Matt Bowden

Matt Bowden is described in both "Vendee" and The Unvanquished in the same words. A criminal accomplice of Grumby whose name is not mentioned until after he himself has departed for Texas, Bowden is described with unusual detail. His clothes - "neat little fine made boots," "linen shirt," and "coat that had been good once, too" (103, 166) - and even his "small" hands and feet (104, 168) suggest an upper class background. When he first appears he is posing as a planter from Tennessee chasing Grumby himself. His actions in the story, however, show him to be at least as ruthless and vicious as Grumby. Though he is white, Bayard calls him "the black man," presumably because of his "ink-colored beard" and "light mat of fine black hair right down to the finger nails" (104, 166).