While the movie was inspired by the true story of Soloman Northup, a free man in upstate New York, before the Civil War, who was abducted and sold into slavery, Keys' a spare piano ballad focuses on Patsey, played by newcomer Lupita Nyong'o, who is a slave girl on the plantation where Northup is taken.

Patsey is known for her cotton picking skills, which Keys highlights on the track, singing, "Queen of the field/ Born among cotton/ Life wasted picking/Ignore the screaming."