John Washington
John Washington, a black history professor in Philadelphia has come back home to Chaneysville to confront a number of personal issues following the death of Jack Crawley, an old friend and surrogate father. At the heart of those personal issues is the relationship between the mysterious deaths of his great-grandfather and that of his father which are intertwined forever in a way never fully explained to him.
Moses Washington
John’s father earned his living running bootleg liquor - not by the money made off selling the alcohol, but rather the much more robust payoff earned by discovering information about his rich white clients which was ripe for use as blackmail. Moses earned some fear and anger among the black community as well as so a conspiracy arose to cover up his death as a hunting accident because of the belief that he must have been murdered. In fact, neither explanation is quite true.
Jack Crawley
Peter John Crawley, know as Old Jack or just plain Jack was close enough to Moses that he became a father-figure to young John following his the mysterious “hunting accident.” He is a man of the earth and cagey as well, more than capable of living underground and surviving the hardships when needed. Part of this approach to living comes as a result of living in a time place where the KKK is a powerful force that all blacks must reckon with. It is his the funeral of his passing which instigates the unfolding of the narrative.
C. K. Washington
John’s great-grandfather is technically named Brobdingnag C.K. Washington, but who wouldn’t choose to be instead identified by just the initials, especially when you are in violation of the laws against being a runaway salve. He falls in love with a free black woman named Harriette and in working together to help others escape, she ironically gets sold into slavery herself. Attempts to find her fail and it is another woman who gives birth to John’s grandfather. He and others commit mass suicide rather than return to slavery after being caught and it is as his grave that Moses dies.
Judith Powell
Judith is white, somewhat ethereal, and emotionally committed to John. She is his lover and confidante and uses her skills a psychiatrist to manipulate John into exploring and digging deeper into the increasingly darker emotional morass that is his trip back home and the revelations and secrets waiting to be uncovered. Through this action that might be termed a kind of tough love, she also in the process gets John to understand better what he means to her and what she means to him.
