The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

The gate to the Sartoris plantation is near a bend of the "big road" that leads south into Jefferson and north in the direction of Corinth. In this story, honeysuckle grows near the gate, providing Bayard and Ringo some cover as they lay in ambush for the approaching Yankee soldier on horseback. The gate opens into a drive that leads to the main house that seems to parallel (or possibly run through) the plantation’s orchard.

The second slave cabin at the Sartoris plantation is occupied by Loosh and his wife Philadelphy. It is probably not far from the one lived in by Joby and Louvinia (Loosh's father and mother) - unless you measure the distance politically. While Loosh's parents are intensely loyal to the white family that owns them, Loosh wants to be free, which is why Colonel John Sartoris Louvinia to "watch Loosh" (21), and why Bayard and Ringo spend several nights outside this cabin watching Loosh too.

Joby and Louvinia’s cabin is one of at least two cabins in the plantation’s slave quarters. Given Joby’s seniority, his cabin is likely the one closest to the main house, and in a later story, when Union soldiers burn the house, the white Sartorises take temporary residence in Joby’s cabin.

A group of Eastern redcedar trees, an evergreen tree with a fragrant heartwood, provides Bayard and Ringo in The Unvanquished with the place from which they can watch the road for Yankees without fear of being seen. Though this copse of trees may be a natural occurrence, cedars were often planted in cemeteries as well. This copse is described as "cool and shady" (9).

As the Union troops move closer to Yoknapatawpha, Colonel Sartoris builds a pen "deep in the creek bottom" behind his plantation house to hide his mules and other livestock (11). A "bottom" in the local dialect refers to the land along the sides of a creek, which is usually dense with underbrush and can be swampy.