When Maya was three years old, her successful mother sent her and Bailey from California to Stamps to stay with their grandmother, Mrs. Annie Henderson. Soon thought of as their real mother, Momma raised her grandchildren with the strict Southern principles such as, "wash your feet before you go to bed; always pray to the savior and you shall be forgiven; chores and school come before play; and help those in need and you shall be helped yourself." Those principles formed Maya and Bailey to grew older and wiser in Stamps, each year watching the Negro cotton-pickers come and go while the white folks had no hardships even close t

One day their father came back to Stamps and called for Maya and Bailey to return home with him to St. Louis. Bailey agreed quickly while being bored with the simple life in Arkansas, but tender-hearted Maya was frightened by the idea of big cities and strange people Maya thinks of St Louis as "a foreign country". "I carried the same shield that I had used in Stamps: 'I didn't come to stay'." Maya states. In St. Louis, where she was presented an entirely different lifestyle, Maya experienced many moments that caused her to miss for the quiet safety of Stamps. Her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, sexually abused her twice, and when she testified in court against him, the important connections her mother had to the gangsters in St. Louis beat Mr. Freeman to death to help the family. In court, Maya lied, saying that he only touched her once, and the guilt of lying to her closest friend, her brother Bailey, cause Maya to mute herself. Maya and Bailey were shipped back to Momma in Stamps, a great relief for Maya, but ve

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 689
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)