The Water Dancer Characters

Emma was Rose’s sister and Hiram’s aunt. She and Rose would water dance together. When tobacco prices started falling, Emma was one of the first enslaved people sold South from Lockless.

Nathaniel Walker is Howell’s brother. He is Sophia’s enslaver and regularly rapes her, although he cannot bring himself to have her live on his property and thus makes her live at Lockless and travel to his property on weekends. He is the biological father of Caroline.

Boss Harlan is the white overseer at Lockless.

Thena and Big John’s daughter. Kessiah, along with her siblings, was separated from Thena and sold as a child. However, after a reunion facilitated by Hiram, Kessiah is able to live freely with Thena in Philadelphia.

Big John was Thena’s husband and Kessiah’s father. He died of a fever.

Roscoe is Howell’s butler. He dies while Hiram is living in Philadelphia.

Ella is the head cook at Lockless until she is sold.

Pete is an enslaved man at Lockless until he is sold.

Alice Caulley is a cruel, vulgar white woman who is friends with Howell and comes to Lockless for a party he hosts.

Amber is Georgie’s wife.

Mercury was Sophia’s former partner back in Carolina.

Hawkins is a black Underground agent who poses as Corrine’s servant.

Amy is Hawkins’s sister. She is also an Underground agent.

Helen was Nathaniel’s wife. She and Sophia were best friends in childhood; when they grew up, Sophia worked as Helen’s maid. Sophia says she loved Helen deeply, and the fact that Helen died in childbirth fills her with guilt and sorrow.

Ryland is a slavecatcher in Elm County who oversees Ryland’s Jail in Elm County, where runaway slaves are imprisoned. Other slavecatchers are referred to as “Ryland’s Hounds” within the novel.

While in Ryland’s Jail, Hiram shares a cell with unnamed old man who is beaten and humiliated by the guards. He dies, seemingly from the abuse inflicted upon him.

Parnel Johns is an enslaved man who is the first person Hiram liberates while working for the Underground.

Lucy is Parnel Johns’s lover, although he pretends that she is his daughter. She escapes with Johns when he is liberated by the Underground.

Mars is a baker in Philadelphia who is extremely friendly, kind, and generous to Hiram.

Hannah is Mars’s wife.

Mary Bronson is an enslaved woman whom Hiram and the White brothers help liberate in Philadelphia.

Octavius is Mary Bronson’s young son.

Viola is Raymond and Otha’s mother.

Lambert was Raymond and Otha’s brother. He died before being able to escape slavery and was thus never reunited with the free members of his family.

Lydia is Otha’s wife. She and their two children are enslaved in Alabama. She is rescued by Bland, only to be caught and re-enslaved. The reader never learns her final fate, although Otha remains determined to free her at all costs.

Laura is Bland’s sister. She lives in Philadelphia.

McKiernan is the enslaver of Lydia and her children.

Simpson is a member of Philadelphia high society who secretly does business with enslavers.

Chalmers is Elon Simpson’s servant.

Abe was a rebellious young enslaved boy whom Harriet knew as a child. She credits him with inspiring her to fight for freedom.

Ben is Harriet’s brother.

Henry is Harriet’s brother.

Jane is Henry’s wife, and Harriet’s sister-in-law.

Robert is Harriet’s brother, and Mary’s partner.

Mary is Robert’s partner.

Ma Rit is Harriet’s mother.

Pop Ross is Harriet’s father.

John Tubman is Harriet’s husband.

Caroline is Sophia’s baby daughter. She is the biological daughter of Nathaniel (making her Hiram’s cousin), but Hiram assumes the role of her father.