Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She was raised by her grandmother, who was a Christian woman strong in her faith. Despite Angelou’s upbringing, she wasn’t satisfied with blindly embracing the religion of her family. She took it upon herself to explore a wide arrange of faiths before accepting Christianity as her own. Maya Angelou’s mother abandoned her when she was a child at the young age of 3 years old and sent her to live with her grandmother. Angelou’s grandmother faced racism and ensured her grandchildren were raised respectfully despite the crooked upbringing of their mother, her daughter, and the wicked ways of the racist world they grew up in. Even though Angelou was raised by a Christian woman strong in her faith, she …show more content…
She was unable to enjoy her early years due to the trauma she endured which caused her to live a tainted life. At the age of 8, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Angelou told her brother, who told her uncles. It has been said that Angelou’s uncles killed the boyfriend which lead her to take fault for the death. This lead her to become mute for almost 5 years because she thought her words had killed him. "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone..." (I know Why The Caged Bird Sings). However, it was that time of silence that presented Angelou the opportunity to develop her memory and the ability to take in the world around her. Shortly after these series of unfortunate events, Angelou was sent to back to live with her grandmother. To make matters worse, through the remainder of the time of living with her grandmother, Maya recalled not hearing from her mother for time on end “We didn’t hear from her— we heard maybe twice in seven years or something” (Smithsonian Magazine). Angelou’s life had taken a course unexpected and sent her into a series of harsh thoughts. Though this transition proved rough, Angelou grew closer with her grandmother. The change of motherly influence over her life allowed her to see a woman rooted in