Ben Walker, author and Realtor with Ponte Vedra Club Realty, has again written a poignant tale that reveals a riveting and compelling love story with twists and turns that keeps the reader entranced.
The new book takes place immediately after the Civil War and it deals with a couple of the offspring from the characters from the first book, who are now young adults.
They both go separately to Beaufort, S.C., which was occupied by the Union Army throughout the Civil War.
During the war, the planters and owners who had houses in town left the area and abandoned their homes and land.
"They took off so quickly that when the Union Army came into the town, that when they went into the houses, there was still hot food on the table," said Walker. "At the same time, they abandoned about 10,000 slaves.
"In 1861, the Union Army had essentially 10,000 freed slaves on their hands, but it was too early in the war for President Lincoln to declare that they were free. So, they declared that they contraband of war and were just another form of property and they belonged to the Union Army.
"That meant they could do what they wanted to with them and what they wanted to do was free them."
So, they created what they called the Port Royal Experiment, an effort to educate and prepare the freed slaves in that one area for freedom at the end of the war.
"They brought in all these teachers and missionaries from the North to help the freed slaves and set up a school, called the Penn School," said Walker. "They began teaching the adult and children freedmen how to read and write and gave them a real education. In addition, there was something created called the Freedmen's Bureau by the Union government. That was set up to assist the freedmen and auction off piece by piece the abandon lands to the freedmen. This was going quite well during the war."
"An Island in the South" picks up at the end of the war during Reconstruction with the introduction of Georgia Rhodes, daughter of Zimri Rhodes, who was the main character in "Winds of the South."
"At the end of the war, the youngest daughter of Zimri Rhodes, Georgia, goes to work at the Penn School," said Walker. "At the same time, there is a Union Army officer, Antonio Jones, who works for the Freedmen's Bureau came there as well. A romance ensues, but is complicated by the appearance of a rival in the person of one Edward Benson, a young Confederate army officer recently freed from a Union POW camp. Benson is bent on recovering his family's plantation, which has fallen into disrepair and is about to be auctioned off to the freedmen."
The new book is hard to put down once you delve into the intricate story. The book gives a unique view of life after the Civil War through the eyes of compelling characters some of who you will love and others you will love to hate.
— Michele Gillis