Who Comes with Cannons?

Synopsis
"It's 1861, and twelve-year-old Tabitha Ruth, nicknamed Truth by her Quaker family, has been sent (after her mother's death and father's illness) from her Indiana home to live with relatives in North Carolina. . . . She is soon caught up in the Bardwell family's secret work: helping escaped slaves alongthe Underground Railroad to the North. . . . Truth helps hide slaves under the fireplace and in a secret cave; she travels along the Underground Railroad herself after her cousin has been captured by Yankees and imprisoned in New York. . . . Grades five to eight." (Bull Cent Child Books)

Annotation
Truth Hopkins is a Quaker who opposes slavery and the bloody Civil War that is now being waged to stop it. But when a runaway slave takes refuge on her family's farm and her uncle helps him escape to the North, Truth learns that she can further the cause of freedom--without the use of a rifle. An unforgettable trip aboard the Underground Railroad.

From the Publisher
When Truth Hopkins's father dies, she goes to live with her uncle and his family on their North Carolina farm. Like Truth, the Bardwells are Quakers. They oppose slavery but refuse to take up arms in the civil war that is now being waged to end this inhuman institution. Then one day, a runaway slave takes refuge on the Bardwell farm and, to Truth's amazement, her uncle hides him from the slave catchers. Even more puzzling, he asks her to accompany him when he deliverswagonload of hay to a neighbor late: that night.This ride, and the wagon's real cargo, involve Truth in a mysterious and dangerous underground movement — and reveal how she can help further the cause of freedom without the use of a rifle.Patricia Beatty, best-selling author and winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, takes readers on an unforgettable trip aboard the Underground Railroad. Her powerful story of the Civil War captures the secrecy, suspense, and heroism of this little-known chapter in America's history and will long be remembered by readers.

From the Critics
From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly  
Beatty's posthumous Civil War novel will be welcomed by readers of her earlier works, such as Charley Skedaddle and Jayhawker . Truth Hopkins, a Quaker, is sent to North Carolina relatives on the eve of the Civil War; her mother is dead and her father dying. Doubly an outsider, she watches and helps in small ways as her kin run a station on the Underground Railroad. When war comes her two male cousins are forced into the Confederate army; later--in a rather improbable journey north and back again--Truth rescues one of them from a Union prison in Elmira, N.Y. The once-timid Truth can then take her place in the family and in the local Meeting for Worship. The risky choice to create a heroine who plays a passive role for much of the story succeeds in the end--Truth's quiet determination allows readers to view the Civil War from the perspective of a group persecuted by both sides. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)
 
From School Library Journal  
Gr 4-8-- A novel set during the Civil War, told from the perspective of a southern Quaker family. Truth is 12 when her parents' deaths send her to North Carolina to live with her uncle, his wife, and their two sons. Beatty follows the girl as she gains acceptance in her new family and they trust her to help them with their activities on the Underground Railroad. Through the war years, Truth matures as she and her family suffer the vilification of Quakers who will not fight for either side. When her cousin, conscripted by the Confederates, is captured by Union troops, Truth undertakes a dangerous journey north to ask Frederick Douglass to intercede with President Lincoln to set the young man free. Strong characters and a careful evocation of period make this another worthy title in Beatty's historical fiction canon. --Sally Bates Goodroe, Houston Public Library
 
From Carolyn Phelan - BookList  
Twelve-year-old orphan Truth Hopkins lives on Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Matthew's farm in North Carolina. The outbreak of the Civil War brings danger to their Quaker family; Quakers were pacifists, and pacifists were scorned. Soon Truth discovers that the farm is a station on the Underground Railroad. Later, she and her uncle become "passengers" going north to seek the release of cousin Robert from a Union prison. The necessity of filling in the background through conversation slows down the beginning a bit, but Beatty creates situations of rising tension, climaxing with a scene in which the birth of her cousin's baby keeps Truth and her friends huddled in a house for three days while the Battle of Bentonville rages around them. Offering a different perspective on the Civil War, this historical novel acknowledges the moral and physical courage of those who refused to take sides.
 
From Roger Sutton - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books  
A trademark Beatty heroine, Truth is brave, plucky, and inclined to speakher mind. . . . The author works in a great deal of information about the pacifist Quakers' courageous resistance during the Civil War, but the exciting story never falters in service to the history. . . . Events involving Frederick Douglass and Mrs. Lincoln become a bit unconvincing, but the narrative hand remains sure and easy to read. Appended notes supply information about the Quakers and historical figures in the book.