Unnamed Negro Messenger 3

This is the young black man in "Barn Burning" whom Abner Snopes sends to Mr. Harris to tell him that "wood and hay kin burn" (4) - Ab's barely disguised way of threatening to burn Harris' barn. This messenger never appears directly. In his testimony against Ab, Harris calls him a "strange nigger" (4), a term that in the context of the story and the South at that time means he is a black person whom Harris has never seen before.