Abraham's Well

by Sharon Ewell Foster

Book Overview

A young mother and her son struggle to hold on to their dreams through decades of heartbreaking separations, re-locations, and escapes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764228870
• ISBN13: 9780764228872
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful

This is a wonderfully written story about a part of our history that is rarely discussed. The author wrote a passionate and engrossing tale that I could not put down. The writting is simple and flows easily. I strongly recommend that everyone read this novel. This is the first novel I have read by this author, but it won't be the last.

Spare, yet stunning

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.

Beautiful yet painful

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.

Finally black history in america has a face!

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.

inspirational historical fiction

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