The Story of Ervin James
The Story of Ervin James is a carefully crafted, yet fictionalized historical novel inspired by Ervin James, the former enslaved Black man who founded a community in 1870.
Ervin James overcame great odds, pain, loss, and suffering to leave a legacy when he managed to purchase over 100 acres of land and found a community for freed blacks in 1870.
It’s a story of hope, love, and the family we make – including the unexpected. Ervin begins his journey as a slave walking from Virginia to South Carolina to stand in a slave market with his mother.
The story takes readers through Ervin’s life beginning in childhood in 1815 until the purchase of land made in December 1870. Ervin’s story is told against the backdrop of a pre-civil-war era and then through it, gracefully incorporating history and culture into the experience of reading about his life.
It is written by his great-great-great granddaughter.