Sam Fathers

Sam Fathers is "an old man, son of a Negro slave and an Indian king" (281). His father is Ikkemotubbe. His enslaved mother is identified earlier as a "quadroon" (158), that is, a slave who has three white grandparents. Yet although in this novel Sam is more Indian and white than he is black, he is nonetheless forced to live as a 'Negro' in Yoknapatawpha, until he leaves such social stratification behind by returning to the wilderness. Though the narrative indicates that his mother was already pregnant when Ikkemotubbe marries her to another slave owned by the tribe, Ikkemotubbe later "sold the man and woman and the child who was his own son to his white neighbor, Carothers McCaslin" (158). Sam’s name in Chickasaw - "Had-Two-Fathers" - reflects this vexed history; after he is sold, he name becomes "Sam Fathers" (158). He works as a carpenter on the McCaslin plantation for many years, until he leaves that work to return to life in the woods. A skilled hunter, Sam is a fixture at Major de Spain’s hunting camp each fall, where he teaches Ike McCaslin not only hunting, but also a regard for the wild and a code of living that distinguishes Ike from the rest of his kinsmen. As Ike tells his cousin Cass, "Sam Fathers set me free" (285).