Unnamed Enslaved People

Submitted by ekp23@cornell.edu on Mon, 2018-05-14 11:42
Text: 
"Appendix: Compson"
Character Key: 
Unnamed Enslaved People 3
Display Name: 
Unnamed Enslaved People
Sort Name: 
Unnamed Enslaved People
Race: 
Black
Gender: 
Multi Gender Group
Class: 
Enslaved Black
Rank: 
Minor
Vitality: 
Dead
First Mentioned: 
Compson Place in "Appendix: Compson" (Location)
Home: 
Compson Place in "Appendix: Compson" (Location)
Biography: 

There are two references in the "Appendix" to the slaves who lived in Yoknapatawpha before the Civil War. The term "slaves" appears only in reference to the "shiftless slaves" owned by the descendants of the Chickasaw tribe who remain in the region after the Indian Removal (329). But the Compson family, like the other "masters of plantations" in Yoknapatawpha, owned a number of slaves as well (328). Their existence is indicated by the "slavequarters" listed among the structures on the Compson estate (328), and by Jason IV's reference to Lincoln freeing them "from the Compsons" in 1865 (340).

Note: 
CUT: The narrative characterizes the slaves as "shiftless," an adjective that the slaves seem to have assumed - along with the farm work - from their owners, the masters who are former "shiftless farmers" (328).
Individual or Group: 
Group
Character changes class in this text: 

digyok:node/character/17633