Elijah of Buxton is a wonderfully well-written compilation of lessons that readers can learn from because they are worth learning and, yet, not preachy. In the first half of the book, the reader is introduced to Elijah and the settlement of Buxton. Neighbors and friends are described including the Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly III. Elijah ultimately learns a lot from this character. He learns people are not always what they seem and they are not always as good as you would like to think. When Connerly absconds with Mr. Leroy's money to buy his family out of slavery, Elijah finds himself alone and hunting down the Preacher and wanting to rescue some slaves he encounters. This is an eye-opening experience for Elijah who has never known slavery. In this experience, Elijah also learns a hard lesson about growing up which is you can't save everyone, but he does the best that he can and saves who he can.
My favorite lesson in the story is one that Mr. Leroy teaches Elijah early on about using the "N- word." He impresses upon Elijah how the word is filled with hate when white people use it and filled with ignorance when black people use it. That is a lesson our young people can definitely use today. That horrible word is flung around quite a bit.
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