Lavinia is one of the main characters of the novel, and half the chapters are from her perspective. She is an orphan from Ireland whose parents died on the journey to America. When she first arrives at the plantation, she has no memory of her past. She is shy, doesn’t speak, and keeps to herself. However, as she regains her memory and grows older, she becomes eager to please those around her. While these things change throughout the course of the novel, she remains the same in that she is constantly yearning for the love and approval of those whom she considers family.

Lavinia is a unique character in that she’s white but was raised by the slaves in the kitchen house. She considers the slaves to be her family, but it’s clear that she can never be one of them because of her skin color. For much of her young life, she is an indentured servant, acting as a slave even though she is not one. Much of Lavinia’s character deals with coming to terms with her identity in relation to what others expect of her. When she moves into the big house as Marshall’s wife, he expects her to treat the slaves as property, but she considers them her family.