Father Comes Home from the Wars

In the spring of 1862, the enslaved people of Boss-Master’s West Texas plantation anxiously wait to learn whether their friend Hero will choose to accompany their enslaver to the Civil War or not. Leader of Less Than Desirable Slaves, Second Less Desirable, Third Less Desirable, and Fourth Less Desirable begin to place wagers while Hero and Homer help Boss-Master get ready up at the house. When Hero finally appears, he looks to his adoptive father, Old Man, for advice. Old Man sees reasons both for going and staying, but he frets that Boss-Master hasn’t given Hero a real choice—after all, request from Boss-Master is as good as an order. Hero reveals that Boss-Master has promised to free him in exchange for his service during the war. This strikes Old Man as a compelling reason to go, but Boss-Master has a history of promising freedom to Hero and then failing to follow through on it. That’s one of the reasons Hero’s lover, Penny, wants him to stay—Boss-Master’s promises are empty.

Hero decides to stay. To prevent the others from being punished for his disobedience, he plans to give himself a reasonable excuse and asks Old Man and Penny to amputate his foot. Once, at Boss-Master’s direction, he amputated Homer’s foot as punishment for Homer running away. That was one of the times Boss-Master promised Hero his freedom. Before Old Man and Penny can accomplish the deed, Homer returns from the house. He just learned about another time Boss-Master promised Hero freedom: Hero had to turn Homer in when Homer attempted to escape. Ashamed that his friends now know that he’s selfish and disloyal, Hero decides he has no choice but to put on a Confederate uniform and follow Boss-Master to the war.

Some months later, Boss-Master (now called “Colonel” for his military rank) and Hero have been separated from their unit, but they’ve taken a wounded Union Captain named Smith captive. Boss-Master tries to teach Smith how to value an enslaved person and to convince him that it’s wonderful to enslave other human beings. When Union soldiers approach uncomfortably close to their temporary camp, Boss-Master flees, leaving Hero to follow behind with Smith. Smith admits that he’s a light-skinned Black foot soldier, not the white Captain Boss-Master believes him to be. He tells Hero about his life; he was enslaved in his youth but is now free. Smith encourages Hero to free himself by running away. Hero can’t bring himself to do it, but he does free Smith.

A little over a year later, Homer and Penny shelter First, Second, and Third Runaway on Missus’s plantation. The Runaways want Homer and Penny to go north with them, but Penny promised Hero to wait for him on the plantation, and Homer—who’s in love with Penny—is reluctant to leave her. After Missus tells Penny that Boss-Master and Hero died in battle, she starts to change her mind. Then, Hero’s dog Odd-See comes trotting down the road with news that his master survived the war and will be home soon. Hero—who’s changed his name to Ulysses—soon walks down the road. He’s happy to be home, and he carries important news in the form of the Emancipation Proclamation. But he gets too wrapped up in giving Homer and Penny meaningless trinkets to tell them about it. It soon becomes clear that, despite his new name, he hasn’t changed much. He’s still selfish and he’s still waiting for someone to confer the freedom on him that he can’t imagine claiming for himself. Homer, Penny, and the Runaways head north, but Ulysses stays behind, ready to continue his service by burying Boss-Master’s body.