Louis Hughes
Louis Hughes is described as "slight of build and standing just five and a half feet tall, he was hardly an imposing figure." The imagery of Louis Hughes provides the reader with the reason why he was chosen to be a house slave rather than a field slave like most young men.
Cornelia McDonald's Prairie Memories
Part of Cornelia McDonald's childhood was spent living on a prairie, and she remembered, “Riding out onto the prairie and galloping through head-high grass with her black maidservant mounted behind her, and of watching wide-eyed as thousands of Potawatomi Indians passed on the road.” This imagery is used in the book to present Cornelia's upbringing which affects her decisions and actions throughout her life.
John Collier Robertson's Home in the Greene Country
The area surrounding John Collier Robertson's childhood farmhouse is said to be "in the shadow of the high mountains that divide Tennessee, there were hardly any big planters and not many slaves. Small and middle-size yeoman farms dominated the region’s landscape.” This imagery is used in the book to display why the area sympathized more with the Union than the Confederacy. Small and middle-sized farmers did not need slaves to be successful, and cotton was not a key crop in the mountainous area which led to the area living a very different life than the rest of the south.
The Tombigbee River Before Destruction in South
Before destruction occurred in the south, the Tombigbee River in Alabama was said to be "high and busy with steamboats. They chugged up and down the river between Demopolis and Mobile, stopping at landings here and there to load or unload. Bales of cotton and piles of Osnaburg sacks crowded the decks of many of the boats.” This imagery of the Tombigbee River displays the destruction that the Civil War had caused in the South economically.
Agnew Plantation After Battle
The final stage of the battle of Brice's Crossroads was fought on the Agnew Plantation. When the Agnew family came out of hiding after the battle had ended, they found "the plantation sacked, its buildings riddled with bullet holes, its fields strewn with the corpses of Northern and Southern soldiers. Wounded men lay in and around the Agnew house, many screaming in pain. The dead were buried quickly and the wounded removed, but the carcasses of horse and mules took days to dispose of. For a long time, the place stank of death.” The description of the ruin caused by one single battle helps display how the south had been destroyed during the Civil War.
