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Corrine Quinn is a white woman from Elm County who owns a property named Bryceton not far from Lockless. An only child, Corrine inherited her parent’s property and vast fortune when they died. At the beginning of the novel, she is engaged to Maynard, and when Maynard drowns in the River Goose, she remains close with Howell and regularly visits Lockless. Although Corrine maintains the outward appearance of a typical elite Virginia lady, in reality she is an abolitionist who plays a key role in the Virginia Underground. Bryceton is actually a station on the Underground, and just before Howell dies Corrine buys Lockless so that she can transform it into a station as well, giving it to Hiram to run. Corrine is a “fanatical” abolitionist who approaches her work for the Underground with intimidating zeal. Highly intelligent, she makes a series of ingenious and daring decisions in order to build the power of the Underground. At the same time, Corrine can be rather ruthless and controlling. Indeed, her desire for total control over her operation and the minds of her agents can be reminiscent of an enslaver, something that Hiram points out to her at the end of the novel. Although Corrine is a flawed person who is motivated by egotism, her contribution to the abolitionist cause is nonetheless significant.
Corrine Quinn Quotes in The Water Dancer
The The Water Dancer quotes below are all either spoken by Corrine Quinn or refer to Corrine Quinn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 14
Quotes
The Task was a trap. Even Georgie was trapped. And so who was Corrine Quinn to judge such a man? Who was I, who’d run with no higher purpose save my own passions and my own skin? Now I understood the Underground war. It was not the ancient and honorable kind.
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Chapter 31
Quotes
Corrine Quinn was among the most fanatical agents I ever encountered on the Underground. All of these fanatics were white. They took slavery as a personal insult or affront, a stain upon their name. They had seen women carried off to fancy, or watched as a father was stripped and beaten in front of his child, or seen whole families pinned like hogs into rail-cars, steam-boats, and jails. Slavery humiliated them, because it offended a basic sense of goodness that they believed themselves to possess. And when their cousins perpetrated the base practice, it served to remind them how easily they might do the same. They scorned their barbaric brethren, but they were brethren all the same. So their opposition was a kind of vanity, a hatred of slavery that far outranked any love of the slave.
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Corrine Quinn Quotes in The Water Dancer
The The Water Dancer quotes below are all either spoken by Corrine Quinn or refer to Corrine Quinn. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 14
Quotes
The Task was a trap. Even Georgie was trapped. And so who was Corrine Quinn to judge such a man? Who was I, who’d run with no higher purpose save my own passions and my own skin? Now I understood the Underground war. It was not the ancient and honorable kind.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31
Quotes
Corrine Quinn was among the most fanatical agents I ever encountered on the Underground. All of these fanatics were white. They took slavery as a personal insult or affront, a stain upon their name. They had seen women carried off to fancy, or watched as a father was stripped and beaten in front of his child, or seen whole families pinned like hogs into rail-cars, steam-boats, and jails. Slavery humiliated them, because it offended a basic sense of goodness that they believed themselves to possess. And when their cousins perpetrated the base practice, it served to remind them how easily they might do the same. They scorned their barbaric brethren, but they were brethren all the same. So their opposition was a kind of vanity, a hatred of slavery that far outranked any love of the slave.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
