Unnamed People of Yoknapatawpha

Consisting of both blacks and whites, this group comes to Granny's funeral to pay their respects to her and to express their gratitude for the care she took of them during the War. The blacks have returned to Yoknapatawpha after following the Union Army to seek freedom (155). The whites are "hill people" as opposed to townspeople; the "hill men with crockersacks tied over their heads" to shelter them from the rain are contrasted with the "town men with umbrellas" (98). Despite their poverty, or perhaps because of it, Bayard's narrative treats these folk with more sympathy than the better-dressed people from town, and he admires their willingness to give back the mules Granny got for them in order to help him and Ringo in the quest to avenge her death. Bayard notes that from these people "we could have raised a cavalry regiment" for that purpose: "with cotton bagging and flour sacking for uniforms and hoes and axes for arms" (164).