Customer Reviews

Abraham's Well: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book in two and 1/2 days. I felt every loss and success this character felt. I laughed, I cried, and I hoped. This novel was so realistic it was like reading a long lost family memoir. This isn't just a plot placed in 1830, it is 1830. If any one was ever been curious about black history in america, the trail of tears, slave life, or just how important family history and honor are...you will enjoy this.

Abraham's Well introduces readers to trials and tribulations endured on the Trail of Tears from a child's point of view. This novel pours out an abundance of information that you will never see in history books. Although, the novel moves at a slow pace, it gives readers a blunt look into fear, slavery and racism without sugar coating the events.

If you want a deeper, educational view of slavery, then this book is for you. From cover to cover, you are sure to be exposed to a piece of history that was not taught in your high school classroom. Kudos to Ms. Foster for educating all of us.

Written in a spare, yet stunning style, ABRAHAMS WELL is a story that will stay with you forever. Sharon Ewell Foster, through the voice of the elderly Armentia, recounts the two most sinful chapters in American history. The narrator, part Cherokee, part African, transports the reader with her as a young girl on the tortuous Trail of Tears and as a woman in slavery and beyond. Now I know why Loretta Lynn, one of my personal heroes and herself of Cherokee descent, said in her autobiography that she despised Andrew Jackson.

This book made me shamefully aware of how little I knew - that Cherokee (the Principal People) with African blood were slaves, while some other Cherokee were slave owners and actually sided with the South in The Civil War. Very enlightening was how Christianity, as delivered by newly-converted Native American missionaries, merged with their belief in the Great Spirit, or "Breath Giver." During Armentia's most desperate days, she grasped at signs in nature as messages from Great Spirit, while wishing she was able to read about the new day promised in the Good Book.

Just like in ROOTS, the most painful parts of this book were when the main character's loved ones were torn away one by one, and she clung in her heart to fragile stories and memories for mere survival. The "full circle" conclusion is almost too good to be true; however, the hopeful (thank God) ending does not diminish the agony that Armentia endured throughout her long life of struggle. The photographs of the author's ancestors and her own genealogy research reinforced the book's credibility. I recommend that this historical novel be required reading for all high school students in the United States.

This was a beautiful story based on true events. Armentia is a black Cherokee forced by the government to leave her home and walk the 1000 mile trail of tears. Armentia and others go through so much it is hard to imagine how she or any of the others survived. I gave the story 4 stars because some parts drag a bit but otherwise it was a very enjoyable read.

Can you imagine being forced from your home at gunpoint, forced to walk 1000 miles, most times in extreme weather conditions, lose family and friends along the way, and not be given a chance to bury them properly? From 1838-1839, this is exactly what the Black Cherokee Indians, and other natives, were forced to endure.

ABRAHAM'S WELL reads like a conversation you would have with the older members of your family; a conversation where you learn about your family's history. Come, sit at the feet of Armentia, as she tells the story of her family, from the joyful times playing with her brother and friends, to the sorrowful times when all seemed lost as they endured injustice and degradation, death and devastation. This suffering occured on the 1000 mile journey from what is now known as North Carolina to Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma. Come, sit at the feet of Armentia, as she reminiscences about love lost and found, and the emptiness of fear and betrayal. Come, sit at the feet of Armentia, and be exposed to a history lesson like no other.

There really are no words that would do justice to this powerfully written novel. Foster painted a picture so vivid, told a tale with so much heartfelt emotion, that I felt as if I were right there, an eyewitness to all the travesty that was heaped upon the Black Cherokee. Although a work of fiction, ABRAHAM'S WELL, which is based on actual events, is a story of faith, hope and courage that every person of color should read. Not only has this book become one of my favorite reads for the year, it has become one of my all-time favorite reads.

Reviewed by Renee Williams
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Sharon Ewell Foster has written an admirable fictional account of the African American experience before, during and after the Trail of Tears; the removal of the Cherokee and other Native tribes from the east coast to Oklahoma in the 1830s. There is very little written about the role blacks, both free and slave, of African and Indian blood, played in this tragic journey in American history. Abraham's Well recounts the trials, tribulations and sometime triumphs of Armentia, a slave of African and Cherokee descent.

Armentia is secure living among the Cherokee in North Carolina. Though her family is both black and Cherokee she feels that Mama Emma and Papa, the mixed-blood Cherokees who own her, are family to her. Armentia, her mother and father and brother, Abraham (One Who Protects His Family) live on the land they work cooperatively with the other Cherokee. Armentia spends days drawing water from the well and spying on her brother and his friends, hunting and fishing, on the verge of manhood. But the winds of change are all around her in the mid-1830s. Missionaries and white government men bring word that life as Armentia's family has known will be over when they are ordered to be removed from their land; to be deposed to the west. How will they cope? What will happen to them?

The cold reality that they are slaves and therefore, property to be bought and sold, is a fact finally realized. When the final order for removal comes, Armentia's family, along with thousands of other families make the trek of The Trail Where We Cried, (Nunna daul Isunyi) by foot from the east to Oklahoma (Indian Territory). It is a long, bitter trip, with harsh winters and lack of supplies and food. Many die along the way. Over a period of sixty years, we watch Armentia, as a young girl sold off to slave owners, raped, become a mother, witness her mother's death, is freed and enslaved yet again and sent to Texas. Emancipation is proclaimed and she is sent back to Indian Territory, always on her mind, looking to own land; the land her deceased father promised, land where there would be a well waiting for Abraham when he comes back to find them.

This is a story of betrayal, heartache, politics and racism. I commend Ewell Foster for writing of this little known piece of history. It is a complex and convoluted history but there are reverberations that exist to this day in Indian Territory where the descendants of slaves, the Cherokee Freedmen and those of the other civilized tribes are going before the State and Supreme courts to gain rights, land and benefits. Though many of them are documented and have Native blood, they are being denied citizenship.

While Ewell Foster creates a venue for bringing this information to the forefront, and while this account shows the harshness endured, it was somewhat tempered, in my opinion, by its' conservative Christian publishing house; John Jakes or E.L. Doctorow would have put a different slant on it. There were long drawn out sermons peppered throughout the text as a testament of the conversion of the Native peoples by missionaries. A scene however that was quite poignant was of Armentia, as a newlywed, being bathed in spring water by her new husband, who eventually runs away to freedom. Told from the point of view of Armentia as an old woman going back in time, fans of Sharon Ewell Foster who enjoy her writing style will no doubt be pleased with this offering. More telling, the author was able to make a connection of her own heritage while doing research. I have a feeling we will be reading more stories of the Freedmen descendants who walked the Trail of Tears.


Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

In 1838 as the Indians are forced from their homes in the southeast United States to walk the "Trail of Tears" to reservations in the Oklahoma Territory, their slaves are forced to accompany them. Whereas the hardship leads to the deaths of many of the purebred, the enslaved "Black Cherokee", considered beneath the human food chain by blacks and by Indians, suffer the most.

In that environs, preadolescent Black Cherokee slave Armentia and her family, owned by purebred Cherokees, are treated reasonably well, but still sold as cattle to others who might not worry about their lowlife human stock. Hope for this subgroup is zero and the forced march spirals it downward, however, Armentia finds solace in Jesus, who was there for those like her in ancient Judea and she believes will one day set her people free. A well on her owner's land that she dubs ABRAHAM'S WELL becomes her symbol that one day she and other suppressed people will live free to worship Jesus as the savior and to own their own well.

This is inspirational historical fiction at its best as Sharon Ewell Foster provides a fabulous insightful look back at a somewhat ignored atrocity through the eyes of a real person (an ancestor of the award winning author). The story line is Armentia's account of events including the deadly trek, her finding Jesus giving her hope when others had none, and the symbol of the well. The underlying critical theme is to never forget in order to prevent a repeat of these crimes against nature: this early nineteenth century rendition and the enslavement of people in this case because they are of mixed race.

Harriet Klausner

I've had this book for about 6mths. Never picked it up to read it until I got ready to go out of town. But I realize everything has a divine time, and because of circumstances in my life, I wasn't meant to read this beautiful book until this moment. I wasn't disappointed. I love this book. It is an amazing read.

It's an engaging and cultural look at Native American and Black slavery amidst the time of the Trail Of Tears as experienced and narrated by the central character; Armentia. It's very heart breaking and the prose is wise, sure and traditional. It's Christian fiction I'm thoroughly captivated by it. Something worth noting is that even though Armentia goes through more tragedy than not, the author manages to control it and not reach over kill.

I read this book and I just wanted to cry; Cry for Armentia and her family; How her brother Abraham was fearless yet took the rap for her; for the Trail of Tears that they had to endure; For the hardships they had to endure; My heart just felt so bad for them; I just cannot understand how one can easily sell another into bondage and not think about it; It is crazy indeed.