CHARACTER
The Book of Lost Friendsby Lisa Wingate

Jeptha "Jep" Loach

Jeptha “Jep” Loach

Quick Facts

  • Role: Primary antagonist of the novel’s 1875 historical storyline; the human engine of Hannie’s trauma
  • First Appearance: In Hannie’s memories and nightmares of the Civil War “refuge” journey
  • Affiliation: Nephew and agent of Missus Gossett
  • Key Relationships: Hannie Gossett (victim/survivor), Mittie Gossett (victim/mother), the Gossett family (betrayed kin)
  • Defining Crime: Steals the group he was tasked to escort to Texas and sells them off along the route for profit

Who He Is

Bolded by Hannie’s memory as a looming, predatory force, Jeptha “Jep” Loach is less a man than the embodiment of wartime opportunism and the plantation system’s most vicious instincts. Entrusted to move enslaved people—including Hannie and her family—to Texas for safety, he turns the mission into a private market, selling them piecemeal to line his pockets. His betrayal detonates Hannie’s childhood, scattering her family and propelling her lifelong search for her lost friends. In Hannie’s nightmares, Jep’s “big hands” and crawling voice reduce him to a monstrous presence, a recurring terror that keeps the past painfully alive.

Personality & Traits

Jep does not evolve; he accumulates harm. Through Hannie’s recollections and the “Lost Friends” notice she writes, he’s revealed as a static figure of greed, violence, and cowardice—useful not for growth but for exposing the system’s rot.

  • Treacherous and deceitful: He weaponizes family trust to commit theft. Hannie remembers, “That’s why they sent us with Jep Loach, but he’s stole us away, instead” (page 14).
  • Cruel and predatory: His violence targets those most vulnerable, especially women. Hannie fears the nights “when he don’t [sleep] that the bad things happen—to Mama and Aunt Jenny both...” (page 13). He later kicks Mittie Gossett unconscious when she resists (page 18).
  • Greedy to the core: People become inventory. “Jep Loach means to put all us in his pocket... he sells just one or two at each place, so’s to get out quick” (pages 13–14).
  • Cowardly: He dodges war duty—Marse Gossett “paying Jep’s way out” of the Confederate army (page 14)—and sells in small batches to avoid detection, then flees.
  • Monstrous presence: Hannie’s dream details—his “big hands,” a voice that runs “on spider legs” (page 19)—turn him into a nightmare creature rather than a human adversary.
  • Inherently vicious: Hannie reads him as the rotten kernel of a rotten line: “All Old Missus’s people... just bad apples, but Jep is the rottenest... She’s the devil, and he is, too” (page 15).

Character Journey

Jep’s “arc” is the absence of one. Seen through Hannie’s child’s-eye lens, he enters the story already corrupted and leaves it unchanged—a fixed point of terror whose choices have ripples that never stop spreading. He turns a wartime escort into a traveling auction, whittling down families stop by stop. His last act in Hannie’s memory—brutally tearing her from her mother and threatening to kill—cements his legacy as the guy who makes irreparable breaks. The novel keeps him primarily as memory and nightmare, the ghost that keeps Hannie’s past open and her quest alive.

Key Relationships

  • Hannie Gossett: For Hannie, Jep is the shape of terror—a man whose choices fracture her family and turn safety into captivity. He lingers as recurring nightmare and living wound, the face of a system that made children barterable goods.

  • Mittie Gossett: Jep targets Mittie’s most vulnerable point—her children—selling them until only Hannie remains and then severing that final bond with calculated brutality. His kick to her head (page 18) is not just violence but strategy: weaponizing fear to expedite the sale.

  • The Gossett Family: As the nephew of Missus Gossett, Jep’s betrayal pierces the plantation’s self-mythology of order and loyalty. He exploits kinship and wartime chaos alike, revealing that in a slaveholding world, “family” bends wherever profit demands.

Defining Moments

Jep’s scenes are sparse but seismic; each turns the plot and deepens the thematic indictment.

  • The Theft

    • What happens: Jep “steals” the group he was sent to escort and begins selling them along the route to Texas.
    • Why it matters: This single act triggers Hannie’s lifelong separation and transforms a logistical mission into a predatory enterprise. It reframes kinship and duty as cover for commerce. “We encountered the difficulty of being stolen... by Jeptha Loach” (page 9).

  • The Final Separation

    • What happens: Jep threatens to shoot if anyone resists, then kicks Mittie unconscious and drags Hannie away to his wagon (pages 18–19).
    • Why it matters: It’s Hannie’s primal scene of loss, imprinting Jep as the apex of her fear. The moment converts systemic violence into a single, unforgettable image—mother and child torn apart under the gun.

Symbolism & Significance

Jep personifies the market logic of slavery turned feral by wartime disorder: a man not fighting for cause or country but harvesting profit from human lives. His presence makes visible the theme of Injustice, Race, and Social Hierarchy, reducing abstract brutality to willful acts—kicks, bargains, threats. He is the hand behind the ledger line, the human instrument that converts families into revenue.

Essential Quotes

“During plans, we encountered the difficulty of being stolen in a group from the Gossetts by Jeptha Loach, a nephew of Missus Gossett. He carried us from the Old River Road south of Baton Rouge, northward and westward across Louisiana, toward Texas.” (page 9)

This official record in the “Lost Friends” column reframes “transport” as theft. The route description underscores the methodical nature of his commerce—distance as opportunity for piecemeal sales.

“That’s why they sent us with Jep Loach, but he’s stole us away, instead.” (page 14)

Hannie’s plainspoken contrast—sent for protection, delivered into predation—captures Jep’s core treachery. The betrayal is personal (family to family) and structural (master to enslaved).

“We just hope Jep Loach falls to sleep quick from whiskey and the day’s travel. It’s when he don’t that the bad things happen—to Mama and Aunt Jenny both...” (page 13)

Terror narrows to the long night. The line exposes how ordinary rhythms—sleep, travel—become the hinges of danger, and how women bear the brunt of his power.

“You give me any trouble, and I’ll shoot her dead where she lies.” (page 19)

Jep’s threat converts family love into leverage. It explains why resistance falters in the moment and why the memory holds—a single sentence that makes obedience the price of a life.

“Jep Loach means to put all us in his pocket before he’s done, but he sells just one or two at each place, so’s to get out quick.” (pages 13–14)

Hannie’s metaphor—people in his pocket—reveals how thoroughly he reduces human beings to cash flow. The tactic of small sales shows calculation and fear: maximum profit, minimum risk.