Florens is the main protagonist of A Mercy. Throughout the novel, she grapples with feelings of inadequacy and a profound fear of abandonment. This fear stems from Florens’s initial encounter with Jacob Vaark; as a young child, her mother gives her up to Jacob Vaark when she sees in him a kindness that was lacking in their master at the time. Florens is an enslaved Black woman. The text operates as a bildungsroman as it follows Florens’s life and journey to young adulthood and, eventually, also to her ultimate loss of innocence. Florens has always been eager to please since she first arrived at the Vaark farm. She follows after Lina and is eager for Rebekka to like her. One symbolic example of this softness is Florens’s feet, and her desire to wear shoes. As a result, Florens’s feet are sensitive, and nothing at all like those of her mother or the other enslaved people around her.

By the end of the novel, however, Florens has completed her long journey to the Blacksmith and back. Her emotional and mental state has likewise been altered significantly as a result. Due to the Blacksmith’s rejection of her, and her own trauma surrounding abandonment, Florens is no longer the soft, eager-to-please, and trusting young woman that she once was. Florens has become the antithesis to that softness. In her return to the Vaark farm, Florens completes the journey entirely barefoot. By the end of the novel, Florens’s feet are thick with callouses. She has both literally and symbolically hardened herself to the realities of the world around her. 

Jacob Vaark’s character changes quite a bit throughout the entirety of the novel. Jacob Vaark is the pragmatic head of the Vaark farm. Morrison first introduces Jacob Vaark as he traipses across the land to collect a debt. The striking figure of a solitary man against the landscape of the Americas is reminiscent of Lina’s story about the eagle. In it, the eagle and the natural world around her are wounded by the man’s insistence that all he sees is his. In the man’s declaration of possession, something ruinous occurs to the previously untouched world. Jacob Vaark is yet another embodiment of this archetype of colonialism and imperialism.

Though Vaark believes himself morally superior to slavers and those who own plantations, it takes him less than a handful of chapters to change his mind and reverse his stance on the matter entirely. In A Mercy, Morrison makes it a point to write about the numerous different forms that slavery and enslavement can take. Likewise, the figure of Jacob Vaark is yet another portrayal of a slaver. He is not the commonly held stereotype of a slaver like D’Ortega is, but he nonetheless continues to profit and benefit from slaves working on sugarcane plantations overseas. The house that he builds is thus a product of enslavement double-fold, with the slaves on the farm, as well as Willard and Scully responsible for building the new house that he can only enjoy in death. 

Minha mãe is Portuguese for “my mother” and is the primary way that Florens refers to her mother throughout the novel. Just as Minha mãe’s identity, name, and thought process is entirely unknown to Florens throughout her life, the reader, too, is left in a state of uncertainty. Minha mãe’s decision to give Florens to Jacob Vaark is a mystery until the very last chapter of the book. The chapter is from Minha mãe’s perspective. In it, she speaks directly to Florens and explains the reasons for her actions, the mercy that is inherent in her difficult decision to give Florens up. Morrison makes the reason for Florens’s abandonment and her life-long trauma extremely clear. By ending the novel on Minha mãe’s perspective, the impossible love she feels for Florens cannot be doubted. Thus, it becomes clear once more that the institution of slavery itself, and those who profit from it, are inhuman (and not the people enslaved within it). 

Rebekka Vaark is Jacob’s young wife whom he sends for from England. Rebekka is a pragmatic choice for a wife as she is hardworking and blunt. Rebekka and her own mother view her marriage as what it is: Rebekka is sold to Jacob in exchange for money and passage to the Americas. Thus, Rebekka is another example of the different types of enslavement that are present on the continent and elsewhere. Rebekka initially hates Lina when they first meet as young women bordering on the edge of childhood; she is jealous and worries that another woman will be a threat to her authority. However, due to Jacob’s business travels, Rebekka and Lina are frequently left alone to fend for themselves. Rebekka’s initial connection to Lina and the other slaves echoes the novel’s repeated theme of finding unity in abandonment. Rebekka’s turn against Lina and the others, however, and her search for faith, makes clear that despite the similarities of enslavement, degrees of privilege and freedom continue to exist for her where they do not for the others on the Vaark farm. 

Lina is a young Indigenous American woman who is the first enslaved person purchased by Jacob Vaark. With her, the Vaark farm comes into existence. Lina continues to be a stable presence on the farm, even after Jacob’s death. Lina appears to be in charge and responsible for everything, despite her own status. She is close to both Rebekka and Florens; her protectiveness over them can be seen in her dedication to the former on her deathbed and also in her unwillingness to even feed herself when Florens is gone. Lina is superstitious, hating Sorrow for the color of her hair, and believing that the other girl is responsible for bringing misfortune and miscarriages to the Vaark farm and Rebekka. She mistrusts many and is fiercely possessive of those around her. These traits are common to many of the characters in the novel and appear in part to all those who were touched by enslavement in one form or another. When Rebekka eventually becomes consumed with religion and Florens returns entirely changed, Lina is left with absolutely nothing. 

Sorrow is a young woman who survives a ship disaster and accompanies Jacob to his farm when he realizes that she is pregnant with nowhere else to go. Sorrow is prone to wandering all over the village and the forest. Sorrow is believed to be the daughter of the White ship captain and an enslaved Black woman. When the ship wrecks along the shore, Sorrow is the sole survivor. Aboard the ship, she survives the best she can alone and imagines another young girl named Twin that is with her for company. Sorrow and Twin are inseparable, and their bond is yet another example of abandonment and survival throughout A Mercy.

Lina and Sorrow are often at odds throughout the novel. Lina thinks poorly of Sorrow and treats her like an inconvenience rather than a troubled girl. Sorrow is repeatedly taken advantage of by the men in town, resulting in her pregnancies. Rather than helping her, however, Lina sees Sorrow and her pregnancies as problems to be solved. Sorrow suggests that Lina drowns her first born, and thus only trusts Willard and Scully to help her give birth. Sorrow and her relationship with Twin take a sharp turn when the baby is finally born. Now that Sorrow has someone to take care of, someone that is entirely hers and not at risk of abandoning her, she no longer needs Twin, and names herself “Complete.” 

The Blacksmith is the catalyst for many events in the novel. His existence as a free Black man is a direct push against the common perception of slavery and enslavement that most readers might be familiar with. In A Mercy, however, Morrison actively presents different portrayals of slavery that might not be commonly known. Though learned, the Blacksmith is perhaps illiterate. He is able to cure Sorrow when she falls incredibly ill and later also helps heal Rebekka Vaark. The Blacksmith is excellent at his craft and this is seen by the remarkable ironwork he does on the gate of the Vaarks’ new house. Despite the importance of his character to the narrative, the Blacksmith still remains entirely unnamed. His wants and desires are a mystery to the reader and he seems to rise above the narrative, distinct and nameless, except for his title. This distance between him and the rest of the characters is reflected in his own comradery with Jacob Vaark, one of the only other free men in the novel. 

Willard Bond is one of the two indentured servants on a nearby property. He was sold for seven years but has had his time continuously extended. Willard does odd jobs around the Vaark farm for extra money. Willard is in a romantic relationship with Scully, and thus Jacob Vaark does not see either of them as a threat. Willard and Scully are the ones who help Sorrow give birth to her child. Similarly, at the end of the novel, they are also seemingly the only ones who seem to have hope for the future ahead together. 

Scully is the other indentured servant that helps out occasionally on the Vaark farm. Scully likes men and was previously outed and betrayed by a former lover. Scully thus empathizes with Florens when he watches her return to the farm. He recognizes her heartbreak and her fury as emotions that he, too, once felt. Scully is now in a romantic relationship with Willard. They plan to continue earning money from odd jobs so that they can make a future together. 

Widow Ealing is Jane’s mother and one of the many people in the village who have been on a hunt for those who serve the devil. She is initially kind to Florens when she arrives needing help, but she is quick to turn on Florens when others from the town arrive and suspect Florens of being a demon due to her skin color. Widow Ealing helps in the small ways that she can. She does so by participating in the destructive systems around her instead of outright rebelling against them. This is made most clear through the Widow’s repeated lashing of Jane’s legs, hurting her daughter and making her bleed so that the others might testify to the young woman’s humanity. Likewise, Widow Ealing goes to fetch the Sheriff for help instead of stopping the others from taking Florens’s letter or helping her escape. Widow Ealing functions within the system that is familiar to her, unable to completely reject it.

Jane, unlike her mother, actively pushes back against the system that keeps her and others in its grasp. Jane is more than aware what might be done to her if she is caught helping Florens, but she does so anyway. Though she is unable to escape for herself, Jane shows Florens the way out of the situation. While others, including her mother, blindly follow the word of a young child who fears Florens, Jane is entirely unconvinced by the legitimacy of the witch hunt. Jane even makes light of the situation, joking that she is, indeed, a demon. Though perhaps not literally true, the villagers and her mother may well have seen her as such due to her own deviant ways.