Illinois in Go Down, Moses (Location)

The opening scene of the "Go Down, Moses" section of the novel takes place in a cell in the Illinois state penitentiary in "Joliet" (357). The cell is is described as a "steel crucible," with a "steel cot," a "steel stool," and a "steel door" (351, 352). An armed guard stands outside of it. Later in the story, Gavin Stevens calls the warden of this penitentiary. While there is a famous prison in Joliet, Faulkner was probably thinking of the nearby Stateville Penitentiary, which was the site of executions by electric chair from 1928 onward.