Shadow Country: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Peter Matthiessen

First published: 2008

Genre: Novel

Locale: Southern Florida

Plot: Historical drama

Time: From late 1800s to early 1900s

Edgar Artemas Watson, is the semi-fictional owner of a sugarcane plantation in southern Florida from the late 1800s until late 1910, when his is shot more than 30 times by a posse of his neighbors. Edgar at some point replaced his middle initial with a J. The cause of this odd action is that he possibly is a notorious killer with multiple murders to his credit over several decades. He is rumored to have been the infamous “Bloody Watson” who killed noted Western woman Belle Starr and a gunslinger named Quinn Bass. Originally from South Carolina, Watson travelled across the West. In 1892 he returned east, relocating from Oregon and points west to southern Florida, where he may have committed several additional slayings along Florida's west coast in the vicinity of the Everglades and Keys. While he seems amiable to his neighbors and the workers on his plantation (although they clearly are frightened of him), Watson always carries a pistol and keeps his coat on because he asserts that visitors from the North could come at any time. Although unstated, the “visitors” might be lawmen coming to arrest him. Watson, tall, red-haired, and strong, has a series of three wives (Ann Marry Collins, Jane Dyal, and Catherine Edna Bethea) who are white, plus two common-law wives who are black (Henrietta Daniels and Mary Josephine Jenkins) and several children, some white, others mixed. He owns a schooner named Warrior and often is on the water.

Lucius Watson, is the son of E.J. Watson and Jane Dyal Watson. He was born in 1889. As a teen he becomes estranged from his family and joins the Merchant Marine and later the U.S Army when World War I erupts. Lucius becomes a highly decorated sniper with numerous kills to his credit. He shoots enemy combatants at great distances so as not to see his targets up close (as living people). However, while Lucius is on a mission, a dense fogs envelopes the battlefield and he becomes lost. When the fog clears he finds himself very near a German soldier, also lost, who he kills. After witnessing the man's death close-up, he refuses to kill further and is dishonorably discharged. He begins drinking heavily, but ultimately enrolls in college and begins writing a biographical account of his father's life and death, which becomes a larger history of southern Florida titled The Undiscovered Country, but his continued drinking results in his expulsion from school, although he later returns and earns his degree. Lucius continues researching his father's life, which leads him to interact with numerous relatives and family acquaintances. He runs away from uncomfortable situations, ranging from interactions with family, romances with women, and having to kill in the army. Lucius creates a list of those he believes were involved in his father's killing in order to bring them to justice, but abandons the plan as his conscience rules his actions.

Henriette “Netta” Daniels, is a black woman who becomes Mister Watson's common-law wife. She lives in the house and gives birth to their child, a daughter named Minnie after Watson's aunt. When Watson marries Catherine “Kate” Bethea, a white woman who comes to live in Florida with him, Netta and Minnie are forced to leave Watson's house and return to living with the other workers on the sugarcane plantation, although he acknowledges that Minnie is his blood relation. Kate accepts her husband's relationship with the other woman and their children, and his extramarital activities are not questioned.

Nell Dyer, is a white woman who becomes a romantic interest for Lucius Watson. Nell and Lucius develop a crush on each other as children, but her family relocates and they lose touch with each other. Nell and Lucius meet again as adults and rekindle their childhood romance. Lucius's quest to bring his father's killers to justice sends him travelling throughout Florida, and along with his heavy drinking shows Nell his shortcomings as a potential husband. She ultimately rejects Lucius's affections and marries a man named Summerlin.

Erskine Thompson, is the captain of Mister Watson's schooner. He is a black man and the son of Henrietta “Netta” Daniels, who Watson takes as a common-law wife. When Erskine is young he is working in the field cutting sugarcane with Mister Watson, who works as hard as any of the black hands, and while Watson is swinging a hoe he accidentally hits Erskine and cuts a gash in his head. Instead of apologizing, Watson tells the boy he needs to learn to give a man room when he's working and sends the boy off to have his head plastered. Erskine contends that Mister Watson never caused any trouble with the neighbors, who eventually kill him, although he knows Watson is a hard, quick-tempered man. Erskine is married to Gert Hamilton, although he has secret romantic interests in Watson's daughter, Carrie. On Mister Watson's schooner, Warrior, Erskine works with his half brother, Tant Jenkins.

Henry Short, is the only black man present at Mister Watson's assassination. Following the killing, Lucius Watson tracks down Henry to discuss the events of his father's death at the hands of neighbors. Henry is afraid that he will be killed because his is black and there will be no consequences for Lucius, but after the two men talk, Lucius accepts that Henry played no role in his father's murder and leaves him alone.

Leslie Cox, is Mister Watson's foreman. Watson claims that he performed the murders that Watson is blamed for. He is married to Watson's niece. In his youth, Cox was a talented baseball player. Watson attempts to deliver Cox to the sheriff to face justice and clear his name, but Cox is led off into the swamp by Mikasuki indians to be killed for murdering a Mikasuki girl.