The depiction of slavery in William Faulkner's novel "Absalom, Absalom!"

Resumen o Introducción

William Faulkner’s novel "Absalom, Absalom!" was first published in 1936 and deals with the problems of the family Sutpen before, during and after the American Civil War. Thus, slavery plays an important role in this novel because the Sutpens own a huge plantation in Virginia and hence have slaves to do the work. The attitude towards slavery within the novel is very bad. The people do not like slaves or coloured people in general and this becomes obvious through several narrators.

The Civil War and especially slavery is an important theme in American history. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and around 1.1 million people lost their lives in it. The war took place because of the prohibition of slavery in the north of America although it was still allowed in the south where slaves were used for the work on plantations or in the household.

Therefore, the prohibition of slavery was a huge contentious issue. Abraham Lincoln was the president of the Union army and thus from the North and Jefferson Davis was the president from the Confederate army from the South. South Carolina was the first state that announced its separation from the United States of America and six other southern states joined them. The bloodiest battle was in Gattysburg in July 1863 where around 51 000 soldiers were killed. This battle was at the same time the turning point in the Civil War because the Union won. After the war it was decided that everyone has a right to vote not depending on colour, religion or any other circumstances what was then the reason why the Ku-Klux-Klan was formed on Christmas Eve 1865.