Bad Wing Crow

The story covers the time period from the mid 1860's to the late 1880's. By the age of ten, Samuel Tucker has endured more hardship and tragedy than most of us will see in a lifetime. With the exception of his grandfather, he is alone. Grandpa cares for him and teaches him that life, for a black man in the post civil war era, is all about survival. He must not fight battles he can't win. The old man and the boy also make a pact: some day, when the time is right, they will square up...
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The story covers the time period from the mid 1860's to the late 1880's. By the age of ten, Samuel Tucker has endured more hardship and tragedy than most of us will see in a lifetime. With the exception of his grandfather, he is alone. Grandpa cares for him and teaches him that life, for a black man in the post civil war era, is all about survival. He must not fight battles he can't win. The old man and the boy also make a pact: some day, when the time is right, they will square up with the three powerful white men who visited so much carnage on the Tucker family.At the age of sixteen, Sammy leaves Pine Bluff and travels west. He becomes a skilled horseman and incredibly proficient with a revolver. He lives a solitary, mostly nomadic, life for several years, working, at times, as a cowboy and a horse trainer. Life for him is, truly, about surviving until the time comes to go back to Pine Bluff and settle up with the Coolidge brothers and James Howard.As he grows into a man, he earns a reputation and a name given to him derisively, but one that comes to strike fear in the hearts of his adversaries. He also falls in love, and that, along with his innate humanity and decency, makes things a lot more complicated. He's in his mid-twenties when circumstances tell him the time is right to go back to Pine Bluff. Grandpa is there, waiting for him.