playing on the same land that his black ancestors had worked as slaves. Not until he could read did he realize that the area was named for his ancestor's slaveholders. The author explores the history of race and bigotry in Texas, and discloses a great many untruths that are latent in the unsettling and complex story of America.

"Foreign correspondent Chris Tomlinson returns to Texas to discover the truth about his family's slave owning history. Tomlinson Hill tells the story of two families, one black and one white, who trace their ancestry to the same Central Texas slave plantation. Tomlinson discovers that his counterpart in the African American family is LaDainian Tomlinson, one of the greatest running backs in the history of the National Football League. LaDainian's father was the last Tomlinson living on the Hill when he died in 2007. LaDainian's earliest memories are from the idyllic community built by former slaves on the former plantation grounds. Chris learns that many of the stories surrounding the Civil War and the South that he learned as a child are simply untrue. He finds family letters that detail the mix of brutality and meager kindness that his relatives used to maintain order. He then compares and contrasts what the two families experienced at Emancipation, during Reconstruction, through the