is a typical Stowe heroine, resigned to her sorrow and bearing her grief as atonement for her sins and those of her lost seaman. James Marvyn Mary's lost sailor. Both Mary and his mother agonize over his fate and his salvation. He was not a Christian and therefore, according to traditional Calvinist theology, irrevocably damned. He eventually returns to Mary. Having survived the shipwreck, his virtue is shown by his having become a Christian and achieved wealth. Mrs. Marvyn James's mother. She is angry with a God who seemed to have destined the death of her unsaved son. Her despair is lifted with the help of Mary and Candace, a free black woman who works as her servant. They convince her that God is love. Minor characters Candace Mary Scudder's free black servant. Candace's displays of integrity and love toward Mrs. Marvyn speak very highly of her character. Mary treats Candace more as a friend and confidant than a servant. Virginie de Frontenac She is the wife of a French diplomat and she falls in love with Aaron Burr. Mary helps Virginie save her marriage. In return, Virginie helps bring Mary and James together. Virginie is a Roman Catholic and serves as a figure of the religious tolerance that Stowe had begun to embrace by this time in her life. Aaron Burr Based on the real-life Vice President of the United States, Burr is a grandson of Jonathan Edwards. Stowe uses him as an example of some of the ill effects of being raised in Calvinistic fanaticism. Burr attempts to woo Mary as well as Virginie. Mary confronts him with his attempted adultery (pp. 362–63), and he withdraws. But this does not stop him from his "brilliant and unscrupulous political intrigues" and ultimate, total disgrace (p. 428). "Chased from society, pointed at everywhere by the finger of hatred, so accursed in common esteem… one seems to see in a doom so much above that of other men the power of an avenging Nemesis for sins beyond those of ordinary humanity." (p. 428, Hurst & Co. ed.) Miss Prissy Diamond The town dressmaker and busy body. Although James returns to town, Mary believes she has an obligation to marry Minister Hopkins. Miss Prissy tells the minister about Mary's true love. Hopkins calls off the wedding, so that Mary and James are free to marry. External links . An early review of