StrothersInSAS

This story takes place shortly after the South surrenders, ending both the Civil War and slavery. Not even this last event, however, changes the ways (physical and emotional) that Joby's family continues to serve the Sartoris family. Louvinia, for example, takes Drusilla "in her arms" and consoles her "like she used to hold [Bayard]" when he was a child after Drusilla is mortified by the ladies of Jefferson (65). When Ringo tells Bayard "I done been abolished" (66), he acknowledges the way his status has changed, but his main action in the story is to help the white men of Yoknapatawpha hold an election in which all the newly enfranchised former slaves are kept from voting by John Sartoris' violent actions and threats. The only 'reconstruction' he, Joby and Louvinia participate is rebuilding the Sartoris big house that the Yankees burned down in "Retreat."