"High yellow" -- Janie's maternal grandfather (the father of this child described here) was white. "high yellow" (dialect: yaller, yella) used to describe somebody light-skinned with both black and white origin.

Term for Northerners (New Englanders.) Since the Civil War, American Southerners have called American Northerners "Yankees."

"Sherman's March to the Sea" - military campaign conducted through Georgia during Civil War by William Tecumseh Sherman, general of the Union (North) army.