Mr. Fields/Micajah Bland Character Analysis

Micajah Bland, who is first introduced via his fake identity as Mr. Fields, is a white Underground agent who infiltrates Lockless by working as Maynard’s tutor. Once Mr. Fields witnesses Hiram’s intelligence and power of memory, he offers to tutor Hiram as well, thereby teaching Hiram to read and write (a skill enslaved people were usually banned from acquiring) and passing on further knowledge and skills with the surreptitious aim of training Hiram as an Underground agent. After Hiram falls into the hands of Corrine and the Virginia Underground at Bryceton, he re-encounters Mr. Fields, who travels with him up to the station in Philadelphia. It is here that Mr. Fields reveals that his real name is Micajah Bland. Hiram and Bland become close; they develop a deep emotional connection, and at one point Bland saves Hiram’s life after he is kidnapped by slavecatchers. Bland is courageous, headstrong, and altruistic. Indeed, he is the only white character in the novel who is shown to behave in a genuinely noble manner. Bland volunteers to go on a highly dangerous mission to save Otha White’s wife Lydia and their two children from slavery in Alabama. During the journey back to Philadelphia, Lydia and the children are captured. Although Bland has the option of saving himself, he refuses to leave them behind and ends up being killed as a result.