The Invention of Wings characters

Also known as Handful

Appears from the start

An enslaved girl in the Grimke household in Charleston, given to Sarah on Sarah's eleventh birthday. Intelligent, observant, and skilled with a needle, she inherits her mother Charlotte's resistance to bondage and privately insists on ownership of her own mind and story.

First appears in chapter 2

A daughter of a wealthy Charleston slaveholding family who receives Handful as a birthday gift and immediately tries to reject ownership of her. Serious, bookish, and troubled by the injustice around her, she dreams of becoming a lawyer despite the narrow life prescribed for women.

Appears from the start

Handful's mother, the Grimkes' gifted seamstress. Proud and inventive, she teaches her daughter covert forms of resistance and preserves family history in story and cloth while refusing to accept slavery as the natural order claimed by the household.

First appears in chapter 2

Sarah's mother and the commanding mistress of the Charleston household. She enforces rank, gender expectations, and slavery as settled facts, dismissing Sarah's objections and punishing resistance by the people she holds in bondage.

First appears in chapter 3

Sarah's father, a prominent judge who recognizes her intelligence but will not permit her to pursue the legal career open to his sons. His affection remains bounded by his commitment to the family's authority and social position.

Also known as Nina

First appears in chapter 13

Sarah's much younger sister, whom Sarah is allowed to name and promises to guide. Her arrival gives Sarah a chance to encourage in another girl the freedom of judgment that their family has tried to suppress in her.

First appears in chapter 18

A formerly enslaved Charleston carpenter who bought his freedom and becomes a respected leader in the Black community. His opposition to slavery and involvement in organizing offer Handful a vision of collective resistance beyond the private defiance practiced in the Grimke house.

First appears in chapter 21

Handful's younger half-sister, born during the years Charlotte is absent from the Grimke household. Lively and daring, she forms a close alliance with Handful and shares her longing to escape slavery.

First appears in chapter 31

A widowed Quaker in Philadelphia whose home and religious circle help Sarah imagine a life outside Charleston. His interest in her appears to offer personal companionship as well as a place within the faith she is trying to join.

First appears in chapter 44

A northern abolitionist organizer and lecturer who works closely with Sarah and Angelina as the antislavery movement expands its public campaign. He supports their controversial decision to address audiences containing both women and men.

Appears from the start

The senior enslaved servant in the Grimke household, responsible for much of its daily coordination. He understands both the family's expectations and the quiet networks through which the enslaved residents protect one another.

First appears in chapter 10

A young Charleston man who courts Sarah and appears to offer escape from the isolation created by her ambitions. His conventional assumptions about women eventually expose how limited that escape would be.