Master Abraham

Master Abraham is a Jewish shopkeeper from Europe. He immigrated to America only to face the same prejudice that forced him to flee Antwerp, where his son was tragically killed in a racial attack. By the time he appears in the story, he has succumbed to the fever.

Allen

The narrative is largely told through the perspective of an African-American man named Allen, using both first-person and second-person viewpoints. Numerous critics believe that Allen is inspired by Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Serving as an assistant to Dr. Rush, Allen helps care for yellow fever victims and, in some instances, assists with their burials. He is separated from his wife and daughter out of fear that he might infect them. Allen frequently contemplates the origins of the fever and reflects on his own life as well as the lives of other African Americans, both free and enslaved.

Prior to the fever outbreak, Allen was a preacher and church founder for African Americans. The story does not clarify how he came to assist Dr. Rush, but Allen is committed to staying in Philadelphia to aid the dying. He is motivated by concern for the ill and the unusual freedom the fever has given him, allowing him to acquire the skills of a white doctor. His brother, Thomas, joins him in these efforts.

Dr. Rush

Dr. Rush, seen by some as a fraud and by others as a lifesaver, has remained in the city to care for the sick and research the fever's cause. He has faced criticism from fellow medical professionals for his methods of purging and bleeding patients. Through autopsies, he concludes that fever victims die from drowning in their own toxic bodily fluids, and he publishes literature supporting this theory.

Voices

Midway through "Fever," Allen remarks, "I recite the story many, many times to myself, let many voices speak to me. . . ." Wideman incorporates various voices in "Fever," broadening the themes from the deaths in Philadelphia and the white community's blame on African Americans to broader issues of racism and prejudice. Characters who speak include an African on a slave ship, a modern-day African-American hospital orderly, and an unidentified voice referencing a firebombing that killed 11 people in Philadelphia during the 1980s.

Wilcox

Wilcox works as an undertaker, transporting the deceased to their burial sites. After two months of this work, he contracts the fever from a body and soon succumbs to the illness himself.