A note in Nightjohn’s first few pages indicates that the events of the story happened in real life to varying degrees. Gary Paulsen researched the accounts of several slaves, particularly those who were punished for reading and writing. Knowing that people were punished for a skill that many take for granted in modern day is sobering. Sarny’s accounts of everyday life as a slave are gruesome, but needfully so, as they inform readers of the realities of the past.

Various punishments appear in the novel, all of which indicate that slave owners considered slaves “lesser.” Slave owners chose to treat slaves as more animal than human in order to make them dedicated, subdued workers. The vicious dogs that Clel Waller sets on runaways inflict severe wounds, tearing people to shreds. To make this dehumanization even more intense, Waller leaves the remains of one slave, Jim, hanging from the tree in which he died—denying him the dignity of a burial. Mammy’s punishment also furthers the theme of dehumanization. Waller forces her to pull a buggy with a horse harness, whipping her as he would a horse. Again, this punishment shows that in Waller’s eyes, the slaves are animals, a form of property.