The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

Among the treasures that Granny is determined to keep from falling into Yankee hands is "the medallion of Father's mother back in Carolina" (670). "Father" is John Sartoris, who was born and raised in one of the Carolinas; a "medallion" is a miniature sculpture cast in metal (typically bronze, but often silver or even gold) of a dead person's face.

Describing his family history, Philip Backhouse refers to the group that prevented his uncle from being elected Governor of Tennessee as "a corrupt and traitorous cabal of tavern-keepers and Republican Abolitionists" (682). Although Tennessee did secede from the Union and join the Confederacy (the last state to do so), it was deeply divided between secessionists and Unionists. The latter group probably did contain some "tavern-keepers" and certainly included "Republican Abolitionists," but the harshness of Philip's description is due to his own allegiance to the secessionist cause.

As the progress of the Civil War brings the Union Army closer to Yoknapatawpha, Lucius begins meeting with "Negroes from other plantations," presumably to talk about the possibility of emancipating themselves (669).

Philadelphia is a house servant - i.e. one of the slaves who work inside the Sartoris mansion, rather than in the cotton fields. In this story she attends to Melisandre as both a maid and a kind of nursemaid. She is married to Lucius, who is impatient to be free, which is why Granny sarcastically refers to her as "the wives of all the free men" (669).

Louvinia, a house slave before and during the Civil War, serves as the cook for the Sartoris family. She and her husband Joby are the head of the family of slaves who have served the Sartorises for several generations.

Lucius is what would be called a house slave rather than a field slave; i.e. like his wife Philadelphia, his work brings him into regular contact with the Sartorises. While the other slaves in the story seem entirely loyal to the white family they serve, "something," as Bayard puts it, "had happened to Lucius" when the Civil War began (669). That "something" is the possibility of emancipation: he is reported as saying that he plans "to be long gone" as soon as the Yankee army arrives in Yoknapatawpha (669).

Joby and his wife Louvinia are the head of the family of slaves who have served the Sartorises for several generations and who (with the exception of Loosh) remain on the plantation after the other slaves leave. He is Loosh's father-in-law and Ringo's grandfather.

Ringo is both a house slave and a close companion of Bayard, the slave-owner's son. They sleep together in what Bayard refers to as "our room" (687), though Bayard notes that Ringo sleeps beside the bed, on a "pallet" on the floor (688). The complex relationship between these two boys is a major element in the Unvanquished stories (1934-1938).

Bayard describes Nathan Bedford Forrest as "a big, dusty man with a beard so black it looked almost blue and eyes like a sleepy owl" (691). He notes how inelegant Forrest's diction is - "He said 'fit' for fought," for example - but adds that "when you fought battles like he did, even Granny didn't mind how you talked" (692). In the Civil War Forrest was one of the Confederacy's most successful cavalry commanders, who led much of the fighting in the War's western theater (including Mississippi and Tennessee).

This icon represents the "cavalry troop" that Colonel Sartoris organizes in Yoknapatawpha, after resigning from the "regiment" that he led at the start of the Civil War (667). Bayard describes how they trained for combat in the pasture at the Sartoris plantation, and mentions that they at the time of the Yankee raid, they are "supposed to be up in Tennessee with General Bragg" (674).