Unnamed Freedmen

In Requiem for a Nun the people who were formerly enslaved in Jackson and elsewhere are referred to, tangentially, in the 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 this group also includes the students who attend Jackson's three "College[s] for Negroes"; the colleges are mentioned in the text but not the people who attend them (87).