Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin

Although Lucius calls this man "old Carothers McCaslin" the first time he mentions him (21), he is the ancestor for whom Lucius himself is named. "Lucius Quintus Carothers" McCaslin (31) was one of Yoknapatawpha's earliest and wealthiest white settlers, and the patriarch of the family that the narrative refers to as "the McCaslins and Edmondses" (17) and with the phrase "McCaslin-Edmonds-Priest" (23). Note that those phrases omit the Beauchamp part of the family line. Lucius' narrative does mention "our family skeleton" and "legend": the fact that "old Carothers" fathered a child on one of his "Negro slaves" This is a major social and moral issue in Go Down, Moses (31), where his mixed race descendants are all named Beauchamp. In the earlier novel McCaslin has sex with his own (enslaved and biracial) daughter, but there is no hint of incest in the closet where the family skeleton resides in The Reivers. It mentions several Beauchamps, but here it is a newly created character named "Ned William McCaslin" (126) who is identified as the "actual [though illegitimate and black] grandson" of this founding father (32). Lucius Priest himself is old Carothers' great-great-great grandson.