Fred Daniels

Fred Daniels is the African-American protagonist of the story, the man who lived underground. He is an Everyman, whose name is not revealed until he attempts to type it out on the typewriter in the jewelry shop. A few hours later, when he tries to type his name again, even he cannot remember it. He is hiding in the sewer to escape the police, who have forced him to confess to murdering a white woman (He had been employed at the home of a Mrs. Wooten, a neighbor of the murdered woman.) As the story unfolds and he travels through the sewer tunnels and through a series of connecting basements, little more is leamed about him. He recognizes but rejects Christian hymns (in fact, he knows "most of the churches in the area"), and he is able to use carpentry tools and run wiring. For the purposes...