Negro Hollow|Freedman Town in Light in August (Location)

This cabin icon represents what the narrative calls Jefferson's "negro section, Freedman Town" (114). It appears first in the novel when Joe Christmas walks through it at night. Its unpaved, often rutted roads and lanes are lit by streetlights that "seem to be further spaced" than in other sections of Jefferson, emphasizing rather than dispelling the darkness (114). Small cabins, felt rather than seen by Joe as "cabinshapes," are built into the neighborhood's hollows and hills; they are lighted by kerosene rather than electricity. While there, Christmas senses "invisible negroes" that "enclose" him, suggesting that the neighborhood is densely populated and noisy with human activity (114). A deep ravine runs through the middle of it, which the narrative refers to as the "abyss itself" (116). At the end of Joe's narrative he returns briefly to this place after escaping from the deputy sheriff; he runs through the "deep ditch which was a town landmark" (460) before fleeing into Hightower's house.