# Mistus — Poetry character guide

> Mistus in Poetry by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** old Mistus, Old Mistus

**First appearance:** 0003-the-slave-mother

## Snapshot

An aging plantation mistress whose doting love for her son Thomas collides with the enslaved people praying in her cabins for the very freedom she dreads.

## Who they are

Old Mistus rules her household with affection for her bright boy Thomas and a blind loyalty to the Southern cause, praying in her parlor for Confederate victory while Chloe and Uncle Jacob pray in the cabins for deliverance. Her tragedy is intimate: she gives up Thomas to the war with sighs and tears, trembling at Fort Sumter news, unable to see that the system she defends will cost her everything. She embodies the slaveholder's moral blindness, and her slow unraveling mirrors the Confederacy's own.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_social_

Mistus is a figure in the narrator's world, likely a mistress or authority figure in a household.

### [Mister Thomas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/characters/mister_thomas)

_family_

Mister Thomas and Mistus appear as a married couple or master/mistress of a household.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_social_

Mistus is a figure in the narrator's world, likely a mistress or authority figure in a household.

### [Mister Thomas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/characters/mister_thomas)

_family_

Mister Thomas and Mistus appear as a married couple or master/mistress of a household.

## In the story

### [Aunt Chloe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters/aunt-chloe)

The mistress of the house, also crying over the sale.

### [The Deliverance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters/the-deliverance)

Old Mistus, heartbroken over her son's enlistment and later the loss of her slaves.

### [The Reunion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/chapters/the-reunion)

Mentioned as having lost power over Aunt Chloe and having no children after Mister Thomas's death.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/characters/mistus
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_7_se/characters