Diverne is an enslaved woman shipped from Jamaica to the United States in the 1850s and sold to a Kentucky slave owner during her teenage years. She possesses profound internal strength, initially coping with trauma by numbing her emotions, "killing part of her heart," and imagining herself dead. She later reclaims her life by fiercely loving her resulting child, deciding that he is evidence of her indispensability to a future legacy. Diverne chooses to find joy in her survival rather than defining herself entirely by the terror of her victimization or the constant threat of the whip.

Pomp Atwood is the son born to Diverne following her assault by a Confederate officer. He represents a literal and figurative light for his mother in the bleak conditions of slavery, becoming the "sun" from which she draws sustenance. He survives his harsh beginnings to become an alderman, ensuring the continuation of Diverne's lineage. His existence challenges the racial categorization systems of the era and stands as physical evidence of intertwined histories in the antebellum South.

Henry Ashburne Tyler is a Confederate officer and frequent visitor to the twelve-room plantation house where Diverne is enslaved. He wields absolute physical and social power over the enslaved population, enforced by his whip and his ability to demand compliance. The poem deliberately strips him of narrative agency, leaving him nameless in the verses, to focus entirely on Diverne's survival and perspective. He functions as an arbitrary, violent link in the family's patrimony.

Marilyn Nelson is the poet and narrator who reconstructs her maternal family origins through genealogical research. She travels to Hickman, Kentucky, to gather oral histories and unpublished documents, including her great-uncle's memoir, from her relatives. She utilizes a third-person omniscient persona in her free verse sonnet to assert authority over her historical narrative. She reclaims the stories of ancestors who were historically denied the right to their own voices.

Johnnie Mitchell Nelson works as an elementary educator, frequently serving as the first African American instructor at her assigned schools. She acts as the generational bridge between the historical figure of Pomp Atwood and the poet Marilyn Nelson. She passes down the oral family histories that inspire her daughter's writing, preserving the legacy of survival and resilience that defines their family's origins.

Melvin M. Nelson serves in the Air Force as a navigator and missile control officer. As one of the last Tuskegee Airmen, his military career requires his family to relocate frequently to various military bases across the country during his daughter's childhood. His dedicated service provides the background for his family's highly mobile early life.