March characters

Also known as Mr. March

Appears from the start

A middle-aged New England minister, abolitionist, and father of four daughters who has joined the Union Army as a chaplain. Idealistic, eloquent, and eager to be useful, he writes cheerful letters home while suppressing the violence, moral compromise, and fear he encounters.

Also known as Marmee

Appears from the start

March's wife, managing their reduced household in Concord while he is away at war. Strong-minded and committed to abolition, she is also more practical than her husband and has learned to discipline an anger that does not fit the serene image others place upon her.

First appears in chapter 2

A highly intelligent Black woman whom March first knew while she was enslaved on the Clement plantation. Her education, self-command, and clear view of slavery challenge the comforting assumptions of sympathetic white visitors.

First appears in chapter 3

The wealthy Virginia planter who receives the young March during his years as an itinerant peddler. Cultivated and outwardly hospitable, he presents himself as a humane master while his ownership of other people governs every relationship on the estate.

First appears in chapter 4

A prominent Concord essayist and friend of the March family. His intellectual generosity helps draw the young March into New England's reforming circles, even as the security of his position contrasts with the risks taken by more radical abolitionists.

First appears in chapter 4

March's Concord neighbor, a writer and principled critic of slavery and war. His austere independence forms part of the community in which March develops his abolitionist beliefs.

First appears in chapter 5

A militant abolitionist who believes slavery will end only through direct action. March admires his moral urgency and commits family resources to his cause, a choice that binds the March household to both the hopes and the costs of radical resistance.

First appears in chapter 8

The civilian administrator of Oak Landing, a captured plantation being worked by formerly enslaved people under Union authority. Determined to make the operation succeed, he tries to reconcile military demands, paid labor, and cotton production in a system still surrounded by war and exploitation.

First appears in chapter 9

A young Black woman at Oak Landing who has survived severe abuse and communicates little with the newcomers. March tries to teach her, but her reserve makes clear how limited his understanding is of what the plantation's workers have endured.

Also known as Jo

Appears from the start

March and Marmee's independent, aspiring-writer daughter in Concord. Her letters and the thought of all four daughters help sustain March, though the softened account he sends home conceals the war's effect on him.