Sapphira Colbert

Sapphira Colbert is one of the novel’s main characters, and she is also the novel’s primary villain. She is a middle-aged white woman, and she was born into a very wealthy Virginia family. She married mill-owner Henry Colbert, and although he is fairly wealthy, he has far less money than Sapphira’s family. Sapphira is somewhat bitter about this situation and feels that she is entitled to more wealth than Henry has. During the novel’s main narrative, she is middle-aged and is suffering from chronic illnesses such as dropsy. While Sapphira is kind to white people and to her family members, she is generally unkind to slaves. She is often cruel to the slaves that she and Henry own, and she forbids Henry from freeing their slaves.

Sapphira becomes paranoid that Henry has formed a sexual relationship with a young, attractive slave of theirs...