Minor Characters
Cudjo’s Grandfather
Cudjo’s grandfather and the patriarch of his family. Grandfather works for the tribe’s king, Akia’on.
Cudjo’s Father
Cudjo’s father, a prosperous but not wealthy man with three wives, of whom Cudjo’s mother is the second.
Akia’on
The king of Cudjo’s tribe, who presides over festivals, trials, and executions. While Cudjo has no personal interaction with the chief, he appears frequently in Cudjo’s descriptions of tribal activities.
Prince of Dahomey
A relative of the King of Dahomey, who conducts business negotiations with white slave traders.
Jimmy
One of Cudjo’s sons. Like his younger sister (Cudjo’s daughter, Seely), he dies of a sudden fever as a young man.
David
One of Cudjo’s sons. He is killed in a railroad accident in Plateau. Cudjo is never able to achieve any kind of justice for his son’s death, which demonstrates the callous disregard for black life that pervades American society and from which large companies like railroad corporations benefit.
Burns Meaher
One of the brothers (the others being Jim and Tim) who financed the illegal slave-trading expedition in which Cudjo was forcibly brought to America. Mentioned in Hurston’s introduction, Burns does not appear for the rest of the book.
Captain Bill Foster
The captain of the Clotilda, who carries out the illegal slave-trading expedition fostered by the Meaher brothers (Tim, Jim, and Burns) in which Cudjo and his fellow villagers are forcibly brought to America.
Clarke
An Alabama lawyer who represents Cudjo in his lawsuit against the railroad company after he’s crippled in a train accident. Clarke wins the suit but then absconds with the settlement money.
Ole Charlie
An elderly resident of Africatown, and one of the oldest survivors of the Middle Passage besides Cudjo.