the Clearing and Symbolism.

At the Clearing Baby Suggs preaches to some followers of African Americans, that is less religous preaching than a theraputic one. She intructs the men, women, and children that have followed her to; laugh, cry, and dance. She tells them that "The only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine."
I think she wants these people to have a moment of freedom and independence, one that they haven't come to the reality of since they have moved to a place where slavery isn't their lives anymore. She brought them to a plave where they could embrace the feelings of sadness of their past, and laugh at their new mistakes in this new world, and dance for their freedom.
From the pain and misery that comes from complete dependence of a slave, there isn't any independence. I think the Clearing was symbolising the love that they lost for themselves, and it being refound to help them become the independent people they could now be.