Character Analysis
Old Carothers is the legendary paterfamilias who first moves to Yoknapatawpha County and acquires a large tract of land from the Chickasaw Indians, which he turns into a plantation. He also acquires slaves to work the land. In the novel, he's only seen indirectly, mostly though stories handed down and the plantation ledgers he kept.
He has three legitimate children: Amodeus, Theophilus and an unnamed daughter who becomes the grandmother of McCaslin "Cass" Edmonds. Old Carothers also has two illegitimate children: a daughter, Tomey, from his slave lover Eunice, and a son/grandson Terrel (Turl) from Tomey. So, to put it bluntly, he commits incest. His daughter Tomey dies in childbirth. Tomy and Turl probably aren't the only children he fathers with his slaves.
Carothers never acknowledges Tomey or Turl in his lifetime, but instructs his legitimate children to give their half-sibling Turl a legacy of $1000 when he turns twenty-one and asks for it. Turl, however, never asks for it. Carothers's grandson Isaac ends up giving $1000 each to two of Turl's three children.
Old Carothers is presented in Go Down, Moses as the typical evil slave owner ancestor whose sins haunts the younger generation, never to be atoned. Isaac believes that Carothers's blood destroys everything it touches. Bad Grandpa.