In the town of Natchez, Mississippi, in the year 1857, Abigail is a seventeen year old slave of great beauty, education and faith. Highly valued, she belongs to Judith, a blind widow who holds a number of thriving businesses and lives in a large townhouse called Sugar Cane. Judith treats Abigail more as a daughter than a slave, entrusting the management of her business operations to Abigail’s able abilities. However, some of these enterprises are located at Under-The-Hill, a notoriously dangerous place. After an attempted assault upon Abigail, Judith hires Jeriah Ross, a twenty year old Kentuckian to be Abigail’s driver and bodyguard. Jeriah has come to town visiting his parents, having full expectations of returning to his work as a teamster on the Santa Fe Trail. But meeting Abigail changes all of Jeriah’s plans.
The Sugarcane Lode is a historical fiction saga that opens with love between Abigail and the young man hired to guard her. In order to have the woman that he loves, Jeriah sets out to make a fortune. In the politically polarized atmosphere just prior to the Civil war, he leaves Mississippi and goes on the expedition that triggers the Colorado Gold Rush. With romance, action and adventure the story expands with multiple male and female characters. The story’s settings move alternately between Mississippi and the Colorado Territory with the characters facing conflict from bondage, crime, prejudice, and war. True historical side-characters are incorporated, including the southern slave owners and the Kansas abolitionists that worked together to create Denver and Colorado’s first mining districts. The book covers the years 1857 to 1865 and holds to an accurate time-frame of events concerning the settlement of Colorado, Native-American issues, and the Civil War.
Beginning with the prologue, the story of the Sugarcane Lode is told by a descendant of some of the book’s characters. The story-line offers an informative look at non-agricultural slavery, as it was practiced in towns and away from plantations. Some of the book’s characters are slave owners, but there are others that ardently refute the evils of slavery with Christian persuasion. Bondage by and of American Indians is also an integral part of the story with some of the characters struggling with the memories of past ordeals.
The Sugarcane Lode is a historical fiction saga that opens with love between Abigail and the young man hired to guard her. In order to have the woman that he loves, Jeriah sets out to make a fortune. In the politically polarized atmosphere just prior to the Civil war, he leaves Mississippi and goes on the expedition that triggers the Colorado Gold Rush. With romance, action and adventure the story expands with multiple male and female characters. The story’s settings move alternately between Mississippi and the Colorado Territory with the characters facing conflict from bondage, crime, prejudice, and war. True historical side-characters are incorporated, including the southern slave owners and the Kansas abolitionists that worked together to create Denver and Colorado’s first mining districts. The book covers the years 1857 to 1865 and holds to an accurate time-frame of events concerning the settlement of Colorado, Native-American issues, and the Civil War.
Beginning with the prologue, the story of the Sugarcane Lode is told by a descendant of some of the book’s characters. The story-line offers an informative look at non-agricultural slavery, as it was practiced in towns and away from plantations. Some of the book’s characters are slave owners, but there are others that ardently refute the evils of slavery with Christian persuasion. Bondage by and of American Indians is also an integral part of the story with some of the characters struggling with the memories of past ordeals.