Muff Potter Trial

In the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the title character Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn went to a graveyard in an attempt to cure their warts. Instead, they witnessed a man known as Injun Joe murder Doctor Robinson, but Joe blamed the murder on another man with them at the graveyard named Muff Potter. Later, Tom and Huckleberry Finn made a blood oath swearing that they would not tell anyone they had witnessed the murder in fear that Joe would kill them as well. Soon enough, the town sheriff catches and convicts Muff Potter for the crime. Neither Tom nor Huckleberry Finn told what they had witnessed. Tom should have told the sheriff what he saw because it would get Joe (a murderer) off the streets, help relieve pressure off Tom’s conscience, and was the moral thing to do.

Firstly, if Tom had told the sheriff the truth about the murder in the graveyard, the actual murderer, Joe, would be imprisoned or hanged. Instead, Muff Potter faced this fate for a crime he did not commit, as on page 76, a citizen of Tom’s town said, “Muff Potter’ll be hang for this if they catch him!” Since Tom did not tell the sheriff of the true murderer, Muff Potter, who was not guilty of the crime, was punished. Thus, the actual culprit, Joe, was left free to potentially commit even more crime. This could have been avoided had Tom simply told the

It would have gotten a criminal off the streets, helped Tom rid of the guilt he felt by not telling, and been the morally correct decision to make. Doing what is right is not always what is easy. Telling the sheriff that Joe was the actual murderer would have been difficult. However, doing the right thing is always important, especially in this situation, where the safety of others are at stake. Being able to put your fears aside and have the courage to do what is right is an important skill that we all, including Tom Sawyer, can