“The Ransom of Red Chief” is set in the town of Summit in northeastern Alabama in the early 1900s. The specific town in which the story is set is less important than the fact that it is a small community in the southern United States, a place where criminals Sam and Bill believe they will easily be able to manipulate the uneducated “class of peasantry.” O. Henry intentionally challenges these stereotypes and assumptions about the residents of small towns in the South by having Ebenezer and Johnny overpower and outsmart Sam and Bill in various ways. Sam and Bill's kidnapping plan ultimately goes awry because, as outsiders with no actual knowledge of the town, they underestimate the abilities and intelligence of the people they're trying to manipulate.
Also important to the setting of the story (which O. Henry published in 1910) is the fact that Theodore Roosevelt was president from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt was known for both his “cowboy” image—he valued time spent outdoors and, because of this, prioritized the conservation of national parks—and his anti-trust progressive politics. Roosevelt’s influence appears in the story through Johnny’s enjoyment of camping and living in a cave with his kidnappers, as well as in O. Henry’s decision to have Sam and Bill go up against the wealthy (and greedy) moneylender in town.
