Dread Nation

Jane McKeene is a seventeen-year-old Black girl. Originally from Kentucky, Jane was sent to Miss Preston’s School of Combat at the age of fourteen, and she has been living in Baltimore, Maryland for the past three years. Jane’s mother is a Black woman passing as white; she married a white plantation owner. Jane is determined to finish her time at Miss Preston’s so she can return to this childhood home, Rose Hill plantation. As much as Jane would love to run away from Miss Preston’s and simply go home on her own accord, she is “a smart girl and running across the country half-cocked is definitely not [her] style” (25). Jane is a planner, and she is very clever and methodical in everything that she does.

Jane also has a talent for getting into trouble. She notes that she is frequently sent to the headmistress’s office, often for infractions such as sneaking newspapers and books to read. Unlike most of her peers, Jane was taught to read by her mother; in a world where Black people are punished for reading, Jane has had to hide her literacy.

Jane is also a self-proclaimed liar who doesn’t hesitate to twist the truth to achieve her goals.