a blackboy's mouth full of money a derogatory knickknack that depicts a black youth on his knees, his mouth spread as wide as a cup to hold loose change.
a hairy white thing Ella's deformed child fathered by her white owner.
Alfred possibly Alpharetta, a small Georgia community north of Atlanta.
AMEs and Baptists, Holinesses and Sanctifieds black religious denominations. AMEs refers to the African Methodist Episcopal church, founded in New York City in 1801 by Richard Allen.
anointed put oil on in a ceremony of consecration.
barnacles smallpox.
battlefields of Alabama The Union army captured the Tennessee Valley in 1862; Montgomery fell to Union troops in 1865.
bay or eat my own mess go mad and howl or eat excrement.
been experimented on by Dartmouth refers to the use of blacks and Indians as test animals. These unsuspecting people were infected with syphilis so that health officials could study the progress of the disease.
Bishop Allen Richard Allen, founder of the AME church.
bloody side of the Ohio River Kentucky. The Ohio River separated Kentucky, a slave state, and Ohio, a free state.
brine in the barrel a primitive method of preserving fish, meat, and vegetables. The salt draws out the natural juices and replaces them with brine, or water full of salt, which impedes spoilage.
bristle any short, stiff, prickly hair of an animal or plant.
Brother a favorite tree at Sweet Home.
buckeyes the seeds of any of various trees of the horse-chestnut family.
buffalo men men with wiry hair; Negroes.
butter wouldn't come the cream failed to clot into butter.
calves of his youth Paul D, in the absence of available females, found sexual release in intercourse with calves.
camphor a volatile, crystalline ketone with a strong characteristic odor, derived from the wood of the camphor tree or synthetically from pinene: used in medicine as an irritant and stimulant.
carmine red or purplish-red; crimson.
chamomile sap juice from any plant of two genera of the composite family, with strong-smelling foliage; esp., a plant whose dried, daisylike flower heads are used as a medicine and in making tea.
chippy a prostitute.
chokecherry a North American wild cherry tree yielding an astringent fruit.
clabber thickly curdled sour milk.
cloth . . . cake of wax a method of sealing jelly to prevent mold and keep out insects.
coffle a group of animals or slaves fastened together in a line, or driven along together.
cold house a springhouse or storage shed for dairy items, meats, and other items which would spoil in a hot kitchen.
Colored Ladies of Delaware, Ohio a women's organization dedicated to social and civic activities, such as petitioning the courts to free Sethe from a death sentence.
comfrey any of a genus of European plants of the borage family, with rough, hairy leaves and small blue, purplish, or yellow flowers, sometimes used for forage or ornament.
cracklights glimmers of sun through the cracks.
croaker sack a burlap bag.
croup a condition resulting from any obstruction of the larynx, esp. an inflammation of the respiratory passages, with labored breathing, hoarse coughing, and laryngeal spasm.
cut and run to flee.
