Who is Randall Ware from Jubilee and what is their importance?

Randall Ware was a free black man. He was literate, and he owned a blacksmith shop in Georgia before the Civil War. Randall is described as a hard-working man, who dedicated himself to making money. When he met Vyry, he was immediately smitten and promised to buy her freedom if she would marry him. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to follow through on that promise. Randall traveled with the Union Army during much of the Civil War. By the time he returned to the plantation to claim Vyry..... she was already gone.