Unnamed Sartoris Slaves

Simon Strother, who was born a slave just before the Civil War began, provides the novel's only depiction of the enslaved men and women who "belonged" to the Sartoris family. It occurs when he happily tells Dr. Peabody how the birth of Bayard and Narcissa's son will bring back "de olden times" (391). As his example of those times, he describes "de niggers fum de quawtuhs gethered on de front lawn, wishin' Mistis en de little marster well" when his "Mars' John's" son Bayard was born in 1849 (392). Since Simon wasn't born until ten years later, it's hard to know what he is remembering - but impossible to overlook the romantic nostalgia in which this re-presentation of slavery is soaked.