Roxy
Roxana is a slave, originally owned by Percy Driscoll and freed upon his death. Roxy is 1⁄16 black, or 15/16 white. With a fair complexion, brown eyes, and straight brown hair, she looks more white than black, which makes sense based on her ancestry. As she was born into slavery, she is still considered a slave and is associated with blacks. She identifies as black, and speaks the dialect of slaves in the antebellum Deep South. She is the mother of Valet de Chambre and acts as nanny to Thomas Driscoll. Due to her son's overwhelming percentage of European ancestry and appearance, she switches him with Driscoll's son when the boys are infants, hoping to guarantee Chambers freedom and an upper-class upbringing.
Tom Driscoll, who becomes Chambers
Thomas à Becket Driscoll is the son of Percy Driscoll. Tom is switched with Roxy's baby Chambers when he is a few months old, and is called "Chambers" from then on. Raised as a slave, Chambers is purchased by his uncle Judge Driscoll after his brother Percy dies. The judge is childless and sad, and wants to prevent the young man Tom Driscoll from selling Chambers downriver. Chambers is portrayed as a decent young man whom Tom forces to fight bullies. He is kind and always respectful towards Tom but receives brutal treatment by his master. He shares diction with other slaves.
Chambers, who becomes Tom Driscoll
Valet de Chambre is Roxy's son. Chambers is 1⁄32 black, and as Roxy's son, was born into slavery. At a young age, he is switched by his mother with Thomas à Becket Driscoll, a white child of similar age born into an aristocratic family in the small town. From then on he is known as "Tom", and is raised as the white heir to a large estate. Tom is spoiled, cruel and wicked. In his early years he has an intense hate for Chambers although the other boy protected Tom and saved his life on numerous occasions. Tom attends Yale University for two years and returns to Dawson's Landing with "Eastern polish" which results in the locals disliking him more.
Tom is portrayed as the embodiment of human folly. His weakness for gambling leads him into debt. After his father's death, he is adopted by his uncle Judge Driscoll, who frequently disinherits him, only to rewrite his will again to include him.
Capello twins Luigi and Angelo Capello, a set of near-identical twins, appear in Dawson's Landing in reply to an ad placed by Aunt Patsy, who is looking for a boarder. They say they want to relax after years of traveling the world. They claim to be the children of an Italian nobleman who was forced to flee Italy with his wife after a revolution. He died soon afterward, followed by his wife. One of the twins is said to have killed a man. One of the twins kicks Tom because he made a joke about him at a town meeting. As a result, Tom's uncle Judge Driscoll challenges Luigi Capello to a duel.
David "Pudd'nhead" Wilson
Wilson is a lawyer who came to Dawson's Landing to practice law, but was unable to succeed at his law practice after alienating the locals. He establishes a comfortable life in the town, working as a bookkeeper and pursuing his hobby of collecting fingerprints. Although the title character, he remains in the background of the novel until the final chapters.
Each chapter begins with clever quotations from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar, a project of Wilson's which endears him to Judge Driscoll but further confirms everyone else's opinion of him as a pudd’nhead.[5]
