Character Analysis
Rider is an African American man who lives on Roth Edmonds's land and works at the sawmill nearby. He can't remember his own parents, and has been raised by his aunt and uncle. In his previous life, he might have been a womanizer and drinker, but when he meets Mannie, he changes his ways. When they get married, he lights a fire in their hearth just like Lucas Beauchamp did. He's a reliable, hard worker and good provider for Mannie. They have a good six months of married life together before she dies, with him going to work and her taking care of the house.
After her death, Rider is disconsolate. He goes home after her funeral and sees her ghost. Unable to stay at home, he goes to work and works furiously. When that doesn't help with the pain, he drinks.
He drinks to the point of realizing nothing matters anymore, and ends up killing Birdsong, the corrupt white foreman from work who has been running a rigged dice game and cheating all of the sawmill workers out of their wages. Rider gets arrested but breaks out of jail. Birdsong's acquaintances find and lynch him.
Everything about Rider's life seems just plain unfair. He's just a decent man destroyed by a corrupt society. We're to assume that there are many black men like him in Yoknapatawpha County.