The people who were formerly enslaved in Jackson and elsewhere are referred to, tangentially, in the narrative's negative characterization of the Federal officials who administered the post-war attempt at Reconstruction: they are the "freed slaves" whose votes those "carpet-baggers" know how to manipulate (87). Presumably they are also the students who attend Jackson's three new "College[s] for Negroes"; the colleges are mentioned in the text but not the people who attend them (87).
The novel's history of Jackson treats the "Federal provost-marshals" who came to the defeated South charged with protecting the rights of the slaves who were emancipated at the end of the Civil War according to the then-popular pro-Southern accounts of Reconstruction: the elections they preside over are described as corrupted by carpetbaggers (87).
According to the novel's account of the development of Mississippi from wilderness to civilization, "the politicians" follow the "land speculators" (172). The novel's history of the place that became Jackson more specifically notes the role the legislature played in creating a new state capital after the Mississippi territory achieved statehood in 1817, though it also notes, wryly, how at various later moments "the Senate" and "the House" alternately sought to change the location (85-86).
The narrative's history of Jackson includes a mention of "the captain" of a riverboat who puts a "gambler" off his ship (83). Steamboats began traveling on the Mississippi River and its tributaries around 1811.
According to the narrative's history of Jackson, as the territory became more settled, the "steamboat gambler" replaced the keelboatman as "the river hero" (83). Since the gambler is only seen being put off the steamboat and "marooned" on a small island, the term "hero" is presumably freighted with irony (83).
Requiem for a Nun mentions the "Negro slaves" who belonged to the men who settled the territory around what became Jackson (82), but as is also the case with most of the "slaves" in Yoknapatawpha it mentions, these enslaved people are not described in any way.
According to the novel's history of the place that became Jackson, the "Anglo-Saxon pioneer" (81) was followed by wealthier settlers who built the "river towns" like Vicksburg and Natchez, "men with mouths full of law, in broadcloth and flowered waistcoats, who owned Negro slaves and Empire beds" (82). The planter who was the first man to plant cotton in the region - "someone brought a curious seed into the land . . . and now vast fields of white" covered the land (83) - also belongs in this group.
According to the novel's history of the place that became Jackson, "the Anglo-Saxon" pioneer not only fought the Indians he found in the territory; he also fathered children on some of them: "scattering his ebullient seed in a hundred dusky bellies through a thousand miles of wilderness" (81-82). "Dusky bellies" is ambiguous, but almost certainly refers to Indian women. And while miscegenation between black and white in Faulkner's world made one a 'Negro' and socially inferior, it was common for 'white' southerners to boast of a Native American ancestor on the family tree.
According to the novel's history of the place that became Jackson, "the Frenchman" alternated with "the Spaniard" for possession and control of the area (81). Historically, this land was claimed and ruled over by France several different times during the 18th century.
According to the novel's history of the place that became Jackson, not long after the Mississippi River was explored to its mouth, "a thousand Spaniards come overland from the Atlantic Ocean"; over the next period "the Spaniard" alternates with "the Frenchman" as the main inhabitant of the place (81). Historically, this land was claimed and ruled over by Spain several different times between the 1540s and the later 18th century.
