Submitted by crieger@semo.edu on Fri, 2016-01-08 15:51
Doom and the Chocktaws own a sizable number of black slaves. Four of them are briefly traded - along with the six slaves he has recently won on the steamboat from New Orleans - to two unnamed white men for the grounded riverboat which Doom then has moved by slaves to his plantation.
The spot in "the woods" (364) where the young men of the tribe take Log-in-the-Creek to get him drunk is as far from Herman Basket's gallery as they are willing to carry him and his harmonica. This might also be the spot in "the woods" (370) where Ikkemotubbe and David Hogganbeck have their drinking contest; in any case we are using the location for that event too.
Submitted by crieger@semo.edu on Fri, 2016-01-08 15:41
Herman Basket is a friend and associate of Doom and "pappy" (the biological father of Sam Fathers). He is Sam's primary source of information for the story about how his parents met. Basket and "pappy" have apparently known Doom since they were children "sleeping on the same pallet and talking at night, as boys will" (345).
The narrator calls the dwelling places of the Chickasaws "houses," but does not describe any of them clearly enough to establish what that might mean in the context, i.e. a tribe of Indians in the early 19th century American wilderness. The Indians of Mississippi were among the groups referred to, before they were "removed" westward, as the "Five Civilized Tribes," because of the extent to which they adopted elements of the culture of the European settlers.
This "landing" is the spot on the river where the steamboat ties up during its annual visit to the Chickasaws. David Hogganbeck made a "mark" at the spot - perhaps a stake driven into the bank - to let the tribe know when water is high enough to be navigable (365).
The narrator calls the place where Issetibbeha's tribe of Chickasaws lives "the Plantation" (361), though that term may be misleading. In Faulkner's other Indian stories - "Red Leaves" and "A Justice," both set chronologically after "A Courtship" - this location has quarters for the tribe's slaves and cleared fields, and so does resemble Yoknapatawpha's white-owned plantations.
