Joe Turner
Joe Turner is not actually a character present on stage, but a plantation owner who illegally impressed Herald Loomis into seven years of slavery. Turner thus becomes a symbol of white imposition on self-identity of blacks since Loomis has spent his life since then searching for his wife who abandoned him and left their daughter to be raised by her grandmother. The centerpiece of the narrative is Loomis rediscovering his self-identity through locating his missing wife, Martha.
Seth and Bertha Holly
Seth and Bertha own the boarding house in Pittsburgh in which the play takes place. Seth is very religious, putting great store in his faith and comes into conflict with the vehemently anti-Christian Herald Loomis whom he doesn’t trust enough to let know that his wife now goes by the name Martha Pentecost and has been living in Pittsburgh for several years.
Bynum Walker
Bynum Walker is an older man who has long called the Holly’s boarding house home. He is a “conjure man” with a persistent sense of Zen-like equanimity. His conjuring powers lie in an ability to bring people together, a self-identity he refers to as his Binding Song. His philosophy of life is that people must find their “song” and sing it in order to realize self-actualization. He takes an interest in Herald Loomis, informing him that he has allowed Joe Turner to sing his song which has made him bitter and resentful; only by finding his song and singing it himself can he escape the power Turner still has over him.
Rutherford Selig
Rutherford Selig is the only white character who appears on stage, a peddler who helps supply Seth Holly with materials for his sideline job making and selling pots and pans. Selig also has a side job, what he calls being “people finder.” Herald Loomis employs Selig to find his missing wife and ultimately reunites Martha with her daughter, Zonia.
Jeremy Furlow
Jeremy Furlow is a young man who has moved from North Carolina to Pittsburgh as part of the Great Migration. His refusal to keep a job which requires paying extortion to a white man in order to keep it places him in juxtaposition with Seth’s willingness to make such concessions. This difference is played out for the purposes of highlighting the overarching thematic scheme of singing one’s own song rather than that of another. Jeremy has two romances during the play, ultimately leaving with Molly Cunningham and leaving Mattie Campbell to run after Herald Loomis as he exits the boarding house at the play’s conclusion.
