An Hour Before Daylight largely focuses on Carter’s early years in Plains, Georgia, living and working on his family’s farm. In recounting his parents’ personalities and influence on him, Carter examines the role of family in shaping personal identity. 

Carter’s portrait of his father, Earl, is his most complex. On the one hand, he was fair to his workers, treating his Black tenants and laborers with more respect than many white farmers did. He also showed compassion to his son, such as when he personally went to Carter’s school to tell him his dog had died. On the other hand, Carter admits to having “strongly mixed feelings” (257) about his father, saying he used to hunger for one of his rare demonstrations of affection. Earl was also an unabashed racist. While his wife showed open kindness and affection toward their Black neighbors, Earl Carter at most could find compromises that allowed him to maintain segregation and white domination. The scene in which he lets his Black neighbors listen to the Joe Louis fight, but only as long as they stay in the yard, is an example of his refusal to see his Black neighbors as his equals.

Carter describes his father as a product of his time, and his own behavior and career trajectory suggest that Earl influenced Carter in many ways.