American Literature II
Unruly Society
For this essay, I chose to look at the end of chapter 21 and beginning of chapter 22 at
which point the scene where Huckleberry Finn watches as Sherburn shoots down Boggs in
the street for cursing his name. After which the mob forms to lynch Sherburn and he gives
his speech on cowardice. I believe this plays a very important role in the Authors main
theme of the moral pubescence of the time.
Generally speaking during this period in American history there was no law and order, for
the most part crime was handled by the general public and it was usually handled by
masked man lynching someone at night mainly out of fear for themselves because if they
were to do it during the day everyone would see them and they could be killed for doing it,
I think Twain is trying to convey to the reader that most people were scared. During this
time there was no organized police force to help people; hence a lot of crimes went
unpunished. In this passage Sherburn states, “Why dont your juries hang murderers?
Because theyre afraid the mans friends will shoot them in the back, in the dark” (Twain,
165). Sherburn refers to the lack of law and to the crowds own cowardice.
This time of lawless society was accurately depicted in An Introduction to Policing, by
J.S.Dempsey in his first chapter on early policing.
“An 1840 New York newspaper reported:
Destructive rascality stalks at large in our streets and public
