Explore the Characters

Here are some of the characters, real and fictional, who you will meet in Dreams of Freedom. They lived within 100 miles of one another, interacted frequently, and their ideas changed America’s destiny.

Aileen O’Malley

(Fictional Character)

The heroine and protagonist of “Dreams of Freedom” she searches for family, faith and justice in the raucous American wilderness that is the Erie Canal Corridor in antebellum America.

Gerrit Smith

(Historical Figure - Learn More Here)

This wealthy , principled man risks his fortune , family and life to drive the sin of slavery from his beloved nation.

Jedidiah Tracey

(Fictional Character)

This idealistic young American becomes an ardent abolitionist and wins the heart of dark-Irish Aileen O’Malley, the protagonist of “Dreams of Freedom.”

Joseph Ryan

(Fictional Character)

A secret lies in the heart of this human trafficker and pro-slavery activist as he relentlessly pursues Aileen from Ireland to Upstate New York.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

(Historical Figure - Learn More Here)

Gerrit Smith’s cousin, she befriends Aileen in Peterboro. Together they seek more power for women, over their own lives, families and communities.

Leah Shenandoah

(Fictional Character)

Daughter of an Oneida Clan Mother she befriends Aileen while experiencing the painful migration of her people to Wisconsin.

Stephen Myers

(Historical Figure - Learn More Here)

Leader on the Underground Railroad and founder of Florence, a successful black farming community.

Frederick Douglass

(Historical Figure - Learn More Here)

American abolitionist and orator, traveled to Ireland in 1845.

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