Nancy
Text:
Character Key:
Display Name:
Nancy
Sort Name:
Nancy
Race:
Black
Gender:
Female
Class:
Free Black
Rank:
Major
Vitality:
Alive
Occupation:
Domestic Service
Specific Job:
Laundress
First Mentioned:
Real?:
No
Other Texts:
Biography:
Nancy is a laundress who lives in Negro Hollow and substitutes as a cook for the Compsons when Dilsey is sick. "She was tall, with a high, sad face sunken a little where her teeth were missing" (290). She is pregnant and suspects that the father is Mr Stovall, who kicks her teeth out when she berates him in public for withholding the money he owes her for sex. She is beaten by the jailer as well after she is arrested and tries to hang herself. In her desperation, Nancy believes that the greatest threat to her life is her husband Jesus, from whom she seeks the protection of the Compsons.
Individual or Group:
Individual
Character changes class in this text:
digyok:node/character/2010