Child Rearing in The Sport of Kings

From the get-go, Henry Forge makes clear his opinions on women, African Americans, and horses. Many of his opinions are inherited from his father, John Henry Forge, who went so far as raping his own wife, and having Filip, his African American help, lynched (66, 70). Throughout the novel, women, children, and African Americans are constantly lorded over and looked down upon, and Morgan draws many similarities between these groups and horses. In The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan, the similarities drawn between oppressed people and horses demonstrate two distinct methods of child rearing. 

At the beginning of the novel, Henry observes two men breaking a horse, and the man says that the best way to raise a horse is to “gentle ‘em [...] but some skirt leaves ‘em out in a field, and they ain’t never been rubbed and rode, then you got to whip the devil out of ‘em” (30). A contrast is drawn between horses that are groomed and trained from birth and horses that roam free until the day humans come and train them. Children in the novel are treated similarly to horses. 

Henry Forge is an unruly child, and after killing a bull that belonged to the neighbors, his father, John Henry, decided to whip him as punishment. Right before whipping Henry, he says “I’m not whipping my son, just an animal. Because that’s how you’ve behaved” (10). Up to this point, Henry had been left out in the metaphorical field, and was like a wild horse that needed to be broken. From that moment on, John Henry is constantly teaching young, impressionable Henry life lessons, and Henry is broken like a young colt. 

Despite their vastly different situations growing up, Allmon has a similar upbringing as Henry. After the Reverend’s death, his mother draws further into herself as her disease makes it impossible to work and ruins her quality of life, and Allmon is left out in the field like a wild horse. His only mentor is the gang member, Aesop, who gets him into drug dealing and jail (253). Both Henry and Allmon are wild horses that need to be broken, but Henry’s father is there to “whip the devil out of ‘em” (30) and Allmon’s is not.

Henrietta is the only child in the novel that is gentled throughout her entire childhood. From the moment she was born, her father, Henry, treasures her and grooms her to become the heir of Forge Run Farm. Henry is consumed with raising Henrietta and his horses, the only things he cares about. After Judith leaves the farm, Morgan describes the Forge house as being “filled with the purpose of your father’s life. Which is … you … or a horse” (119). Henry is raising Henrietta as he would raise one of his prized Thoroughbreds. He doesn’t allow her to attend college, and Henrietta spends almost every waking moment on the farm. Even as Henrietta nears her thirties, Henry still has power over her whole being. At a dinner for the Kentucky elite, Henry makes a toast to Henrietta, saying “she’s never done me wrong, and I know [...] she never will” (361). Henry never allows Henrietta her freedom. She never lives like an unbroken horse, and her rebellions against her father are small things, such as writing in her notebooks and sleeping with strangers.

At the end of the novel, the reader doesn’t know how Henry will raise Henrietta and Allmon’s child, Samuel. One can only hope he will be treated like a human; not like a horse or a machine or something less than human. Despite what your father may say, people are not machines, and people are not horses.