# Alfred Lorraine — Iola Leroy character guide

> Alfred Lorraine in Iola Leroy by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Alfred, Lorraine

**First appearance:** 0011-ix-eugene-leroy-and-alfred-lorraine

## Snapshot

A grasping relative whose convenient reading of the law lets him seize a mixed-race family's inheritance and sell them into the slavery they were raised above.

## Who they are

Lorraine is the respectable face of theft, a cousin whose greed wears the costume of legal propriety. His betrayal of the Leroy family converts a private grievance into the novel's founding catastrophe, scattering mother, son, and daughter across the South. He matters because he embodies how slavery's machinery worked through ordinary men with ordinary motives, not monsters.

## Relationships

### [Eugene Leroy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/characters/eugene_leroy)

_rivalry_

Alfred Lorraine is Eugene's cousin and antagonist, scheming to steal the Leroy family fortune and uphold slavery.

### [Eugene Leroy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/characters/eugene_leroy)

_rivalry_

Alfred Lorraine is Eugene's cousin and antagonist, scheming to steal the Leroy family fortune and uphold slavery.

### [Eugene Leroy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/characters/eugene_leroy)

_rivalry_

Alfred Lorraine is Eugene's cousin and antagonist, scheming to steal the Leroy family fortune and uphold slavery.

## In the story

### [Iola Leroy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/chapters/iola-leroy)

Eugene Leroy's nephew; a villainous figure who betrays Iola and sells her into slavery.

### [Arrival of the Union Army](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/chapters/iv-arrival-of-the-union-army)

Marse Tom; spreads false stories about the Yankees to scare enslaved people from joining the Union Army.

### [IX: Eugene Leroy and Alfred Lorraine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/chapters/ix-eugene-leroy-and-alfred-lorraine)

Expresses outrage and disbelief at Eugene's plan to marry a woman of mixed race, embodying Southern racial prejudice.

### [Shadows in the Home](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/chapters/x-shadows-in-the-home)

Mentioned as Eugene's cousin who opposed his marriage; Marie distrusts him regarding their interests.

### [XI: The Plague and the Law](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/chapters/xi-the-plague-and-the-law)

Visits Leroy; a rank Secessionist who advocates extreme measures, including reopening the slave trade.

### [XIV: Harry Leroy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/chapters/xiv-harry-leroy)

The cousin who took possession of the Leroy property and enslaved the family.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/characters/alfred_lorraine
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/iola_leroy_se/characters