William Faulkner (1857 – 1962) was a writer who came to be identified with the Literature of the South, since much of his work is set in his home state of Mississippi. After the Civil War the era of Reconstruction began in the South, but Faulkner in “Barn Burning” demonstrates his opinion that Reconstruction was a failure and that the South became mired in economic poverty. Reconstruction in the South began very well, but the white political hegemony in the southern states effectively disbanded the growing black middle class and substituted share-cropping for slavery.
In order to replace the plantation system that ...
