Character Analysis
Samuel is Molly Beauchamp's grandson from an unnamed daughter. We learn in "Go Down, Moses" that his father impregnated his mother and then deserted her. His mother died in childbirth and he was raised by Molly on the McCaslin/Edmonds plantation. At nineteen, he stole from the commissary, and Roth Edmonds kicked him off the plantation. He spent a year in and out of jail for gambling, fighting, and breaking and entering a store. Then he disappeared.
When we encounter him at the beginning of "Go Down, Moses," he's in prison in Illinois, about to be executed. He's wearing fancy clothes and making snarky remarks to a census taker.
Molly has someone track down Samuel and brings his body back for burial on the McCaslin plantation.
Most of what we know about Samuel comes from other characters who describe his criminal history. Molly sees him as a young Benjamin being sold into "Egypt" (i.e. the wicked world) and succumbing to its hateful ways.