# Tenie — The Conjure Woman character guide

> Tenie in The Conjure Woman by Charles W. Chesnutt.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0005-the-gray-wolf-s-ha-nt

## Snapshot

A conjure woman who gave up her craft for religion, until love for a borrowed husband pushes her to work one last spell and hide him in plain sight.

## Who they are

Tenie is Sandy's second wife on Mars Marrabo's place, a woman whose devotion is so plain that even the other enslaved people remark on it. She has not conjured in fifteen years, having turned to religion, but when Sandy faces being sent forty miles away she offers to transform him into whatever will let him stay near her. Her choice — a pine tree by the swamp, turned back only at night — sets up the story's central tension between love, secrecy, and the limits of her power.

## Relationships

### [Mars Dugal' McAdoo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/mars_dugal_mcadoo)

_professional_

Tenie is a slave owned by Mars Dugal', valued for her skills but treated as property.

### [Sandy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/sandy)

_romantic_

Sandy and Tenie are lovers, deeply devoted to each other despite the constraints of slavery.

### [Mars Dugal' McAdoo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/mars_dugal_mcadoo)

_professional_

Tenie is a slave owned by Mars Dugal', valued for her skills but treated as property.

### [Sandy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/sandy)

_romantic_

Sandy and Tenie are lovers, deeply devoted to each other despite the constraints of slavery.

### [Sandy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/sandy)

_romantic_

Sandy and Tenie are lovers, deeply devoted to each other despite the constraints of slavery.

### [Mars Dugal' McAdoo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/mars_dugal_mcadoo)

_professional_

Tenie is a slave owned by Mars Dugal', valued for her skills but treated as property.

## In the story

### [Po' Sandy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/chapters/po-sandy)

Sandy's wife and a conjure woman who turns Sandy into a tree to keep him from being sent away.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters/tenie
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conjure_woman_se/characters