Unnamed Potential Negro Voters

Submitted by sfr on Sat, 2015-03-28 11:00
Text: 
"Skirmish at Sartoris"
Character Key: 
Unnamed Negro Voters 1
Display Name: 
Unnamed Potential Negro Voters
Sort Name: 
Unnamed Potential Negro Voters
Race: 
Black
Gender: 
Male
Class: 
Free Black
Rank: 
Minor
Vitality: 
Alive
First Mentioned: 
Jefferson Cotton Gin in "Skirmish at Sartoris" (Location)
Other Texts: 
Flags in the Dust
The Unvanquished
Biography: 

Bayard calls the former slaves who gather to vote for Cassius Q. Benbow "nigger voters" (69). The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified February 3, 1870, guaranteed adult males the right to vote regardless of "race, color or previous condition of servitude," but the story is about using violence and intimidation to deny that right to blacks in Yoknapatawpha. Bayard depicts this as a victory; he also describes these black men who never get to vote as a "herd of niggers" who are being "herded" by "northern white men" (71) trying to "organize" the black population into "Republicans" (66).

Individual or Group: 
Group
Character changes class in this text: 

digyok:node/character/7330