Jim (James)
Jim is the protagonist and narrator of James. Based on the sidekick character of the same name in Mark Twain's 1885 novel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim is a complex and enigmatic character who presents himself as an uneducated, hard-working slave on Miss Watson's plantation. In private, however, Jim is literate and cunning, having learned to read in secret by borrowing Judge Thatcher's books. Likely in his late twenties or early thirties, Jim lives in a shack with his wife, Sadie, and daughter, Lizzie, both of whom are also enslaved as field laborers. He teaches enslaved children how to code-switch around white people and use the uneducated slave dialect expected of them. Jim flees the Mississippi plantation when Sadie learns that Jim is going to be sold to a man in New Orleans. While hiding out, Jim takes responsibility for Huck, who has faked his own death to escape his abusive father, Pap. Jim's ambition is to earn enough money in a free state to buy his wife and daughter from Miss Watson, but he discovers over the course of the novel that his idea of freedom may be illusory. After escaping enslavement several more times and rescuing Huck from drowning, Jim admits to Huck that he and Huck's mother were lovers, making him Huck's biological father. When they return to the plantation, Jim learns his wife and daughter have been sold to a slave breeder. To rescue them, Jim becomes violent and vengeful, killing two white men and abducting Judge Thatcher. The novel ends with Jim commenting on his arrival with Sadie and Lizzie in the free state of Iowa. However, his fate is uncertain when the local sheriff, who has heard of Jim's crimes, asks if he is Jim. It is at this moment that Jim adopts the first name James.Huck
Huck, short for Huckleberry Finn, is the primary antagonist in James. While Twain's original novel centered on Huck's point of view, Huck becomes a supporting character in James. Early in the book, Huck takes an interest in speaking with Jim even though their racist society dictates that Jim is beneath him. Huck increasingly views Jim as a moral authority when he goes on the run to escape the abuse of his alcoholic father, Pap. In their conversations, Huck questions the institution of slavery, eschewing the prejudices of the white people who raised him. Unbeknownst to Huck, characters such as Easter ask Jim about Huck's ethnicity, perceiving that he may not be fully white. Upon his reunion with Jim after being essentially kidnapped by the King and the Duke, Huck learns that he is in fact Jim's son, and therefore partially black. Jim is embarrassed by Huck's attempts at speaking the affected slave dialect Jim uses around white people, and he insists that Huck use the privilege of being white-passing to continue his life as it is. While Huck wants to stay with his father, Jim ultimately leaves Huck behind at the plantation while he rescues his wife and daughter and pushes north to freedom.
Miss Watson
Miss Watson is a white plantation owner in Mississippi. She owns Jim, and a small community of other slaves who she keeps living in a state of deprivation. In Twain's original novel, Miss Watson is the sister of Huck's adopted mother, the Widow Douglas, but in James she is shown to act as Huck's guardian because the Widow Douglas does not enter the story. Miss Watson plans to sell Jim to a man in New Orleans, prompting Jim to flee the plantation to avoid being separated from his family. Upon Jim's return, he learns that Miss Watson sold his wife and daughter to a slave breeder. In the original novel, Miss Watson dies, freeing Jim in her will. However, this plot development is absent from James.
Sadie
Sadie is Jim's wife and the mother of Lizzie. Also enslaved by Miss Watson, Sadie is a field laborer who lives in a shanty with her husband and daughter. When Sadie overhears that Jim is going to be sold, she informs her husband, who immediately flees with the promise that he will return to free Sadie and Lizzie. Throughout the novel, Jim is motivated by the desire to fulfill this promise. However, upon his return, he learns that Sadie has been sold to a slave breeder in Missouri. Sadie does not return to the narrative until the end, when Jim rescues her and Lizzie from the slave breeder. Alongside her husband and daughter, Sadie flees to Iowa.
Lizzie (Elizabeth)
Lizzie is Jim and Sadie's daughter. Enslaved on Miss Watson's plantation, Lizzie learns from her father how to conceal her intelligence and eloquence by speaking in an affected slave dialect whenever white people can hear her. As he perseveres through difficulties while on the run, Jim often pictures his daughter to motivate himself to keep going. Lizzie's face appears to him when he encounters Sammy, a young female slave whose master rapes her almost daily, and Katie, another slave who is raped regularly. Jim hopes he can save Lizzie from the familiar, horrifying fate of being an enslaved woman. At the novel's climax, he rescues Lizzie and her mother from a slave breeder in Missouri, where they have been for two weeks. It is unclear whether Graham has already forced Lizzie and Sadie to "breed" with the male slaves.
Judge Thatcher
Judge Thatcher is a court judge in Hannibal, Mississippi. With both of Huck's parents absent, Judge Thatcher and the Widow Douglas share responsibility for Huck. Judge Thatcher also helps Miss Watson manage her slaves and the plantation. Jim learns to read by sneaking into Judge Thatcher's home and reading the books on his shelves. When Jim hears Sadie and Lizzie have been sold, he assumes Judge Thatcher brokered the deal and has the bill of sale. He invades Thatcher's home and wakes up the judge, whom he holds at gunpoint. Thatcher is disturbed by Jim's ability to speak eloquently and by the fact Jim does not fear the consequences of pointing a gun at a white man. At gunpoint, Jim makes Thatcher row up the river all night until they reach Missouri, at which point Jim ties Thatcher to a sycamore rather than shooting him, as Jim is still not quite sure how to operate the pistol.
The King and the Duke
The King and the Duke are conmen Jim and Huck encounter while traveling down the Mississippi. The men dupe Huck into believing their stories about being European royalty whose noble blood goes unrecognized in America, but Jim understands they are liars and merely goes along with the lie so as not to provoke their suspicion about a slave traveling on a raft with a white boy. The conmen soon start treating Jim as though he is their slave and devise a plan to sell him. However, they whip another man's slave and leave Jim to do work in his place. The conmen take Huck with them. Eventually, Huck and Jim are reunited, and Jim learns the conmen likely died in the riverboat explosion that he and Huck survive.
Daniel Decateur Emmett
Daniel Decateur Emmett is the leader of the Virginia Minstrels, a group of white men who travel from town to town to perform racist songs while wearing blackface. For $200, Emmett buys Jim from the stable owner who the conmen left Jim with, having heard Jim's tenor singing voice. Jim is shocked by the kind treatment he experiences among the minstrels, and almost believes Emmett when he says that he disagrees with slavery and considers the money he spent on Jim to have been him "hiring" him to perform with them. However, Emmett's lyrics, which exploit or invent racist stereotypes about black people, unnerve Jim, and Jim also worries about Emmett's lack of concern about getting Jim to pose as white in racist communities. Jim escapes the group having stolen Emmett's notebook, which Jim uses to write his own story. Emmett's resentful exclamations confirm that he is a racist after all.
Norman
Norman is a white-passing former slave who performs in the Virginia Minstrels. Upon joining the group, Jim discovers that one of the members, Norman, knows Jim can speak properly. Norman's intimate knowledge of what it means to be a slave confuses Jim, as he can't quite believe that the white-looking man before him used to be a slave himself. Norman, like Jim, escaped slavery with the intention of freeing his wife. However, the exhaustion of passing for white gets to Norman, and he flees the minstrels at the same time as Jim to go on the run with him. Norman poses as Jim's owner so they can sell him (until he escapes again), earning enough for them both to purchase their wives. Norman dies of drowning after the riverboat explosion because Jim, torn between saving Norman and Huck, chooses to rescue his son.
Overseer Hopkins
Hopkins is the slave overseer on Miss Watson's plantation. While hiding in his former home, Jim witnesses Hopkins rape Katie, a female slave. Fantasies of revenge fill Jim's mind until Hopkins happens to be alone and drunk on the beach at Jackson Island, where Jim is hiding out. Jim takes the opportunity to steal Hopkins' pistol and strangle him while asking him to picture all the women he has raped. Jim then disposes of Hopkins' body by putting him in his boat, knocking a hole in the hull, and pushing Hopkins into the river.
