Unnamed "Half-Breed" Servants 2

Character Key Number: 
2382
Display Name: 
Unnamed "Half-Breed" Servants 2
Sort Name: 
Unnamed "Half-Breed" Servants 2
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
No
Biography: 

This is the second of the two sets of "half-breed servants" on the Haitian plantation in Absalom! (199). "Half-breed" is an unusual term in this context: in white-authored American literature the term 'half-breed' is more often applied to people with one Indian and one European parent; presumably here it means a mixed white and black ancestry - whom Faulkner usually refers to as 'mulatto.' And the novel's references to "half-breeds"are contradictory: it says "all the servants, the half breeds, were missing" on the eve of the rebellion (203), and also that two "frightened half-breed servants" remained to assist in the defense of the plantation house (199). This entry represents the servants who go missing, including "one of the half breeds" who is found dead two days afterwards (203).