Character guide

Unknown Narrator

major

Also known as myself, mine, your, am

He arrives from a New York midwinter into Cuban heat, recording railroad stations, cane fields, and the cocoa groves with a naturalist's patience. Yet his real subject is government: whether popular self-rule is a right or a faculty, and whether Cubans can govern themselves at all. That tension between wonder and skepticism shapes every plantation visit and political aside in the book's central chapters.

The Master

supporting

Also known as the master

He belongs to the planter class whose scattered, isolated life the narrator says makes public schooling nearly impossible. Around him, sugar and molasses flow toward Havana while the people who produce them remain outside any accounting of rights. His presence forces the narrator's abstract questions about government down to the concrete ground of labor and ownership.

Father Antonio Cabre

supporting

Also known as Antonio, young Father Cabre

He moves through the narrator's Cuban days as a representative of the Church in a society the narrator describes as politically and intellectually stagnant. Young for his office, he embodies an institution that outlasts regimes yet rarely challenges them. His exchanges with the narrator quietly measure the distance between moral teaching and colonial practice.

Coolies

supporting

Also known as the Coolies, The Coolies, their

They appear in the narrator's plantation statistics alongside hundreds of enslaved people, a second stream of bound workers feeding the sugar economy. Their arrival signals that Cuban planters were already diversifying coercion as the slave trade came under pressure. For the narrator, they complicate any simple moral ledger of the island's wealth.

Mr. Theodore Parker

minor

Also known as Mr. Parker, Parker

An American abolitionist and intellectual referenced in the narrative.

The Young Captain

supporting

Also known as the young captain

He holds the deck while the narrator observes, a working counterpart to the traveler's detached curiosity. Youth and command sit uneasily together in him, and the narrator's eye lingers on how responsibility sits on someone so young. He anchors the seaward half of the journey before Cuba's plantations take over the book's attention.

Mr. C⸺

supporting

Also known as young Mr. C⸺, C⸺, himself

He shares the narrator's Cuban itinerary, giving the traveler someone to test impressions against as plantations, railroads, and Havana pass by. Young and evidently known to the narrator, he serves as a foil for the older man's settled political pessimism. Their exchanges keep the book from becoming a monologue of statistics and reflection.

Cubans

supporting

Also known as The Cubans, Cubans, the Cubans, Their

Dana's Cubans own the plantations and direct the island's agriculture while African and Chinese laborers do the manual work and Spanish officials collect the power. Educated enough to read law and publish books, they cannot become judges, magistrates, or officers, and their journals must answer to a government editor-in-chief. That gap between wealth and voicelessness is the quiet engine of Dana's portrait, explaining why a people so prosperous can seem so absent from their own public life.

No Cuban

minor

Also known as himself

A specific Cuban individual or archetype referenced in the text.

Capt. Bullock

minor

Also known as Bullock, himself

A ship captain encountered during the narrator's journey.

Dr. Howe

minor

Also known as Dr. and Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Howe

A doctor and his wife, fellow travelers or acquaintances in Cuba.

The Jesuits

minor

Also known as their, themselves

Jesuit priests and their order, observed in Cuban religious life.

Mr. G⸺

minor

Also known as Poor G⸺, G⸺

An acquaintance of the narrator, possibly in distress.

The Cahawba

minor

Also known as Cahawba

A ship mentioned in the narrative, possibly the narrator's vessel.

Le Grand

minor

A person or place name referenced in the narrative.

Mr. Rodgers

minor

Also known as Rodgers

An individual encountered or mentioned by the narrator.

Christopher Columbus

minor

Also known as Columbus

Historical explorer mentioned in the context of Cuba's history.

The Grand Seigneur

minor

A titled or wealthy individual referenced in the narrative.

The Coolie

minor

An individual Chinese laborer, distinct from the group.

Spaniards

minor

Also known as Spaniards, The Spaniards, the Spaniards

Spanish colonists or officials in Cuba.

The Kangaroo

minor

Also known as the Kangaroo

A ship or vessel mentioned in the narrative.

Saturday

minor

A personified day or character name in the text.

Mr. ⸻

minor

An unnamed gentleman referenced in the narrative.

Captain Bullock

minor

Another reference to a ship captain, possibly same as Capt. Bullock.

Ignatius Loyola

minor

Founder of the Jesuits, referenced in religious discussion.