|
BOOK REVIEW: First Dawn
|
||
|
|
by: Barbara Warren Dancing Word Reviewer
Title: First Dawn Author: Judith Miller Publisher: Bethany House ISBN 0-7642-2997-4 Genre: Inspirational/Historical/Romance
This is the first book in Judy Miller’s Freedom Path series, set in Kansas, July 1877. The Civil War is over and the freed slaves are working for the previous owners. But now they are expected to pay rent for the tumbled down shanties they used to live in for free.
Small wonder when William R. Hill, a white land purveyor, tells the members of the First Baptist Church about the wonders of the great Solomon Valley, the colored shareholders are excited at the prospect of being landowners. They purchase their tracts, load up what they can take with them, and set out for the city of Nicodemus, Kansas.
Nicodemus is reserved for the coloreds, Hill City for the whites. Mr. Hill has told them about the rich, black soil, the rolling hills, trees, wildlife, coal deposits, and the ample water supply.
Jarena Harban never wanted to leave Kentucky, never believed the glowing descriptions given by Mr. Hill, but her father, Ezekiel Harban, longed for his own land. Jarena has helped raise her twin sisters, Grace and Truth, since her mother died. She couldn’t desert the family now. Thomas Grayson, a man with a price on is head, is traveling with the Harban family. Although Jarena always thought she would marry Charles someday, she can’t help being attracted to Thomas.
When they reach Nicodemus, the weary travelers are shocked to find no town, no trees, no water. Nothing but scrubby brush, dry buffalo grass, and nothing but miles of flat prairie. With winter coming on, the people in Nicodemus are in desperate circumstances. Only God can help them now.
Dr. Samuel Boyle, a transplanted northerner, has never like living in Kentucky. He is disgusted with the attitudes of the former slave owners toward their colored share croppers. He too falls for Mr. Hill’s description of Kansas and uproots his reluctant family, transporting them to Hill City, the white version of Nicodemus. There is a tiny, ramshackled town and a house waiting for them, but the primitive conditions are not what he expected.
First Dawn is a fascinating story of the resourcefulness of a desperate group of people and of their trust in a merciful God. I truly enjoyed Judith Miller’s Freedom Path series and the stories of the Harban and Boyle families.
|
|
