John is the narrator of the frame story that surrounds the tale Julius tells. This convention was often used by white authors of the period writing about enslaved and freed Blacks. Chesnutt uses it primarily to frame the voices of Annie, Julius, Sandy, and Tenie. John is a wealthy Northerner who has come to the South for economic opportunity and to find a climate better suited to his wife’s medical condition. Southern literature of the time often portrayed Northerners as exploiting the South after the Civil War. Chesnutt, by contrast, portrays John as a generally kind and compassionate man interested in the experiences of the former slaves who live around him.

Annie, John’s wife, is responsible for the action of the frame narrative. John and Annie move to North Carolina because of Annie’s medical condition. She sets everything in motion with her request for an outdoor kitchen, and her character conveys the final triumph for Julius—that his church group will use the schoolhouse. Annie convinces John not to tear down the building based on Julius’s story about Sandy, making her the instrument through which Julius gets what he wants from John.