salsify a purple-flowered plant of the composite family, with long, white, edible, fleshy roots having an oysterlike flavor.
sassafras a small eastern North American tree of the laurel family, having an aromatic bark, leaves with usually two or three fingerlike lobes, and small, bluish fruits.
Sea Islands islands sheltering black communities that cling to African language, customs, and worship.
Sethe took a little spit from the tip of her tongue . . . lightly she touched the stove a method of testing temperature in a woodstove. A skillful cook can detect by the sizzle of saliva when a stove is hot enough for baking.
setting?up night?long watch over a corpse.
Settlement Fee Pro?Union Southerners pressed claims for damages after their property, supplies, and animals were confiscated by an army quartermaster or commissary or were destroyed during foraging, pillage, or hostile action, such as artillery shelling or arson. On March 3, 1871, Congress began a process of reimbursement for the loyalists' losses. The legislation was extended on May 11, 1872 to cover similar losses caused by U.S. naval action.
skin voting only white people had the right to vote.
slats The Cincinnati sidewalk is made of wooden planks.
slop jars indoor containers that take the place of toilets, especially for night use or for people too ill or infirm to walk outside to an outhouse.
Society the Society of Friends or Quakers, prime movers in the abolitionist movement.
Sojourner's high?wheeled buggy Sojourner Truth was the alias of Isabella Baumfree (1797–1883), a slave and abolitionist born in Hurley, New York, who was freed when the state emancipated its slaves in 1827. Impelled by religious fervor, Isabel took the new name to announce her mission. She personally led many runaways to freedom and, despite her illiteracy, addressed rallies and women's rights conventions.
spiderwebs used as a primitive type of coagulant, or clotting agent.
Spirit willing; flesh weak As described in Matthew 26: 40–41, Christ, in his agony in Gethsemane, the night when he is betrayed, chastises Peter because the disciples have fallen asleep.
strawberry shrug a version of "shrub," a dessert made from fruit pulp, sweetening, and crushed ice.
stud his boys use male slaves as breeders.
sugar teat an early kind of pacifier; a small square of cloth filled with a mixture of brown sugar and butter, tied off, and given to babies to suck on.
sunshots sunlight reflected by water.
sweet thorny place was made up of paper scraps containing the handwritten names of others the symbolic nest at Lady Jones's house where Denver enters the sisterhood of other black women, who are providing ample food and bits of paper containing their identities so that Denver can return food containers to their owners.
taking a bit of foreskin with him to Jesus biting the guard's penis during fellatio before being shot.
talked through that chain like Sam Morse communicated through the chain by wordless jerks similar to Morse code.
talking sheets members of the Ku Klux Klan, who hide their identity beneath white sheets.
the bit the part of a bridle that goes into a horse's mouth, used to control the horse; in this context, it is used by plantation overseers to bridle a slave's tongue.
the dragon a Klan symbol.
the river that slid down from the Blue Ridge Mountains the Oconee River.
the singing would have begun at once If Sethe had been less proud, her neighbors would have begun the soothing songs they instinctively began to mourn the dead. Instead, they hum but intone no words of blessing or comfort.
things older, but not stronger, than He Himself was that is, evil.
to curse His daddy say "Goddamn."
to let my water to urinate.
trace a beaten path or trail left by the repeated passage of persons, vehicles, etc.
underground agent the guide who waited in the cornfield to lead slaves to freedom.
