The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Aminata is a “free-born Muslim” from the village of Bayo, on the “Grain Coast of West Africa” (4). She has “rich, dark skin,” almost “blue-black,” and “eyes that are hard to read” (4). In her youth, she was very beautiful. At the close of the novel, she is an old woman, though she does still have all but one of her own teeth. She has two “lovely crescent moons sculpted into” her cheeks, signs of her Islamic faith; she also has a slave brand, the letters “G” and “O” which are burned into her breast (5). At age eleven, she was tall for her age but she stopped growing after she was enslaved. All her life, she has longed for her children, who were taken from her. She is a fast learner, intelligent, and resolute. She is also a survivor.

Clarkson is likely in his twenties when we first meet him. He is “earnest,” with “a boy’s face,” “small nose,” and “pursed lips” (355). He is a Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy and goes to Birchtown in Nova Scotia to recruit free blacks and help start a colony in Africa.