Shepherdsons vs. Grangerfords: Family Feud Gone Crazy

Buck Grangerford

The feud between the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords (Chapters 17-18) is one of the most violent episodes in the novel.  Huck and Jim get separated after a steamboat hits the raft.  Huck finds a big log cabin owned by the Grangerfords and is greeted by dogs and threats.  After Huck is in the cabin, the family realizes that Huck is not a Shepherdson. (Huck goes by the name, "George Jackson.") A sleepy boy, named Buck Grangerford, about Huck's age comes downstairs, dragging a gun.  The two become good friends, and the family decides to take Huck in.

According to Huck, Colonel Grangerford is "a gentlemen all over; and so was his family."  The Grangerfords are very wealthy, and each person has their own slave to wait on them.  But, the Shepherdsons, another wealthy family in the area, are in a feud with the Grangerfords.

One day, while hunting, Buck shoots at Harney Shepherdson.  Buck misses, and Harney's hat falls off.  Panicked, the two boys run back to the mansion, and Harney has the opportunity to shoot Buck.  Instead, Harney rides away on his horse.  After this incident, Huck asks Buck many questions about the feud, especially, "Why?"  Buck says that no one can remember how the feud even started, but the two families still fight.  Ironically, the two families attend the same church, but they listen to a sermon about brotherly love with guns between their knees.

After dinner, while pretty much everyone else is napping, Miss Sophia Grangerford asks Huck to get her Bible that she left at the church.  Huck agrees, and a note with "Half-past two" written on it falls out.  Huck delivers the Bible and joins his slave, Jack, who claims to want to show Huck water moccasins.  Instead, Jack leads Huck right to Jim in the swamp.  The two are reunited, but then Huck goes back to the house.

Fighting Behind the Woodpile

The house and grounds are empty.  Finally, by the woodpile, Huck finds Jack.  Jack informs Huck that Miss Sophia had eloped with Harney Shepherdson, and the families were fighting again.  Huck goes up the road to the log store and climbs a tree.  He watches men and boys shoot at each other, including two boys behind a woodpile.  Huck meets Buck, but the fighting continues, and Buck and other family members of both sides die.

Huck finds Jim, and they escape on the raft.  "I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds,  ...  We said there warn't no home like the raft, after all.  ...  You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft," (Page 116).

Pictures:

Both pictures courtesy of: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/old/orig76-h/p4.htm