James Beauchamp's Daughter

Like Nat Beauchamp in Go Down, Moses, Roth's mistress - James Beauchamp’s unnamed granddaughter in the revised version of "Delta Autumn" Faulkner published in Go Down, Moses - has an aunt in Vicksburg with whom she stays. This unnamed aunt is a widow who takes in washing to support her family. For someone like Ike McCaslin, raised in the culture of the Jim Crow South, "taking in washing" is enough to identify this woman, and her very light-skinned niece, as black. (The almost identical 'aunt' in the short story version of "Delta Autumn" is not a member of the McCaslin-Beauchamp-Edmonds family.)