Cinthy

Before the Civil War Cinthy (like her husband Pomp) was a slave who belonged to the elder Gail Hightower. She cooked for him, and "raised [his son] from babyhood" (470). After both her husband and her master are killed during the War, she rejects the idea that she is now "free" (477) and moves back to the Hightower home to cook for that son and his family. In the kitchen there she tells the younger Gail Hightower stories about his grandfather, whom she continues to call "Marse Gail" (476); told "with musing and savage sorrow and pride," these tales nurture the child's obsession with a "ghost" (477).