Book Summary: The Preacher By Elijah Farmer

My book starts by introducing multiple important characters. The first character I will tell you about is Elijah Freeman. Elijah is the main protagonist of the story. He is is 11 years old and is the first child in Buxton to be born free. The story is written in 1st person and it is told from his perspective. Elijah is best friends with Cooter Bixby. Elijah is best known for being skilled at “chucking stones” and throwing up on Frederick Douglas’ suit as a child . Elijah is also shown to be very gullible throughout the book (Usually being tricked by the “Preacher”), although often proved that he is very smart his childlike thinking makes the most ridiculous things make sense. Next is the Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly …show more content…
The Preacher is a skilled trickster later revealed to be the main antagonist. Early in the book the Preacher tells Elijah and Cooter that there are such things as hoop snakes. Which he describes as creatures that bite their tails before they attack and chase them in the motion of a barrel and once it has it’s sights on you it will bite you and your body will slowly deteriorate until you explode. He also tells many other lies that lead Elijah down the wrong path and eventually tells him to not listen to his parents and to think for himself. Last but not least is Mr.Leroy. Mr.Leroy is a handyman who often works for Mrs.Holton to save money to buy his family out of captivity in the states. Mr. Leroy’s wife and daughter were separated as slaves and when he finally made it to Buxton they were still stuck with their “owners.” This story takes place in Buxton, Canada. Around the time slavery was still legal in …show more content…
But at the same time Elijah meets Mrs.Chloe. Mrs. Chloe is a slave is is unclothed and in chains holding her baby while her owner is asleep. After a bit of talking, Mrs. Chloe asks Elijah to leave so he wouldn’t get caught. The next morning after Elijah “left” he supposedly comes back and tricks Mrs. Chloe into giving his mother her child so that it wouldn’t have grow up under ownership like an object. At the end of the book Elijah is riding home on Jingle Boy giving Hope (the baby’s name the speech that his dad gives to new free runaway slaves. I honestly did not enjoy this book at all. It was filled with southern slang so you had to go back and repeating the sentences just to understand them. I hate historical fiction. I thought it was boring. The plotline was everywhere. Some of the characters were a lot alike. I really don’t recommend this book to anyone. If you are interested in historical fiction based on slavery than go ahead and knock yourself