John is a wealthy Northerner who recently relocated to Patesville, North Carolina, seeking a better climate for his wife's health and hoping to start a vineyard. Serving as the primary narrator of the frame story, he is a practical, business-minded man who approaches his new Southern property with an eye for efficiency. Though highly focused on his financial investments and avoiding unnecessary expenses, he listens carefully to the local history recounted by his coachman.

Annie is John's wife, a Northern woman who moves to North Carolina to manage an unidentified medical condition. She initiates the property improvements by requesting an outdoor kitchen be built on their new land. Possessing a deeply compassionate nature, she serves as an empathetic listener when their coachman begins recounting the painful history of the surrounding area.

Uncle Julius is a freed Black man who was born into slavery and continues to live on the land now owned by John. Serving as the coachman for the Northern couple, he holds a deep knowledge of the property's pre-war history and its former inhabitants. When the sound of a mechanical saw visibly disturbs him, he begins narrating a supernatural history of the plantation, utilizing his storytelling abilities to engage his new employers.

Sandy is a talented enslaved man living on a plantation in pre-Civil War North Carolina. Because of his vast skillset, his enslaver frequently lends him out to family and friends, forcing him to endure constant travel and separation from his loved ones. Exhausted by the perpetual displacement and grieving the loss of his first wife, he seeks a magical solution to remain rooted in one place.

Mars Marrabo McSwayne is a pre-war plantation owner who enslaves Sandy, Tenie, and many others. He treats the people he enslaves as interchangeable commodities, frequently lending Sandy out for profit and casually breaking up families to suit his financial interests. His financially driven decisions act as the primary catalyst for the hardships faced by the characters in the historical narrative.

Tenie is an enslaved woman on the McSwayne plantation who forms a deep bond with Sandy. She secretly possesses the ability to "goopher," or conjure magic, a skill she had previously abandoned after adopting a religious lifestyle. When Sandy expresses his desperation over being constantly sent away to work elsewhere, she offers to use her dormant magical abilities to help him stay.