How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"His grandmamma, Sister McDonald"—she was writing a letter, and did not look at him as she spoke—"well, she think it must've been one of them boys what's all time passing through here, looking for work, on their way north—you know? them real shiftless n*****s—well, she think it must've been one've them got Esther in trouble. She say Esther wouldn't never've gone North if she hadn't been a-trying to find that boy's daddy. […]" (2.2.297)
Sister McDonald and Deborah have concluded that it must have been a "shiftless" man that got Esther pregnant, and for them, shiftless is synonymous with the black men moving up north to look for work. This attitude towards those who leave the South is one of mistrust and suspicion. The irony, of course, is that that shiftless guy was the preacher himself.
Quote #8
Richard said that he hated the South, and this was perhaps the reason it did not occur to either of them to begin their married life there. (2.3.68)
Richard doesn't talk much about his life, but we do know that he was an orphan who was passed from house to house as people got tired of taking care of him. So his experience of the South is very negative, and he considers the North his big opportunity. Maybe that's why he's so disappointed and depressed by his arrest in the North.
Quote #9
Her pretext for coming to New York was to take advantage of the greater opportunities the North offered colored people; to study in a Northern school, and to find a better job than any she was likely to be offered in the South. (2.3.70)
More conceptions of the North/South divide, courtesy of Miss Elizabeth. She's able to convince her aunt to let her go up North because it's widely agreed that the city has more opportunities for education and professional life than the South. We're not sure that her life turned out all that much better, though.