Unnamed Slaves of Sartorises 2

Character Key Number: 
668
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Unnamed Slaves of Sartorises 2
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Unnamed Slaves of Sartorises 2
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

None of The Unvanquished stories ever refer directly to the slaves who worked for the Sartorises in the fields. In "Vendee" as both a short story and a chapter in the novel, Ab Snopes tells Bayard that Rosa Millard's death came as a result of what Ab and Rosa were doing "for [Bayard's] sake and his paw and them niggers" (109, 174). He may be referring exclusively to the Sartoris slaves who are named in the story - Louvinia, Joby and Yance - but it's more likely that he also expects Bayard to include Philadelphia and Loosh in that phrase, and perhaps all the plantation's enslaved population as well. The revised version of "Ambuscade" that appears in the novel refers, obliquely, to these slaves when Bayard mentions the "negroes" who called John Sartoris' room the office (15) - which is where they would face the patroller "and swear that they could not possibly have been either who or where he (the Patroller) said they were" (16).