# To Cuba and Back — Character guide

> Key figures in To Cuba and Back by Richard Henry Dana Jr..

- [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): 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 
- [The Master](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_master.md): 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 outsid
- [Father Antonio Cabre](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/father_antonio_cabre.md): 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 
- [Coolies](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/coolies.md): 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 c
- [Mr. Theodore Parker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/mr_theodore_parker.md): An American abolitionist and intellectual referenced in the narrative.
- [The Young Captain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_young_captain.md): 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 some
- [Mr. C⸺](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/mr_c.md): 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 olde
- [Cubans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/cubans.md): 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 can
- [No Cuban](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/no_cuban.md): A specific Cuban individual or archetype referenced in the text.
- [Capt. Bullock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/capt_bullock.md): A ship captain encountered during the narrator's journey.
- [Dr. Howe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/dr_howe.md): A doctor and his wife, fellow travelers or acquaintances in Cuba.
- [The Jesuits](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_jesuits.md): Jesuit priests and their order, observed in Cuban religious life.
- [Mr. G⸺](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/mr_g.md): An acquaintance of the narrator, possibly in distress.
- [The Cahawba](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_cahawba.md): A ship mentioned in the narrative, possibly the narrator's vessel.
- [Le Grand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/le_grand.md): A person or place name referenced in the narrative.
- [Mr. Rodgers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/mr_rodgers.md): An individual encountered or mentioned by the narrator.
- [Christopher Columbus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/columbus.md): Historical explorer mentioned in the context of Cuba's history.
- [The Grand Seigneur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_grand_seigneur.md): A titled or wealthy individual referenced in the narrative.
- [The Coolie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_coolie.md): An individual Chinese laborer, distinct from the group.
- [Spaniards](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/spaniards.md): Spanish colonists or officials in Cuba.
- [The Kangaroo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/the_kangaroo.md): A ship or vessel mentioned in the narrative.
- [Saturday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/saturday.md): A personified day or character name in the text.
- [Mr. ⸻](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters/mr_blank.md): An unnamed gentleman referenced in the narrative.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/to_cuba_and_back_se/characters