Bernice Anderson

Bernice Anderson is one of the main protagonists in Harrow County and Tales From Harrow County. She is a Hedge Witch and Emmy Crawford's best friend, the granddaughter of Riah Anderson, and the apprentice of Lovey Belfont.

Throughout the Harrow County Series
Bernice was first introduced in Harrow County #1. Very little is known about her parents and her childhood. Since Harrow County takes place in the South sometime during the Great Depression, Bernice lived in an area called "Mason Hollow", or "Mason Hill" by others, segregated from the rest of the community. Despite racial tensions at that time, Bernice became very good friends with Emmy Crawford, a white girl who lived on a farm by the woods. Her grandfather, Riah Anderson, was friends with Isaac Crawford, Emmy's adoptive father, and regularly took trips to visit and trade with him, which is presumably how Bernice met Emmy.

In Countless Haints, Bernice helps Emmy escape from the townspeople who have come to kill her, telling her friend she overheard her grandfather and some folks from town talk about "witchcraft and a birthing" and a pact they had made some years before to kill Emmy. Despite the fact Bernice knew warning and helping Emmy would probably mean her own demise, she still bravely chose to do so anyway showing that Bernice cared very deeply about Emmy, and was even willing to risk her life for her friend, believing her to be wrongfully accused of witchcraft.

Presumably Bernice and Emmy planned to flee from the county together, they walked through the dark woods and came across an old graveyard and a group of 'flame ghosts', who tried to stop them from leaving. Bernice was unsettled by their presence while Emmy seemed fascinated by them. Later, Bernice overheard Emmy communicating with the Skinless Boy and demanded her to explain as she was now starting to believe the towns superstitions about her friend. Emmy dismissed her fears and they began to journey further but did not make it far before Emmy's father inevitably caught up with them.

Bernice could only watch helplessly and in horror as Isaac attempted to strangle Emmy in front of her, until the Skinless Boy leaped from the trees and attacked him. Witnessing the haint defend and obey her friend, and later seeing Emmy obliterate several townsfolk, made Bernice look at Emmy in both terror and amazement.

Tales from Harrow County
Tales from Harrow County: Death's Choir is a sequel series, which follows Bernice approximately ten years after the events of the original Harrow County series.

After her friend Emmy Crawford left Harrow, Bernice took on the role of protecting the town and it's inhabitants, both human and haint.

Personality
Bernice is a very kind, intelligent and selfless young woman. She is very protective of her love ones and is willing to go to great lengths to protect them, even risking her own life to warn her best friend Emmy that the townspeople of Harrow wanted to kill her. Bernice also agreed to become the student of the witch Lovey Belfont to protect Mason Hollow, which put her at great odds with Emmy.

Physical Appearance
Bernice is a thin, attractive young woman with long and wavy brown hair, and deep brown eyes. She is of African-American descent.

Teenaged Bernice's attire consisted of casual knee-length dresses, with a green overcoat and sometimes a white straw hat. Whereas adult Bernice dresses more practical in cuffed jeans, sweaters and work boots. They both dressed in nature inspired colors, ranging from yellow to green.

Trivia

 * In the original prose novel Countless Haints, that later became known as Harrow County, Bernice did not exist in the earliest incarnation of the comic, nor was there a character that was similar to her.
 * There is next to nothing known about Bernice's parents identities, or what happened to them. Whether this is deliberate on the creators' part is unknown.