Page "Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)" Paragraph 2

The opening chapter tells the story of John, a young African-American boy in Harlem in the 1930s.

John has been raised by his mother Elizabeth and her preacher husband Gabriel, who nominally is John's father and is a strict disciplinarian, abusive to both his children and his wife.

Gabriel's religious philosophy is tough and one of salvation through faith in Jesus, without which one is damned to hell.

John hates his father and dreams of wounding or killing him and running away.

The characters are members of the Temple of the Fire Baptized Church in Harlem, a Pentecostal Protestant denomination.