Jamie Fraser is Claire’s second husband. He was born in 1721 at his family estate in Lallybroch, and goes into hiding after surviving the Battle of Culloden before eventually reuniting with Claire 20 years later. In Drums of Autumn, he is living with Claire in the British North American colonies in their new settlement, called Fraser’s Ridge.

Drums of Autumn focuses on how much Jamie values his and his family’s honor, sometimes to his own detriment. Though his values are not as ahead of their time as Claire’s, Jamie faces several conflicts of conscience throughout the novel. When his aunt Jocasta takes them in and wants to make Jamie her heir, Jamie wrestles with the reality of becoming an enslaver himself if he takes over the estate. Although Jamie is tempted by the thought of what he owes Jocasta, he ultimately turns down her offer and chooses to make his own settlement.

Later in the novel, he faces another dilemma when Brianna reveals her pregnancy and Jamie mistakenly believes that it was Roger who raped her. Jamie shares the sexist prejudices of his time against unwed mothers, and at one point tries to arrange a marriage between Ian and Brianna against Brianna’s will to save what he regards as her “honor.” When he learns that Bonnet was the rapist, he then pressures Brianna into “forgiving” him, offering his forgiveness of Randall as an example. While Brianna and Jamie eventually reconcile, it is clear that the differences in their values and perspectives are a source of tension in their relationship.

Like Claire, Jamie is characterized by his stubborn character and his protection of those he cares about, but also by his strength, convictions, and leadership. When Claire finds Jamie in Edinburgh 20 years later, several things about him have changed drastically, but at his core, he is still the same—a trend that continues in Drums of Autumn.

Brianna “Bree” Randall is the daughter of Claire and Jamie, though she was raised by Claire and Frank and believed Frank to be her father until she learned about Jamie at age 19. Though she takes a more minor role in the earlier novels, Bree’s story comes to the forefront of Drums of Autumn, where her love story with Roger grows alongside her determination to reconnect with her family.

At the beginning of the novel, Brianna feels conflicted about Claire’s absence, even though she urged Claire to return to the past to reunite with Jamie. She feels attracted to Roger, but turns down his marriage proposal as she is more interested in pursuing a more casual connection first. She researches her family history, eventually discovering that her parents are fated to die in a fire. Determined to save them from the fire, she goes back in time, leaving behind Roger. In the 18th century, Brianna meets her Scottish ancestors and enjoys a warm welcome before heading to the North American colonies.

When Roger follows her and they reunite, Brianna agrees to a handfasting ceremony and has sex with him. They then separate after an argument over how Roger kept his knowledge of Brianna’s parents’ death from her. Not long afterward, Brianna is raped by Stephen Bonnet while trying to recover Claire’s wedding ring from her first marriage. Once Bree realizes she is pregnant, she worries if Roger could accept the child even if it may not be biologically his.

Brianna’s conflicts in the novel largely center upon her complicated feelings for Roger and her attempts to forge a relationship with her father Jamie. Brianna frequently worries about the sincerity of Roger’s feelings, and clashes with her father when Jamie tries to pressure her into marrying Ian. Her unwillingness to clearly communicate about who raped her and that she and Roger had a handfasting ceremony leads to several misunderstandings, but by the novel’s end, Brianna has reconciled with both her husband and father.    

Like a combination of her parents, Bree is stubborn and headstrong but also caring and willing to sacrifice for those she loves. She originally studied medicine like her mother, but switched her major to engineering once Claire returned to the past, occasionally using this knowledge to help her when she gets to the 18th century. Bree changes greatly over the course of the novel, particularly once she learns she is pregnant and steps into the role of mother for her son Jeremiah.

Earlier in the series, Claire and Frank met Roger Wakefield as a young boy on their 1945 trip to Inverness. Frank was a friend of Roger’s adoptive father, who was a minister and historian. Roger studies history and is also a descendant of the MacKenzies, a clan Claire and Jamie spent much time with in the 1740s. His ancestors, Geillis Duncan and Dougal MacKenzie, play an important role in the first three novels in the series, and Roger sees Geillis time travel through the stones at Craigh na Dun.

Roger is Brianna’s love interest in the novel, and later her husband. While he promised Claire to take care of Brianna once Claire decided to time travel, he also fell in love with Bree and is determined to marry her. Roger holds more traditional beliefs about marriage and sex than Bree, refusing to sleep with her until they perform the handfasting ceremony once they are reunited in the 18th century. The fact that he knew of her parents’ deaths but did not tell her causes the couple to quarrel and temporarily separate. Roger is later beaten by Jamie and sold to the Iroquois when Jamie mistakenly believes that Roger raped Brianna. Jamie later manages to get Roger back. When Roger returns to Fraser’s Ridge, he reconciles with Brianna and accepts Jeremiah as his own son.  

Like many other characters, Roger is characterized by his stubbornness and firm beliefs, but he is also strong and caring when he needs to be. Though interested in the past, he tends to think ahead and consider problems, like Bree’s discovery of her parents’ death, through how they will play out in the future. Roger clashes with all the other main characters, but he also shows his devotion to Brianna and her family through the great lengths he goes to protect them.

Jocasta Cameron is the sister of Jamie’s mother, Ellen. She is from the MacKenzie clan but married into the Cameron clan and moved away to their land when Jamie was very young. After the death of her husband, she married another man in the Cameron family, and then a third after his death. Her third husband took her to River Run in North Carolina, a plantation that makes various goods like turpentine to sell. Hector, Jocasta’s third husband, died a few months before the start of Drums of Autumn, and though she can manage the business side of River Run on her own, she has trouble with the hands-on management of the plantation as a blind woman.

Jocasta is a complex character. She believes she treats her enslaved persons relatively well and stands up for them when their lives are threatened, but she remains unrepentant about being an enslaver and does not understand Jamie’s objections. Though she is hospitable and generous to Jamie and his family, she forces him into situations that compromise his morals without his consideration. Jocasta is warm yet conniving, intelligent yet manipulative, and has more power over the people that surround her than many realize. She is astute, and uses this to her advantage.