Manna Loulou

Manna Loulou is an old enslaved woman who works for a white mistress. She tells the story of la belle Zoraïde to her mistress in order to help the woman fall asleep in the intense heat of the bayou in southern Louisiana. She seems devoted to her mistress, as she has bathed the woman's white feet and "kissed them lovingly" before putting her to bed.

Madame Delisle

Manna Loulou's mistress's name is Madame Delisle. She only wants to hear true stories, not ones that have been made up, but, in the end, she fails to feel any sympathy for la belle Zoraïde. She feels for the little child who will grow up without the love of a mother and father, but she says nothing of the tragic fate of the girl's mother. This may lead readers to conclude that she is as racist as Zoraïde's own mistress and only views slaves as possessions rather than people with real feelings.

La belle Zoraïde

La belle Zoraïde is a young mixed-race woman who has been raised, essentially, by her mistress. She is beautiful and elegant, with a graceful figure that is the envy of her mistress's friends. Madame Delarivière always puts her own needs ahead of Zoraïde's, treating the young woman so cruelly that she eventually loses her mind. Zoraïde becomes the victim of her racist mistress's pride and conceit.

Madame Delarivière

Zoraïde's mistress's name is Madame Delarivière. She believes herself to be taking Zoraïde's interests to heart, but she is actually selfish. She would likely profess that she loves the young woman, but she treats Zoraïde like a possession the moment Zoraïde acts like a human being with thoughts and feelings of her own. When she learns that Zoraïde loves one of the local doctor's other slaves, a slave who is an unacceptable match for Zoraïde because he will bring no honor to her or her mistress, she asks Doctor Langlé to sell him. Madame Delarivière is not interested in anyone's happiness but her own.

M'sieur Ambroise

Zoraïde's mistress has planned for her to marry a similarly mixed-race slave named M'sieur Ambroise who has been brought up to be well-mannered and elegant by the local doctor. But Zoraïde does not even like this man, as she finds him cruel and deceitful, like a snake.

Mézor

Zoraïde tells her mistress that she wants to marry someone else, a dark-skinned field hand named Mézor who belongs to the same doctor. Mézor has a fierceness about him but a softness when he speaks to Zoraïde. Her mistress forbids them to be together, threatening to whip Zoraïde like the disobedient slave she has “proven” herself to be. Zoraïde eventually loses her mind when her mistress sends Mézor away and then has the nurse lie and tell Zoraïde that her infant daughter, Mézor's child, has died.

Doctor Langlé

Doctor Langlé is the local doctor who wishes to marry Madame Delarivière. He does as she asks and sells his slave Mézor to prevent the couple from being together.