Where Grass Grows High

After Samuel realizes the war will reach his home, he and his wife hide supplies to sustain a large extended family through a long bitter war. He agonizes over his boys fighting on both sides, and over relatives that remain in the southeastern states of Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. One evening, strangers stop at the farm, eat the family's supper, beat Samuel demanding that he hand over the money received for horses he sold, threaten to scalp Francis and kill the children, but he will not give them money. The next day Samuel and his two oldest daughters hide his money in green logs to keep it safe until after the war. He worries about the thousands of widows and orphans left without husbands and fathers, and former slaves left without homes and the education to prepare them for a life away from the plantation.