The setting of this short story takes place in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. The plot is based on a rumor that a black man in town had attacked a single white woman. The barber of the story, Hackshaw, was trying to convince everyone that the black man, Mayes, is innocent while they all disagree. The group of men end up showing up at Mayes' job to beat him up and throw him in the backseat of their car. After they news spreads around town that Mayes has received punishment from his allegations, there were no black men in the town square that night. The story is written off the theme of racism and lynch mobbing which was an issue at the time. In the area of Mississippi especially, racism at the time was still a great issue post Civil War. If Faulkner had made this story take place anywhere else, like the Northern states for example, it wouldn't had been such a realistic and historically accurate story.
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