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Birth
Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United states. -
Moved to her grandmothers (Annie Henderson)
Her and her brother moved to her grandmothers after her parents separated, when Maya was three and her brother was five. Her grandmother owned a general store She was extremely close to her grandmother, calling her "Momma" which she didn't call her own mother for a while. -
Silence
After she had testified against her rapist several of her uncles beat the man to death; this caused Angelou to believe she had caused his death by speaking his name and refused to speak for five years. Over these five years Maya read every book in the black school library so when she decided to speak after those ten years she had an abundance of things to say. -
trauma
After five years her she goes to visit her mother, who she hardly knew yet had to live with and expected to call her mother. Angelou experienced a shift in surroundings on this move as she was used to a peaceful rural setting whilst at her grandmother's in comparison to her mother who lived in the city; Angelou experienced all this without the person she viewed as her mother, Annie Henderson. Whilst in St. Louis, Missouri at the age of just seven she was raped by her mother's boyfriend.
