Slavery has always been a debated subject among Americans, and numerous artists, authors, directors etc. have through American history given their take on ‘slavery’ before and after the abolishment. However in recent years the subject of slavery has appeared in several books and films (12 Years a Slave, Django etc.), where most of them describe the brutality, in which, Afro Americans lived. “The Whipping Boy”, does as the others describe the historic brutality, but it also takes a different view that gives a curious reason for the oncoming racism, in the period.
“The Whipping Boy” as many other stories, told during and after the American civil war, takes place in the Confederate States most likely in the South East, where plantations were abundant. The civil war has just ended as a messenger boy from the Union has told the former slaves of their freedom, alas the year is 1865. Our third person narrator, Martha, does not really believe the messenger, as she believes him “too young and underqualified to confer freedom upon anyone…”, though the two brothers Mikey and Tommy believe in the Union boy’s story, whereas their first act as free men is to kill the dogs of their former slaver/master Sterling Gage. This, at first, seems quite brutal, but we quickly learn that “… the slaves treated the dogs better in death than the dogs had treated the slaves in life.” Which leaves the mind open to imagine different cruelties exacted upon Mikey and Tommy by using the dogs. Further on we learn more about their relationship with Gage and his family; Martha was forced to sleep with him and Gage had beaten Mikey for “ogling” Martha. Though, at first Mikey had seen Gage as a friend, he tells Martha of Gage’s betrayal of him, when Gage blamed him for stealing sugar, which Gage had done himself. This
