Separation And Hierarchy In 'The Whipping Boy'

Race separation and hierarchy has been a big part of our world history and is still a problem in some countries. In the older days, race decided whether you were a human being or just a “tool” to others advantage. In the 1800 century was there a change in the American history, where slaves were becoming freemen, and the short story “The Whipping Boy” describes in fiction how it may or may not have been in the change of history.
The whipping boy concerns a family slavery farm, where they have three slaves Mikey, Tommy and Martha. One day on the farm a boy from the Union comes to the farm and breaks the news, that they are freemen and they can do whatever they want. The news thrills Mikey and Tommy, but Martha is still a bit insecure about the situation, because she is taking care of the old Mrs. Gage, who lives on the farm with her son Master Sterling Gage. Master Sterling Gage is not at the farm when the news arrives, and Martha is therefore concerned for old Mrs. Gage, that she will starve to death. The three slaves stays on the farm, and one day, when Mikey is laying on the couch inside his former masters house, with a bottle of bourbon, Master Sterling Gage returns home and catches Mikey in the act. He gets
Tommy and Mikey are working in the field, while Martha is inside their master’s house, serving the old Mrs. Gage. Martha and Mikey have had an affair, but their master Sterling Gage have been beating Mikey, when he found out. Martha is the quiet one, with most sympathy among the three slaves. She is the one begging Mikey and Tommy not to kill Master Sterling Gage, when they are beating him up “”Mikey,” Martha Begged, still pulling at Tommy’s arm, “Tell him to stop””4. Tommy and Mikey on the other hand is very straightforward, they want revenge for the things that they have been experiencing through the years on the farm “He had grown alongside Sterling as a young boy and had considered him