This is the man in Light in August whom Byron meets on the road coming from Jefferson. Complaining about his "luck" because the "excitement" kept him in town longer than he wanted, he tells Byron that that "'they killed'" Christmas (442).
In Light in August this good-natured man gives Lena Grove a ride from Varner's Store to Jefferson; on the outskirts of the town, they see the smoke from Joanna Burden's burning house.
The Negro slaves owned by the Indian tribe in "Red Leaves" are described almost exclusively as a group: "a single octopus. They were like the roots of huge tree uncovered, the earth momentarily upon . . . its lightless and outraged life" (315). They adhere to their African customs, and keep ceremonial artifacts in the central cabin. The narrative characterizes them chiefly by their "fear" and "smell" (315), and the various rituals, including drumming and dancing, they practice.
These are the six slaves won by Doom in "A Justice" during the steamboat trip back from New Orleans. Two of them, a wife and a husband, play major roles in the story and have their own character entries.
In Sanctuary Ruby mentions the various black maids to whom she used to give nightdresses "after one night" wearing them in her work as a prostitute (75).
In The Hamlet the fancy buggy that was once used to court Eula Varner ends up as the property of "a negro farm-hand" who eventually marries and "gets a family" (165).
In Light in August a second "word-of-mouth messenger" brings news of Nathaniel Burden from Old Mexico to the Burdens living somewhere west of St. Louis in 1863. The messenger himself is "going east to Indianny for a spell" (245), so presumably that is where he is from.
