Born an enslaved person in 1839, Abraham worked as a Furman family servant at Cherrydale for decades after the war. Abraham married a woman named Dora and they had six children. He owned a home, near Cherrydale on Paris Mountain Road in Brutontown, and is buried in a cemetery nearby. Abraham’s existence was discovered through photos contained in the Furman family papers. He appears in several photos, taken around 1890, of the Furman family on the grounds of Cherrydale.

In the photos, Abraham appears in the background or hidden amidst the trees and shrubs of the plantation, while the big house and its white residents receive the focus of the camera’s lens. Those photos, and the recovery of Abraham’s story, stand as a metaphor for the project.