George Harmon Smith

The Voice of Turtle Ann George Harmon Smith

This fast paced novel begins at the Potter Inn on the Wire Road. It is a dangerous time, not only for fifteen year-old Jethro Potter but for his sixteen year old sister Vienna, the reconstruction era following the Civil War. It was a time when outlaws roamed the land, a time when the Blacks began realizing they were free, a time when the Ku Klux Klan was organized, grew larger and larger, and harassed both the blacks and whites if they gambled, or resorted to stealing, and that time thousands of people were making ready to pour into the Oklahoma Territory. Jethro's life is disrupted when the Silmon gangsters kill their parents, and hang Jim Lucky, their hired Black man, and outlaws steal all of the Potter horses, $500 in gold, kidnapp Vienna and Jethro, and set out for their hide-out in the Oklahoma Territory. Turtle Ann trails the outlaws all the way to Camden Town in Arkansas, enabling the Black Militia to follow them. The militia overtakes the outlaw band near Camden, and during the pitched battle, Jethro escapes, and walks in to Camden Town. He uses his father's good name and borrows enough money to hire a posse to go after the outlaws, and in a furious chase, the posse catches up with the outlaws in the Oklahoma Territory.