Jefferson Negro Store District in "Uncle Willy" (Location)

Display Label: 
Negro Stores
Map Icon: 
Event
Authority : 
Context (text, as interpreted)
Other Texts Location Appears In: 
X: 
1205
Y: 
806
Description: 

In the Yoknapatawpha fictions as a group, Jefferson's black population lives in two different places. The domestic servants who are employed by the town's older families typically live behind their employers' houses (as was the case with Faulkner's own "mammy," Caroline Barr). Most of the rest of the black population lives in an area west of the Square. This area wears several different names in the Yoknapatawpha fictions: Freedman Town, Negro Hollow, Nigger Hollow. Although this story tells us nothing about "Nigger Row" beyond its name (234) - which was probably not what this location was called by the blacks who lived and worked there in the 1920s, who may have been as offended by the name as we are today - it seems likely that the name belongs to a street that leads to or through this black district, a street that may contain a number of businesses (like "Sonny Barger's store," 234), which may be black-owned, at least in some cases, or patronized mainly by blacks.

Role: 
Site of Event
Status: 
Continuous
Types: 
Negro-owned Business; Negro District

digyok:node/location/13561