Whites in the community had taken advantage of his absence to continue menacing his family and help themselves to their property. “They just took everything,” Henry said. “They took a cow and calf from me, and my corn and my meat I had there,” he said. Instead of stealing in the thick of night, the brazen plunderers came in the light of day. “They had no fear,” Henry said, “because they had run me off and they took it as they pleased.”
