William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses

In Go Down, Moses, by William Faulkner, there is a reoccurring motif of the hunt that reflects on the unjust and unequal relationship between blacks and whites in American Southern life from slavery during pre-Civil War times to the continuing racism into the early 20th century after emancipation. The setting of “Was” starts out in the pre-Civil War period during the 1850s. The hunt in this story is a manhunt by Uncle Buddy and Uncle Buck of their slave, Tomey’s Turl, who has runoff to see a slave girl on another plantation. Uncle Buck goes to Hubert Beauchamp’s plantation to find Tomey’s Turl telling Mr. Hubert that “’I just come to get my nigger’” (Faulkner 12). Later on in the novel, the reader finds out the true extent of Tomey’s Turl relationship to Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy; they are half-brothers. The two men were hunting down their own half-brother, which reflects on the unjust and disturbing relationship between blacks and whites because even though they are related, they still consider Tomey’s Turl as property, going as far as calling him “my nigger.” They do not see him as family just because of his skin color and family history of being born from a slave woman. During the manhunt, Uncle Buck employs Mr. Hubert’s

Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy finally “catch” Tomey’s Turl after Uncle Buddy tells Mr. Hubert, “’I’ll bet you them two niggers’,” and wins