Keywords

Used to flag the passages in which a narrator or a non-enslaved character uses "slavery" metaphorically, to describe something else. Lucas Burch, for instance, complains that his job at the planing mill has him "slaving all day." SR

Used to mark the passages where the representation of a slave or group of slaves draws on the representational conventions of blackface minstrelsy, where slaves were depicted as comically inferior to whites. The scene in "Retreat" where Ringo "hollers and moans and hollers again" for "Marse John" and "Bayard and Colonel and Marse John and Granny" is an instance of this. SR

When black characters, especially ones who had been enslaved, seem nostalgic for the institution of slavery. Simon in Flags in the Dust is probably the most obvious instance of this. SR

For textual moments in which an enslaved person or group acts upon the desire to be free, as when Loosh or unnamed groups of slaves take advantage of the proximity of the Union Army to leave the Sartoris, Sutpen and other plantations where they were enslaved. Most examples of self-emancipation occur during the Civil War, but it also applies the way Thucydus earns the money to buy himself from the McCaslins. SR

For moments in the text which describe anxiety felt by white characters about the presence or possible actions of slaves, as when Loosh's sudden appearance and behavior make Bayard uncomfortable. SR

There did not seem to be a keyword for one's first time having sex, so I added this. JBP

This admittedly clumsy term is for when a narrative deals with a character being told or otherwise learning about sexual matters. (The specific impetus for its creation is in "Miss Zilphia Gant" when her mother starts strip searching her at age 13 and begins telling her "what her father had done and what she had done.") JBP

For when a text makes reference (perhaps implicitly) to puberty and/or sexual maturing. It was added for the moment in "Miss Zilphia Gant" when her mother makes her get naked and examines her body each month when she turns 13.