Go Tell It on the Mountain

by

James Baldwin

Rachel Character Analysis

Florence and Gabriel’s mother. Rachel is born a slave on a Southern plantation and is not liberated until she is over thirty years old. Rachel’s life as a slave is full of heartache. She buries one husband and is left by another, and she has four children and loses them all. She is beaten and raped and forced to work nearly every day. After the Civil War, Rachel leaves the plantation and never looks back. She refers to Gabriel and Florence as “the children of her old age” because she had them much later than her other children. Rachel treats Gabriel better than Florence because he is a “manchild,” which reflects the sexist nature of their patriarchal society, and Florence deeply resents both her mother and her brother because of this. Gabriel, however, is a sinful child, and Rachel frequently beats him to bring him to God. Rachel dies of a vague illness after Florence moves to the North and Gabriel accepts God and is saved. Rachel manages to live long enough to see her son kneel before God, which is her final hope and prayer. Rachel serves to illustrate the cruelty of slavery, but Rachel’s character also illustrates how slavery impacts subsequent generations. The pain and fear of racism and slavery are not gone simply because slavery is abolished. This trauma lives on in ensuing generations, and Rachel’s children and grandchildren are proof of this.

Rachel Quotes in Go Tell It on the Mountain

The Go Tell It on the Mountain quotes below are all either spoken by Rachel or refer to Rachel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Faith and Religion Theme Icon
).
Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Florence’s Prayer Quotes

She had always seemed to Florence the oldest woman in the world, for she often spoke of Florence and Gabriel as the children of her old age, and she had been born, innumerable years ago, during slavery, on a plantation in another state. On this plantation she had grown up as one of the field workers, for she was very tall and strong; and by and by she had married and raised children, all of whom had been taken from her, one by sickness and two by auction; and one, whom she had not been allowed to call her own, had been raised in the master’s house.

Related Characters: Gabriel, Florence, Rachel
Page Number: 74-75
Explanation and Analysis:

Gabriel was the apple of his mother’s eye. […] With the birth of Gabriel, which occurred when [Florence] was five, her future was swallowed up. There was only one future in that house, and it was Gabriel’s—to which, since Gabriel was a manchild, all else must be sacrificed. Her mother did not, indeed, think of it as sacrifice, but as logic: Florence was a girl, and would by and by be married, and have children of her own, and all the duties of a woman; and this being so, her life in the cabin was the best possible preparation for her future life. But Gabriel was a man; he would go out one day into the world to do a man’s work, and he needed, therefore, meat, when there was any in the house, and clothes, whenever clothes could be bought, and the strong indulgence of his womenfolk, so that he would know how to be with women when he had a wife.

Related Characters: Gabriel, Florence, Rachel
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Gabriel’s Prayer Quotes

For he desired in his soul, with fear and trembling, all the glories that his mother prayed he should find. Yes, he wanted power—he wanted to know himself to be the Lord’s anointed, His well-beloved, and worthy, nearly, of that snow-white dove which had been sent down from Heaven to testify that Jesus was the Son of God. He wanted to be master, to speak with that authority which could only come from God.

Related Characters: Gabriel, Rachel
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
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Rachel Quotes in Go Tell It on the Mountain

The Go Tell It on the Mountain quotes below are all either spoken by Rachel or refer to Rachel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Faith and Religion Theme Icon
).
Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Florence’s Prayer Quotes

She had always seemed to Florence the oldest woman in the world, for she often spoke of Florence and Gabriel as the children of her old age, and she had been born, innumerable years ago, during slavery, on a plantation in another state. On this plantation she had grown up as one of the field workers, for she was very tall and strong; and by and by she had married and raised children, all of whom had been taken from her, one by sickness and two by auction; and one, whom she had not been allowed to call her own, had been raised in the master’s house.

Related Characters: Gabriel, Florence, Rachel
Page Number: 74-75
Explanation and Analysis:

Gabriel was the apple of his mother’s eye. […] With the birth of Gabriel, which occurred when [Florence] was five, her future was swallowed up. There was only one future in that house, and it was Gabriel’s—to which, since Gabriel was a manchild, all else must be sacrificed. Her mother did not, indeed, think of it as sacrifice, but as logic: Florence was a girl, and would by and by be married, and have children of her own, and all the duties of a woman; and this being so, her life in the cabin was the best possible preparation for her future life. But Gabriel was a man; he would go out one day into the world to do a man’s work, and he needed, therefore, meat, when there was any in the house, and clothes, whenever clothes could be bought, and the strong indulgence of his womenfolk, so that he would know how to be with women when he had a wife.

Related Characters: Gabriel, Florence, Rachel
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints: Gabriel’s Prayer Quotes

For he desired in his soul, with fear and trembling, all the glories that his mother prayed he should find. Yes, he wanted power—he wanted to know himself to be the Lord’s anointed, His well-beloved, and worthy, nearly, of that snow-white dove which had been sent down from Heaven to testify that Jesus was the Son of God. He wanted to be master, to speak with that authority which could only come from God.

Related Characters: Gabriel, Rachel
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis: