The Water Dancer

Sophia, a fellow Tasked, is Hiram’s love interest throughout much of the novel. In addition, Sophia is the concubine to Nathaniel, Hiram’s uncle and Howell’s brother. Sophia’s arc as a character is typical for that of women in narratives about slavery: She serves at the whims of her mistress. Her one significant relationship with another Tasked man is with Mercury, from whom she is parted when her mistress marries into the Walker family. After the death of her mistress, she is forced into a sexual relationship with Nathaniel.

The primary challenge Sophia confronts as an enslaved woman is that her status prevents her from gaining the autonomy she desires. Her arc shifts when she decides to do something about this lack of autonomy by running away with Hiram, a decision she makes because she is pregnant and does not wish to raise children in slavery. This plan fails, and Sophia is once again forced to accept the limitations on her autonomy. At the end of the novel, she manages to come to some accommodation with Hiram by staying in Lockless on her own terms.

Corrine is the beautiful daughter of one of Virginia’s slaveholding families. She leads a double life, however. Despite her appearance and manner, Corrine is an almost fanatical abolitionist who is one of the powers in the Underground. Corrine is a fully fleshed-out character who is motivated by her desire to confront injustice and escape her own oppression as a woman. Corrine is not a particularly dynamic character, however. Coates draws her as a woman whose only aim is the greater good in terms of the aims of the Underground, which is the destruction of slavery. All her decisions, including her subjection of Hiram to his time in the pit and the hunt, her refusal to share information about Sophia’s ownership, and her emotional blackmail of Hiram to convince him to help the Underground, are motivated by a ruthlessness in achieving her aims.

Howell is the father of Hiram and Maynard. Coates presents Hiram as a typical master in the old style. Howell sees himself as noble, a good and benevolent steward of the land and the Tasked whom he owns. He is interested in carrying forward the much mythologized values of the pioneering ancestors who claimed the land on which Lockless is built. Nevertheless, Howell has all the weaknesses that are typical of even the best of the Quality. Despite his vision of himself as something of a father to his slaves, he breaks up Tasked families for profit and punishment. He fathers children on Tasked women, and he sells Rose and Hiram off to suit his needs or anger. Howell’s hypocrisy and weakness regarding Maynard serve as important elements of Coates’ critique of white supremacy and slavery in the fictional world of Lockless.

Based on the historical Harriet Tubman, this character is the only other living person with the power of Conduction. Like the historical Harriet Tubman, this Tubman is determined and insists on making decisions that prioritize her values and desire to serve her own community, even when those values and commitments bring her into conflict with the Underground. Tubman serves as an important mentor figure for Hiram, who spends much of the novel trying to figure out how to balance the same kind of commitments.

Bland first appears as Maynard’s tutor. Like other characters in the novel, Bland leads a double life (hence the two names). As a tutor, Fields is an appendage of the slaveholding families of Virginia, reliant as he appears to be on them for his income. In his other life, Fields is Bland, an agent of the Underground, a role that requires steely nerves, intelligence, and a willingness to use violence as necessary. Bland dies attempting to free Otha’s children and wife from slavery in Alabama. Field’s uncompromising commitment to ending slavery aligns him with radical abolitionists such as John Brown, who took up arms to end the practice.

Rose is Hiram’s mother. She is a beautiful woman known for her skill in folk dancing. In addition, she has a sexual relationship with Howell, which results in the birth of Hiram. Rose is not present for the bulk of the novel and only appears in visions and flashbacks because Howell sold her away from Lockless when Hiram was just a child. Unlike her mother and son, she has no powers, and so is reliant on running away when she and her child are threatened with sale to the Deep South. Her absence is a historically accurate portrayal of the ruptures in the relationships between enslaved women and their children.

Nathaniel is Howell’s brother, Hiram’s uncle, and Sophia’s master. There is little character development of Nathaniel beside the fact that he forces Sophia to replace his wife as his sexual partner after he is widowed and that he shores up his brother’s financial position with loans. He is a prime example of the hypocrisy of the masters in exploiting enslaved women but being unwilling to acknowledge their actions publicly.

An agent of the Philadelphia station of the Underground, Otha carries the wounds have having been left behind when his mother ran from slavery. Otha married while in slavery and longs to reunite with his wife and children, who are still enslaved in Alabama. Otha is an important mentor figure for Hiram because he models a masculinity that is tender and respectful of women.

Parks is the unofficial head of the community of free people of color in Starfall. Like most Tasked people Hiram knows, Parks started out life as an enslaved person. Hiram assumes Parks gained his freedom by working with the Underground, but Parks is revealed to be a turncoat and a spy on his own people when he turns Hiram and Sophia over to the hounds. The Underground, using Hiram’s documents, plants rumors that Parks is indeed an agent of the Underground, resulting in Parks’ ironic death.