Hattie Shepherd

Hattie Shepherd is the matriarch of the Shepherd family. She is African-America. She first becomes a mother in 1925, when she gives birth to twins. She marries the twins’ father, August, even though Hattie and August are not especially close. After Hattie’s father is murdered by white men, Hattie and August decided to move from Georgia to Philadelphia to escape the racial oppression of the southern states. The twins unfortunately die of pneumonia.

Hattie and August continue to have children, but their marriage is dysfunctional, as August is a neglectful father and husband who often has affairs with other women. Hattie eventually ha an affair with a man named Lawrence, and she and Lawrence have a daughter together. Hattie and Lawrence decide to move to Baltimore to being life anew with their daughter and Hattie’s other non-adult children. However, Hattie quickly changes her mind and returns...