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When the Jessamine Grows
Donna Everhart
Joetta and Ennis McBride have built a happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm in North Carolina. Amidst talk of civil war, Joetta considers her family neutral, believing this is simply not their fight, but her opinion is not favored by Joetta’s father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause. One night Henry runs off to join the war, and Ennis leaves to bring him home. Weeks pass with no word, and Joetta is battered by the strain of running a farm with so little help. As the country becomes further entangled in war, Joetta finds herself shunned and struggling to survive. She remains committed to her principles, but the greatest tests are still to come both for Joetta’s family and the fractured nation. In honor of America’s 250th Anniversary, an historical fiction novel to remind us of deep divisions our nation has overcome.
