The speaker is a twenty-first-century observer attending a cultural performance by descendants of the enslaved on the coastal islands of Georgia. As an outsider who does not wear the clothes or speak the language of the Gullah Geechee, she initially watches the ring shout from a safe distance. A sudden, unprompted declaration of love from a performer causes her to reflect on the painful history of American slavery, bringing a sensation she describes as a terrible new ache in her chest. She allows the art to pull her into the past, sharing the emotional burden of the ancestors as the pronouns in her thoughts shift from 'me' to 'us', fully joining the community within the ring.

The performer is a member of the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters, a group that travels to share their ancestral culture with modern audiences. She actively breaks the formal boundary between the stage and the audience by walking up to spectators and offering an intimate declaration of love to strangers. Her direct engagement, accompanied by the percussive handclaps and stomps of the ring shout, serves as a bridge. She connects the present-day audience to a painful historical legacy while inviting them into a community of healing, leaving the metaphorical rusted iron chains empty in the center of the ring.

The girl is a historical figure conjured by the ring shout performance and the speaker's vivid imagination. She represents the enslaved individuals who sought freedom by wading into rivers and swamps to throw hunting dogs off their scent. Her desperate flight through the woods brings a sharp focus to the violent reality of the past, transforming the theater into a site of historical memory. The speaker visualizes the girl running past trees and guns, entirely focused on eluding the slave catchers who are hunting her.

God acts as a divine presence central to the faith of the enslaved people and the African American spiritual that gives the poem its title. The Israelites and the enslaved placed their trust in God as they crossed treacherous waters toward freedom. At the end of the poem, the speaker directs her intense emotional reactions toward God, crying out and seeking answers about divine intention and justice. This figure represents both the historical source of endurance for the escaping girl and the ultimate focal point for the speaker's unresolved questions about love and suffering.

The audience consists of spectators attending the ring shout performance. Like the speaker, they are initially positioned as outsiders separated from the Gullah culture by time and experience. As the performer repeats the words "I love you" throughout the crowd, the audience members collectively experience a painful illumination, feeling pierced by pillars of heavy light as they are invited into the circle of historical empathy.

The dogs are the animals used by slave catchers to hunt down those fleeing enslavement. The threat they pose provides the practical reason for wading into the water, as the river masks the human scent and prevents the hounds from tracking their prey. They represent the immediate, physical danger and terror of the historical pursuit.