Unnamed Undercover Revenue Agent

Character Key Number: 
2211
Display Name: 
Unnamed Undercover Revenue Agent
Sort Name: 
Unnamed Undercover Revenue Agent
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

One of the hypothetical characters in Light in August, this "undercover man" does not actually appear in Jefferson, but he is fairly vividly conjured up in the imagination of "the town," which is "just waiting" this man to arrest Brown for selling moonshine whiskey (46). At the time the novel takes place, Prohibition made it illegal to sell alcohol anywhere in the U.S. But Yoknapatawpha is 'dry' throughout its imaginative history, meaning that it was always illegal to sell alcohol there. The federal agents who enforced this law were colloquially called 'revenuers.'