Name : Rezah Yusniaroh

Class/smt : A2/5
NPM : 1188203075
Subject : Prose
A. Characters:
1. Florens
2. Minha Mae
3. Blacksmith
4. The Reverend Father
5. A woman on the boat
6. Jacob Vaark
7. DOrtega
8. DOrtegas wife
9. Rebekka
10. Rebekkas Father
11. Rebekkas Mother
12. Peter Downes
13. Lina
14. Sorrow
15. Scully
16. Anne
17. Judith
18. Lydia
19. Elizabeth
20. Abigail
21. Dorothea
22. Widow Ealing
23. Jane
24. Twin
25. Malaik

B. Characterization
1. Florens:
Born into slavery in the Province of Maryland (ca. 1674) and sold to Jacob Vaark at
the age of 8, Florens is approximately 16 years old when she begins her confession
to an unnamed blacksmith in the year 1690. The first chapter, and every other chapter
thereafter (beginning on pages 3, 42, 79, 119, 159 and 184) are written from her point
of view, addressing the blacksmith.
She is very loves Blacksmith (page 2) From the day you disappear I dream and
plot. To learn where you are and how to be there.
The evidence that shows how Florens loves Blacksmith so much, is in page 3, I
will see your mouth and trail my fingers down. You will rest your chin in my hair
again while I breathe into your shoulder in and out, in and out.
She is smart girl (page 59) Already Florens could read, write. Already she did
not have to be told repeatedly how to complete a chore. Not only was she
consistently trustworthy, she was deeply grateful for every shred of affection, any
pat on the head, any smile of approval.
She is strong (page 67) I never cry. Even when the woman steals my cloak and
shoes and I am freezing on the boat no tears come.
She doesnt not like Malaik because she jealous with Malaik who close to
Blacksmith (page 134) I worry as the boy steps closer to you. How you offer and
owns your forefinger. As if he is your future. Not me. I am not liking how his
eyes go when you send him to play in the yard.
She is very obsessed to Blacksmith (page 138) I dont hear your horse only you
shout and know I am lost because your shout is not my name. Not me. Him.
Malaik you shout. Malaik.

2. Minha Mae:
Literally my mother in Portuguese, a minha me is the mother of Florens, born in
a West African village and taken into chattel slavery after a war with a rival village.
She is taken to Barbados, where she is purchased by the Portuguese Catholic Senhor
DOrtega to work on his tobacco plantation in the Province of Maryland. The final
chapter (beginning on page 190) is told from her perspective, addressing Florens.
She loves Florens silently (page 164) One chance, I thought. There is no
protection but there is difference. You stood there in those shoes and the tall man
laughed and said he would take me to close the debt. I knew Senhor would not
allow it. (page 165) Oh Florens. My love. Hear a tua mae.

3. Blacksmith:
He is black man but he is free. (page 43) Learning from Mistress that he was a
freeman doubled her anxiety. He had rights, then, and privileges, like Sir.
He could cure diseases. (page 35) She wants you here as much as I do. For her it
is to save her life.
He made Florens heart broke because he rejected her feeling. (page 139) On my
knees I reach for you. Crawl to you. You step back saying get away from me.
I have shock. Are you meaning I am nothing to you?


4. The Reverend Father:
He is kind. He taught to read to Florens and Lina. (page 4) Once every seven
days we learn to read and write. We are forbidden to leave the place so the four of
us hide near the marsh. My mother, me, her little boy and Reverend Father. He is
forbidden to do this but he teaches us anyway watching out for wicked Virginians
and Protestants who want to catch him.

5. A Woman on The Boat:
She is cunning woman. (page 5) A woman comes to me and says stand up. I do
and she takes my cloak from my shoulders. Then my wooden shoes. She walks
away.

6. Jacob Vaark:
A free white man, born in England to a mother who died in childbirth, disowned by
his Dutch father, and raised in a Protestant orphanage, Vaark first comes to the New
World as an agent of The Dutch West India Company trading fur and lumber, but
turns to farming (and, later, the rum trade) after he inherits 120 acres of land in the
Northeast from an uncle. The second chapter (beginning on page 10) is written from
his point of view in 1682, eight years prior to the other chapters.
He is a confident man. (page 8) Picking his way with growing confidence, he
arrived in the ramshackle village sleeping between two huge riverside
plantations.
He has a great sense of justice. (page 8-9) In Jacob Vaarks view, these were
lawless laws encouraging cruelty in exchange for common cause, if not common
virtue.
He is a humble man too. (page 14) The condition of the hand-kerchief he pulled
from his pocket embarrassed him as much as his need for it.
He has a sense of humanity. (page 20) Whatever it was, he couldnt say there
surrounded by a passel of slaves whose silence made him imagine an avalanche
seen from a great distance.
Romantic man. (page 85) My northern star, he called his wife.

7. DOrtega:
An aristocratic Portugese tobacco planter and slave dealer who owns and resides upon
Jublio, the plantation in Maryland where Florens is conceived and born into slavery.
DOrtega, the third son of a Portuguese aristocrat, did not expect to inherit wealth or
property, so instead went to Portugese-controlled Angola to make his fortune in the
slave trade. He soon established Jublio in Maryland, a proprietary colony established
in 1632 as a refuge for British Catholics, who had been persecuted throughout the
English Reformation. It is DOrtega who sells Florens to Jacob Vaark in order to
settle a debt.
Not patient. (page 14) Footfalls, loud and aggressive, were followed by
DOrtegas call.

8. DOrtegas wife
Carping woman. (page 15) DOrtegas wife was chattering magpie, asking
pointless questions How do you manage living in snow? and making sense-
defying observations,

9. Rebekka
A free white woman, born (ca. 1660) the only daughter to a family of eight in a one-
room garret in filthy, crowded, lower-class London during the contentious days of the
English Restoration, Rebekka would have survived the Great Plague and the Great
Fire of London before coming to the New World at the age of 16 to become the wife
of Jacob Vaark. The sixth chapter (beginning on page 84) is written from her point of
view in 1690.
Independent woman. (page 18) From the moment he saw his bride-to-be
struggling down the gangplank with bedding, two boxes and a heavy satchel, he
knew his good fortune.
Kind woman. (page 67) but, I am only seeing how her eyes go. Their look is
close to the way of the women who stare at Lina and me as we wait for the Ney
brothers. Neither look scares, but it is a hurting thing. But I know Mistress has a
sweeter heart.
She doesnt like Sorrow. (page 49) When Sorrow arrived, trailing Sirs horse,
Mistress barely hid her annoyance but admitted the place could use the help.
But, her attitude change when her child died. (page 19) Yet she neither
complained nor shirked her duties. If anything, she threw herself more vigorously
into the farmwork, and when he traveled, as now, on business, trading, collecting,
lending, he had no doubts about how his home was being managed. Rebekka and
her two helpers were as reliable as sunrise and strong as posts. Besides, time and
health were on their side.

10. Rebekkas Father:
(page 72) Already sixteen, she knew her father would have shipped her off to
anyone who would book passage and relieve him of feeding her. A waterman, he
was privy to all sorts of news from colleagues, and when a crewman passed along
an inquiry from a first name a search for healthy, chaste wife willing to travel
abroad he was quick to offer his eldest girl.

11. Rebekkas Mother:
(page 72) Rebekkas mother objected to the sale she called it that because
the prospective groom had stressed reimbursement for clothing, expenses and a
few supplies not for love or need of her daughter, but because the husband-to-be
was a heathen living among savages.

12. Peter Downes
He supports the slaves trading. (page 28-29) Africans are as interested in selling
slaves to the Dutch as an English planter is in buying them. Rum rules, no matter
who does the trading. Laws. What laws? Look, he went on.

13. Lina
A Native American woman, raised by European colonists after her childhood village
is wiped out by smallpox. At the age of 14, Lina, who is technically free but has no
substantial legal rights in the colonial governments, and no tribe to return to, becomes
the first servant on Vaarks new farm; her labor and memory of Native American
farming techniques are crucial in making the farm productive. The fourth chapter
(beginning on page 50) is written from her point of view in 1690.
She is gossiper. (page 6) Lina believe it is Sirs. Says she has her reason for
thinking so. When I ask what reason she says he is a man.
She like Florens. (page 42) Poor Florens, thought Lina. If she is not stolen or
murdered, if she finds him safe she would not return.
Care. It shown when she worried about Florens. (page 63) Walking back toward
the house, taking pains to avoid even looking at the new one, Lina was relieved
that so far nothing bad had happened to Florens, and more frightened than ever
that something would.

14. Sorrow
A foundling, washed ashore from a shipwreck, discovered by a sawyer, named by his
wife, and raised as a servant, Sorrow is only 11 years old when she is given to Jacob
Vaark because she is pregnant. This first child is born premature, and does not
survive. Curly-haired, grey-eyed and described as mongrelized by the sawyer who
sells her, Sorrow is most likely multiracial. Mistrusted and ostracized by Lina, she
contributes little to the farm over the years, and keeps many secrets to herself. She is
stricken with smallpox when the blacksmith is working at the farm, and is nursed
back to health by his folk remedies. She is pregnant again when Vaark and Rebekka
contract the pox; the eighth chapter (beginning on page 137) is told from her point of
view at this time.
She is introvert. (page 49) Not then, not ever, had she spoken of how she got
there or where she had been.
She likes Florens. (page 122) When Florens arrived that bitter winter, Sorrow,
curious and happy to see someone new, smiled and was about to step forward just
to touch one of the little girls fat braids.

15. Scully
White male servants indentured (in a legal arrangement comparable to wage slavery)
to a nearby landowner and lent regularly to the Vaark farm as day labor in exchange
for livestock grazing rights. Willard Bond, in his late 20s, should have been released
from servitude at 21, but has had his debt extended repeatedly after one assault and
occasional escape attempts. Scully is 22 and has been indentured since being
orphaned at the age of 12; he still hopes to earn his freedom and buy a horse. The two
men live, work and sleep together as a pair. The 10th chapter (beginning on page 168)
is told from their mutual perspective.

16. Anne
Rebekkas friend. (page 80) Anne had been sent away in disgrace by her family.

17. Judith
Rebekkas friend. (page 80) were prostitutes ordered to choose between prison
or exile.

18. Lydia
Rebekkas friend. (page 80) Lydia was accompanied by her daughter

19. Elizabeth
Rebekkas friend. (page 80) Elizabeth was the daughter, or so she said, of an
important Company agent.


20. Abigail
Rebekkas friend. (page 80) was quickly transferred to the captains cabin and
one other,

21. Dorothea
Rebekkas friend. (page 80) was a cutpurse whose sentence was the same as
the prostitutes.

22. Widow Ealing
She is kind. (page 105) Soon as I knock a woman opens the door. She is much
taller than Mistress or Lina and has green eyes. The rest of her is a brown frock
and a white cap. Red hair edges it. She is suspicious and holds up her hand, palm
out, as though I might force my way in.

23. Daughter Jane
(page 105) Her voice is deep, like a mans, though she looks to have my age.

24. Twin
Sorrows Fantasy friend. Kind and always there for Sorrow. (page 121) I am always
with you, she said. That was some consolation, but it took years for sorrows steady
thoughts of her baby breathing water under Linas palm to recede. With no one to talk
to, she relied on Twin more and more. With her, Sorrow never wanted for friendship
or conversation.

25. Malaik
He hates Florens (page 135) Eyes big, wondering and cold. I rise and come to
him and ask what. What Malaik, what. He is silent but the hate in his eyes is loud.
He wants me leaving.