The Casualty of the Innocent by Eric Garcia

Sweat fell from Tom’s face as he was whipped brutally. Tom and twenty-nine others are slaves to the “human devil”, a planter who has an extreme odium against African Americans. The planter laughed at Tom as he scoured to get out of the way of a hook tipped whip.

Hank was the planter’s name, Hank Stevenson. He bought the slaves and Tom at an auction for twenty dollars. Ever since one of the slaves refused one of his orders, he has been whipping all of the men. He has also violated all of the womans’ privacy and has been poorly feeding their children.

Hank’s neighbor, a Yeoman, is one of the kindest persons in the valley. His name is Peter Nelson and is a very close friend of Hank. To his experience, he knows that Hank is a real cruel, mad man. He had been secretly feeding Hank’s slaves. Until one day when he was caught and threaten to death by Hank himself.

Another man, a free slave named John Jams, also visits Hank’s slaves, but for a different reason. Tom is his younger brother. He has been given them information about a rebellion. Besides this rebellion he is saving money to buy all of the slave’s freedom, but while he has twice as much money as Hank bought them, Hank refuses to every offer he makes.

As days went by, punishment got worse. The planter once found a slave that had money that he had stolen from him to buy food for his baby. To this the planter reacted very hostel and the next day Hank cut of the slave’s thumbs with the sharpened coins he stole, in front of every one of his slaves’ eyes. He also nailed three nails in a woman’s ear for receiving earrings from a rival white man. Tears of pain and anger ran down Tom’s face as he heard the screams of every painful action that took place. Tom had hoped that all of that would end when John gave the final news of the rebellion.

John brought the rest of the news. A man named Nat Turner had seen a sign from God. He and his group were going to kill as many slave owners as they could. To this Tom felt his anger run through his veins. That evening all of the men planed the planter’s significant death that would happen that night. Finally the time came, the moon rose and with it fell with the night’s shadows. Breaking a rusted old lock with rocks, they got the weapons Hank used on them. They crept into the planter’s room. They quietly circled him. Tom believed that his pain, anger, and life was going to be relieved that poignant night. In less than three minutes it was over. Tom turned to leave and as he did he spotted the neighbor’s face in the window. Dark as his own, a painful look. While Tom was in shock, he disappeared with Tom future.

Tom stared at Peter Nelson with anger as police placed a rope around his neck. John begged and cried to the police that it was an accident and that they didn’t do it. Tom heard this, and inside himself he laughed and knew that that night did happen, it was embedded in his soul. The support piece of wood was pulled and the last thing Tom heard and saw was the grin and the laugh of the planter’s neighbor. In less than three minutes he and all of the men died of suffocation. After that came the sorrowful death of the innocent women and children. This event is known as homicide of the innocent.