begins to mimic their dance. Seth starts after him, telling him he’s lost his mind. Herald turns on Seth and says the he’s seen some things that he doesn’t have the words to describe. Herald walks toward the front door to leave and is thrown back, collapsing from a vision. Bynum talks him through the vision: Herald says he sees bones rising up out of water. The bones are walking on top of the water, marching in a line, and then begin to sink down. A wave comes up and washes the bones onto land, and the bones become black people’s bodies, laying on the shore. Herald becomes one of the bodies, laying there and waiting. In the vision, the wind blows breath into Herald’s body, and as the breath enters his and the others’ bodies, everyone stands up and begins to walk. Though in the vision Herald is compelled to stand up, in real life he finds himself unable to stand. Still inhabiting the vision, Herald insists that he must stand up and get on the road, but his legs will not move.

Analysis In scene three, we learn that while Seth may have benefited from being born in the North to free parents, he still encounters racism on a daily basis. This is demonstrated in his failure to persuade a couple of local white businessmen to loan him the capital to start his own business. Meanwhile, Bynum’s conversation with Jeremy hints at the misunderstandings that occur between men and women. Arguably, the tension between the sexes during this period of increased mobility and loss of identity was a consequence of slavery, a time when families—husbands and wives, parents and children—simply could not count on being permitted to stay together by the white people who owned them. Mattie has experienced loss and desires cohesion in a relationship. Jeremy, however, does not attend to Mattie’s emotional needs; rather he has a weakness for a pretty face and a willing body. Just when Jeremy has decided to live with Mattie, he meets Molly, whom he falls for instantly. Jeremy’s ready attraction to Molly demonstrates how quickly he would abandon Mattie, and this speaks to the difficulties that single and kin-less black women encountered. Bynum urges Jeremy to respect the women he goes around with, as he would respect his mother. Unlike Mattie, Molly is another traveler, and she represents one possible way of being a black woman on her own in a free world. She is independent and self-aware, and she does not apologize for her desires for companionship, although some folks may view these desires as improper. Mattie seems to be the weaker woman, decidedly more dependent on men and longing for some stability in her romantic relationships. In contrast, Molly is more self-assured, self-reliant, and comfortable with transient or temporary relationships; she is just passing through, following her own path.

The two most significant elements of scene four are the Juba and Herald’s vision. The Juba is a hybrid African American song and dance that results from the mixing of Western and African traditions. As such, the Juba represents the possibility of new, hybrid identities that African Americans can claim: the former slaves are still African, but they are also American. It is as if the Juba participants have access to both Christianity and African spirituality. The Juba also functions to bring the different residents of the boardinghouse together, even temporarily, as a community. Recreational and spiritual practices such as the Sunday dinner and the Juba are ways that alternative family-style communities are formed during this period of increased mobility.

Herald’s vision symbolically details the horrifying process by which the African slaves lost their cultural identities. First, they cross the ocean, many of them dying on the way. This crossing was called the Middle Passage and was notorious for the numbers of Africans who died—from illness, overcrowding, or less frequently through mutiny or other acts of rebellion—and whose bodies were tossed into the sea. In Herald’s vision, the horrors of the Middle Passage are represented by the bones rising up out of the water. Then the bones, the African slaves, arrive on the shores of America and are subjected to slavery. In Herald’s vision, the bones become flesh but are immobilized. That is, they are bodies, but they are not fully alive. This immobilization represents the dehumanizing conditions of slavery. When in the vision the black bodies begin to breathe and stand up, this evokes the liberation of the slaves. Herald’s inability to stand up and walk, to go on the road with the others, indicates that he has not been mentally or spiritually liberated from the conditions of slavery or forced labor. He does not participate in the Juba, or join in any of the boardinghouse community-building practices or events, because he has not yet grasped his ability to forge a new identity as a free man; he is not ready to relate to others as an equal.