Colonel John Sartoris

John Sartoris is still called "Marse John" by Elnora, decades after slavery was abolished and he himself was killed (732-33). Miss Jenny's brother, he was the first Sartoris to move to Mississippi, where he built the plantation on which the story takes place. He is also Elnora's (unacknowledged) father, which means that he is the ancestor, either by blood or by marriage, of all the major characters in the story. In the Yoknapatawpha fictions as a group he is depicted as one of the founders of Yoknapatawpha County, and a legendary figure in its history.