George Wilkins

Like Lucas Beauchamp, George Wilkins is a tenant farmer on the Edmonds plantation. Although Lucas clearly has no enthusiasm for him as an in-law, George and Lucas' daughter Nat may be married when the story begins, or get married before it ends. In any case, what occasions the story is his decision - again like Lucas - to set up a moonshine still to sell illegal whiskey. He wears his "ruined Panama hat" rakishly (219), but seems to be no match for either his father-in-law or his wife. Lucas calls him "a fool without discretion" (214); the Judge who dismisses the case against the two black moonshiners calls him "that jimber-jawed clown" (223). The narrator describes his face as "sepia," and usually "full of teeth" - i.e. smiling (218), and several times describes him "breathing hard . . . like one in profound slumber" (217). After the trial he chauffeurs his landlord back from town.