Description

Go Down, Moses is a 1942 collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by American author William Faulkner, sometimes considered a novel. The most prominent character and unifying voice is that of Isaac McCaslin, "Uncle Ike", who will live to be an old man; "uncle to half a county and father to no one".

The year is about 1859. "Cass" lives with his grand-uncles Theophilus and Amodeus McCaslin, called "Uncle Buck" and "Uncle Buddy" respectively by most of the characters in the book. The story opens with the news that Tomey's Turl, a slave on the McCaslin plantation, has run away. But this is not the first time this has happened and Uncle Buck and Buddy know where he always goes, to Hubert Beauchamp's neighboring plantation to see his love, a slave girl named Tennie. Beauchamp himself has an unmarried sister, Sophonisba, nicknamed "Sibbey", who seems romantically interested in Buck. Forced to stay the night to look for Tomey's Turl, Buck and Cass accidentally enter Sophonisba's room, thinking it to be their room. This situation is exploited by Hubert who tries to pressure Buck into marrying Sophonisba. Buck does not agree to Hubert's exploitive interpretation of events. Buck, Buddy and Hubert settle both their situation and that of Tomey's Turl by tying them to the outcome of a poker match. If Buck loses, he is to marry Sophonisba and must agree to buy the slave girl Tennie so Turl will stop running away to see her. Buck loses, but coaxes Hubert into allowing another game, Hubert against Buddy, to determine the marriage and property issues. The stakes are changed many times, but in the end Buddy wins and the McCaslins take Tennie for free.

Old Isaac McCaslin heard this story, relating events that took place before he was born, from his older cousin, McCaslin Edmonds, who was 16 years his senior and like a father to him: A young child, McCaslin Edmonds, rides with his Uncle Buck to the neighboring plantation of Hubert Beauchamp, in pursuit of an escaped slave. The slave, Tomey's Turl, runs away frequently to visit Tennie, a slave of the Beauchamps with whom he is in love. Tomey's Turl eludes McCaslin and Uncle Buck, who are forced to rely on the leisurely Hubert Beauchamp for help. They are forced to eat dinner with Beauchamp and his sister Sophonisba, "Sibbey", who is looking for a husband and has Uncle Buck in mind. Hubert and Buck search through the woods for Turl and make a 500-dollar bet over whether he will be caught outside Tennie's cabin that night. That night he is indeed at the cabin, but he runs past them and eludes capture. Buck and young McCaslin are forced to spend the night at the plantation house.

Buck and the boy accidentally go into the wrong bedroom and discover Sophonisba lying in the bed. She wakes up and screams, and Beauchamp takes advantage of the situation to try to pressure Buck to marry Sophonisba. Buck rejects the idea angrily, and the two men play cards to settle things: a single hand of poker will decide whether Buck will have to marry Sophonisba and also who has to buy the other's slave, since the situation with Tennie and Tomey's Turl is clearly unmanageable as it is. Buck loses the hand and sends McCaslin home to fetch Buck's twin brother, Buddy, a legendary poker player. Buddy arrives and coaxes Beauchamp into another poker game. They spend a great deal of time hammering out the stakes, but in the end, Beauchamp folds, and Buddy wins the game. Uncle Buck, Uncle Buddy, McCaslin, Tennie, and Tomey's Turl return to the McCaslin plantation-Tennie and Tomey's Turl will be married.