The Sheriff's Children Chesnutt Summary

The Sheriff’s Children In a small town of Troy in rural post civil war Branson County, North Carolina. Captain Walker has been murdered, the townspeople blaming a mulatto who was seen near the captain’s house on the previous night. “So when it became known in Troy early one Friday morning in summer, about ten years after the war, that old Captain Walker, who had served in Mexico under Scott and had left an arm on the field of Gettysburg, had been foully murdered during the night, there was intense excitement in the village.” “Business was practically suspended, and the citizens gathered in little groups to discuss the murder and speculate upon the identity of the murder”. The Investigation is led by Sheriff Campbell, an affluent well-respected,

I think that his intentions in the story because the story really never unravels about the investigation of the murder. Chesnutt didn’t talk about an investigation for the murder and in the story it didn’t mention who really killed Captain Walker. It seems like throughout the entire story the main focus of the story was really based on the Sheriff and Tom the accused suspect of the murder. I think the “strange mulatto” is a way of revealing Chesnutt’s intentions because deeper into the story it starts revealing information about the “strange

The sheriff contemplates how he can make amends and finally does right by his son, even find a way to exculpate him from a crime he is de facto supposed to have committed. The sheriff was thinking “He could, however, investigate the circumstances of the murder and move Heaven and earth to discover the real criminal, for he no longer doubted Tom innocence; he could employ counsel for the accused, and perhaps influence public opinion in his favor”. “Acquittal once secured, some plan could be devised by which the sheriff might in some degree atone for his crime against this son of his-against society-against God”. His thoughts of helping his son are touching and since he wasn’t there at first, I think he wants to be there for his son. He abandoned his son one time, so I think he doesn’t want to make the same mistake again of abandoning his son twice. I admire how he wants to be there for his son, most white men wouldn’t do this for their illegitimate son. I like how he accepts the fact that Tom is his son and he set aside his pride to help his son. When Tom died I think the sheriff felt burden of