Sophonsiba Beauchamp McCaslin

Sophonsiba is Hubert Beauchamp's sister and the one who insists that their plantation be called "Warwick," as a claim on the family's purported connection to English royalty. The onstage role she plays in Go Down, Moses tends toward absurdity rather than elegance, in part because it is related through nine-year-old Cass Edmonds: "Her hair was roached under a lace cap; she had on her Sunday dress and beads and a red ribbon around her throat" (12). Cass is more fascinated by her "roan tooth" any other aspect of her character (12), but even from his naive perspective it's clear how determined she is to marry Buck McCaslin. Eventually somehow she succeeds at this - though that process occurs offstage in the novel - and after their marriage she gives birth to Ike McCaslin.