Act 1, Scene 4 Summary

It is now later Sunday evening. Mattie has moved in and dinner has just ended. Mattie offers to help Bertha with the dishes but Bertha has already enlisted the help of the young girl, Zonia. The residents gather to juba, which is a call-and-response form of African song and dance. Bynum and Jeremy create the rhythm by drumming on the table as the others sing and stomp in the African slave ritual.

After awhile Herald can take no more of the incantations and hollers for the group to stop. Herald begins ranting about the imminent presence of the Holy Spirit which will burn up all of them and begins to unfasten the fly of his pants. Seth thinks that Herald has gone crazy, especially when Herald begins to dance around, speaking in tongues.

Herald stops abruptly and Bynum encourages Herald to...