The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

This displaced aristocrat, "a Chevalier of France" who was "born too late" to be one of Napoleon's marshals, calls his "fosterbrother" Ikkemotubbe "Du Homme" - from which comes the chief's new name, "Doom" (325). The "Appendix" does not explain his relationship with Ikkemotubbe; that story that is more fully described "Red Leaves" and Go Down, Moses. "Chevaliers" held a minor aristocratic rank in pre-Revolutionary France, and bring to the "Appendix" a precedent of aristocracy laced with decadence.

Napoleon's driving ambition, as Emperor of France, was to expand France's domain in Europe. The allusion to him here, at the beginning of the "Appendix," serves as a template for several of the characters Faulkner will create: dictatorial leaders driven to expand their holdings at all costs.

"Napoleon's marshals," otherwise known as the Marshals of the Empire, are characterized here as a "glittering galaxy of knightly blackguards" (325). Napoleon reinstated the rank of marshal, the highest military rank in France, in 1804, and appointed 26 marshals, 18 of them in one month. These men were notable for reflecting his own preferences, rather than for having reached a given level of accomplishment. Nearly all lived luxurious lifestyles, at least in part due to their newly elevated status.

The Indian agent in "Appendix" also runs a successful "tradingpost store" (325). Indian agents represented the U.S. government in its interactions with indigenous people. Since a primary job of the agent is to ensure that land sales concerning Native Americans are recorded and licensed, Jason Compson I's receipt of a square mile of land from Ikkemotubbe is likely made all the easier by his becoming first clerk for and then partner with the Chickasaw Agent in Jefferson (328).

Having separated from her first husband, Rachel Donelson met and married Andrew Jackson, who would go on to be the President of the United States. Her divorce from her first husband, however, was not finalized before she married Jackson, and thus Donelson and Jackson were forced to marry a second time. The murky circumstances surrounding their marriage became fodder for political attacks against Jackson.

After achieving fame as a military leader in wars with Britain and the American Indians, Andrew Jackson was President of the United States between 1829 and 1837. His 1830 Indian Removal Act relegated Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi River; their 'removal' claimed thousands of lives. Here, Jackson's portrait is framed by this policy; he is the "Great White Father with a sword" (326). His rough frontier persona is emphasized, rather than the high office he achieved: "An old duellist, a brawling lean fierce mangy durable imperishable old lion" (326).

The "dispossessed" king for whom the grandfather of the first Compson in Yoknapatawpha fought (325) is Charles Edward Stuart, who spent most of his life in exile but claimed to be the rightful king of Britain as part of the Jacobite line of Catholic monarchs. His hope of claiming the throne ended in 1746, when the Jacobites were defeated in a final battle in Scotland. Charles himself is perhaps best remembered for a romantic escape through the Scottish countryside after that loss.

The "English king" against whom Quentin MacLachan Compson fought (326) was George II, notable here for having put an end to the Jacobite rebellions regarding succession to the British crown. Compson's homeland in Scotland, Culloden Moor, was the site of the last major Jacobite uprising. There, George II's son defeated the Jacobites, many of whom were executed, or (like the first American Compson) fled the country.

The "Boon or Boone" mentioned twice in the "Appendix" is most famous for exploring and settling what was then part of Virginia, and what is now Kentucky, creating a route through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains that many settlers would later follow. The settlement referred to in the text is probably Boonesborough, one of the first settlements west of the Appalachians.

Tarleton was known in England as an outstanding military leader during the Revolutionary War, which he joined at the age of 21. In America, however, Tarleton had a reputation for savagery on the field; he and his men participated in the capture of Charleston, and later became infamous for what Americans called the "Waxhaws Massacre" in South Carolina in 1780.