Go Tell It on the Mountain

The congregation sings a hymn as the perspective switches to Elizabeth. She remembers how her life changed in the aftermath of her mother’s death when she was just eight years old. Elizabeth was taken to Maryland to live with her aunt, meaning that she was forced to lose contact with her father. Elizabeth resented her aunt for cutting her father out of her life, as well as her aunt’s austere personality. Her aunt would constantly tell Elizabeth that she should be more grateful. The more defensive or proud Elizabeth became, the more her aunt would tell her to be grateful. Elizabeth was told by her aunt that God would punish her for her pride.

Elizabeth met a grocery store clerk named Richard in 1919. They quickly fell in love and, when Richard planned to move north to New York, Elizabeth asked him to take her with him. She wanted to escape the American South. She did not tell her aunt about Richard. Instead, she told her aunt that she would move to Harlem to live with a relative as she hoped that the northern state’s more progressive views toward African Americans would give her more opportunities.