Elijah of Buxton

Elijah’s parents are kind, moral, respected individuals who support Elijah and consistently instill virtuous lessons and qualities in him. They fulfill the character archetypal roles of mentors in that they guide and advise Elijah. They also display a sense of humor when they prank Elijah with the snake in the cookie jar. Pa tries to alleviate Elijah’s guilt over telling Mr. Leroy that the Preacher was trustworthy, and Ma praises Elijah when he maintains a solemn, composed mien during the reading of Mrs. Holton’s letter.

Ma and Pa both display care and concern for the community as well; Pa is an Elder, contributes work to clearing Mrs. Holton’s property, plans to help Mr. Leroy in bringing his family to Buxton, and arranges for Mr. Highgate to accompany the Preacher to Michigan. Ma shows immediate concern for Mrs. Holton when the letter arrives from America and has kind and helpful words for Mrs. Holton in her grief.

Because Ma and Pa show steady character traits throughout the book, they are static characters.

The Preacher is a Shapeshifter character archetype. A shapeshifter has intentions that are difficult to read, sometimes works in conflict against the main character, and often doesn’t reveal his true identity or motivations. The Preacher creates conflict for Elijah often: He makes up stories like the dangers of hoop snakes that get Elijah agitated and fearful. He makes promises that he doesn’t keep, such as his offer to let Elijah fire the silver pistol. He makes more of himself than he really is, calling himself a Preacher and claiming to have had a vision that Elijah’s rock-throwing ability was a gift from Jesus. Rumors abound concerning the Preacher, and Ma and Pa don’t trust him. After Elijah vouches for the Preacher’s trustworthiness to Mr. Leroy, he feels betrayed and guilty because the Preacher takes Mr. Leroy’s money.

The Preacher, however, is a multifaceted character with complex motives, and though sometimes he displays antagonistic tendencies (lying about the silver pistols, taking Mr. Leroy’s gold), he may or may not have the greater good in mind (he stole the pistols from slavers, possibly saving neighbors from being kidnapped; he “invested” Mr. Leroy’s gold in gambling for more cash, supposedly to save additional slaves). The Preacher wants to take advantage of Elijah’s rock-throwing ability to secure himself a place in profiting from the carnival; he walks out on the deal, however, when he sees the racism of Sir Charles. He also returns to the carnival to rescue MaWee and bring him to freedom in Buxton—without reward for himself. The Preacher, like most shapeshifters, represents the difficulty of seeing all sides of a person.

The Preacher’s demise is violent. According to Mrs. Chloe, the Preacher never begged but cursed the paddy rollers as they tortured and killed him. Elijah doesn’t speculate what the Preacher’s intentions may have been. He’s relieved that he will not have to try to kill the Preacher as he promised Mr. Leroy he would.

Mr. Leroy is a hard-working man who wants his family’s freedom. He came to Buxton with the plan to earn money to buy first the freedom of his son Ezekiel, then that of his wife and daughter; when Mrs. Holton gives Mr. Leroy her gold, he suddenly has enough to bring all three family members to Buxton. When he accepts the Preacher’s help in securing their freedom, however, nothing goes according to Mr. Leroy’s plans, and Elijah witnesses the impact of impulsivity and emotion on one’s judgment.

Mr. Leroy reminds Elijah with a severe rebuke that the use of the n-word is always symbolic of hatred and oppression and tells him that one must respect the experiences of former slaves and those affected by slavery. Later, Mr. Leroy is the first to call Elijah “growned.” Mr. Leroy dies before he can see his family again, representing the heartbreaking separation of loved ones caused by slavery.

Emma is a classmate of Elijah’s in Buxton. Cooter thinks of Emma as prim and proper when he refers to her as one of the “persnickety” girls in the class who might tattle on Mr. Travis’s lesson. Emma is the one who then corrects Cooter’s misunderstanding of Mr. Travis’s lesson when she aptly reads the quote, “Familiarity breeds contempt” (89). She also performs better than Elijah and Cooter in Latin.

Elijah thinks of Emma as smart, but he also recognizes her “fra-gile” side; they have this point in common. Elijah feels rivalry with Emma; he calls her a “brat” and feels that Emma never got over the fact that Elijah was the first baby born free in Buxton (he arrived six days before she did). Emma’s actions irk Elijah, such as when she greets Flapjack before greeting Elijah. Elijah has respect for Emma, however, because of her talent for putting runaway slaves at ease upon their arrival to Buxton.

Mr. Highgate is a neighbor to the Freemans. When Mr. Leroy accepts the Preacher’s offer to help bring Mr. Leroy’s family to Buxton, Pa wants Mr. Highgate to go with the Preacher. Mr. Highgate has manumission papers that prove his freedom, necessary because Michigan is “still crawling with paddy-rollers” (233). Pa also wants Mr. Highgate to accompany the Preacher, however, because Pa doesn’t trust the Preacher with Mr. Leroy’s gold. When Mr. Highgate tries to prevent the Preacher from taking off with the gold, the Preacher shoots Mr. Highgate in the head, wounding him. Mr. Highgate serves as a Herald character archetype because he tells the story of what happened in Michigan to Pa and Elijah. His revelation of the Preacher’s betrayal propels the plot in a new direction.

Mrs. Chloe is one of the runaway slaves whom Elijah finds caught and chained inside the stable in the Michigan village. She wonders aloud if Elijah is a “haint”; this is ironic because Elijah believes upon seeing them that Mrs. Chloe and the other slaves are ghosts as well. Despite her malnourishment, and despite the chains she wears, she takes an authoritative, maternal tone with Elijah, prompting him to get up from the floor and get water for the slaves. She tells him that the Preacher is dead, and she instructs Elijah that each of his rescue ideas will fail for reasons that he must admit are true.

Mrs. Chloe also directs Elijah to leave the silver pistol with her; when Elijah tells her it’s a six shooter, she says “That be just perfect” (316), leading Elijah to believe that she intends to use the gun on the four male slaves, her daughter, and herself. Later, when Elijah asks to take Hope to Canada, she says, “Something told me to wait. […] Lookit what my waiting done brung. Lookit this here boy. He did come back. He come back!” (335). As Elijah takes Hope to the door, Mrs. Chloe rethinks the purpose of the pistol; now she will try to kill the slavers and the bear-fighting dog, inspired by her daughter’s chance at freedom.

Mrs. Chloe serves as a Threshold Guardian, a character archetype who presents challenges for the Hero before he or she can proceed on a quest. Many times, the Hero’s choices in the face of a Threshold Guardian’s challenge shape and change the plot and/or the Hero’s arc. Elijah must overcome his fear when Mrs. Chloe asks him to get water, and he must decipher her coded language to give Hope a chance at freedom.