Meet Solomon Henry, a nice young boy who asked very little out of life, except for a quality education. This was easier said than done in these times, seeing as Solomon's father was a former slave and both he and his mama were deadset against Solomon going to a "white man's school" and be what they wanted him to be. The boy wanted to go, but they wouldn't have it. Deciding not to listen to his folks, who were strict as hell, Solomon ran away, and they didn't stop him. He made it as far as Mankato, where Charles and Doc Baker were picking up a supply of medicine. Solomon takes an apple from a bunch of crates, only to be chastised by the manager. Thankfully Charles stops him from possibly whipping the boy. He gives him one of the apples and sends him on his way, however as they pulled out of town, Solomon hitched a ride on their wagon. When they arrived in Walnut Grove, Solomon abandoned ship and went to peek in the windows of the school. Laura spotted him, but nobody believed her. She saw a real life black boy peekin' in them windows and nobody would believe such a tall tale. That evening, as Laura went to the barn griping over school, she came across Solomon, having pilfered one of the eggs. She shows him to the family and he's welcomed right in for supper. After scarfing it down, he tells the Ingallses that he has no family, but he's a hard worker and wanted to actually sell himself to them. Despite slavery being abolished forever in the 1860s, Solomon still wanted to do it in order to get money for school. Charles decided to eliminate the middle man and just take him to school, as well as allow him to work chores around the farm.
Solomon's first day of school got off to a rocky start, since the first person to greet them was bigoted Harriet Oleson. Before she could begin to lecture Charles on how a child could not attend school unless his family lived in town, he informed her that Solomon was his son from a former marriage, and she actually bought it. In class, Miss Beadle assigned the students to write an essay about things they disliked. Solomon's answer was that he disliked being black. Meanwhile, Charles scouted around Mankato for the whereabouts of Solomon's family, but nobody had ever heard of him, or even cared to for that matter. Well, let's just hope that Solomon's next day at school goes more smoothly. He aced the spelling bee, proving he's already smarter than Willie, which is a rather easy accomplishment. Plus he could read and recite poetry to the letter. Everything was going fine, until one fateful night, who should come barging into the storage hut where he slept but his brother, Jackson, come to take the boy home. Solomon showed him his high marks in school, and was he impressed? No, instead Jackson chastised his boy for running away and not fulfilling his destiny by being a laborer and injected a blunt, cruel dose of practicality into him. Bottom line, he couldn't convince Solomon to come back with him, so he left him a scarf knitted by his mama and left. Next day, Solomon meets Dr. Tane, a black doctor, which allowed him to get his hopes up, until Tane informed him that he was strictly a reservation doctor for the Indians, as no whites would want him to treat them. He started to think that his family was right and so he decided to go back home. Everybody bid a tearful farewell to Solomon Henry as he boarded the stage back to Mankato, having learned a great deal from this experience, as did everyone around him.
Great episode. Very touching, very insightful, and makes you take a good, hard look at the world around you. As I've heard, this episode rarely airs on TV due to its politically incorrect tone. That's nonsense. First of all, the episode was made in 1977 and is set in 1876 here/around. Thoughts and opinions on race were very different back then. In 1876 they were still fresh off slavery so folks had a very difficult time adjusting to segregation. If you judge ideals in 1876 from a 2011 standpoint, you're missing the whole picture. This is sort of the equivalent of Disney refusing to release Song of the South for the exact same subject matter. When are these modern-day, gutless idiots going to realize that times were different back then? You cannot deny these ideals and pretend they don't exist, because they do. It's a piece of history! Bastards. But that's another story. Young Todd Bridges was wonderful as Solomon Henry, he definitely has a talent about him. Michael Landon was also great as Charles Ingalls, taking the young boy under his wing. Now, about the scenes with Doc Baker and Dr. Tane, it seemed odd to be at first that Baker would be so accepting of a black doctor when in Season 8, he made a big deal out of Dr. Ledoux, but then Tane said he was strictly a reserve doctor. I guess don't count the chickens before they're hatched. Anyway, if you can find it, I recommend this episode. See how different society was back then and today not so much has changed.
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