How Bad Was Slavery Really?

    Beloved has a lot of flashbacks to the past, specifically, and probably most importantly, in Sethe's past. Sethe is the main character of Beloved, and she is a former slave. The book isn't told in first-person narration, but it's told in third-person narration, but it does a really good job at describing the certain emotions that the characters in this book feel and also the kinds of thoughts that they think. And through that expertise in writing, we can clearly see Sethe's intention when she does what she does which to other people may seem insane, but it does make sense when you realize how much she's been through. To hide the severity of how badly slaveowners treated their slaves is to hide the truth from modern-day readers, no matter how disturbing, gruesome, and violent that the truth may be.
    But in this blog post, we are going to specifically talk about the flashbacks regarding Sethe, specifically regarding slavery. In those flashbacks, we see Sethe being sold as a slave at 13, as well as her getting harshly beaten for attempting to get the schoolteacher and his nephews in trouble by reporting them. The schoolteacher, as he is referred to as in this book is the brother-in-law of Mrs. Garner, the slaveowner of Sethe. This torment scars Sethe for life, as it probably would scar anyone, and probably has already scarred anyone who's been through the horrific struggles of slavery. So, when the schoolteacher comes to take her and her kids to Sweet Home, the place of slavery, Sethe was so radical to not go through that or let her kids go through that, she tries to kill her own children. She only actually kills one, that being her older daughter. Her past pain from being enslaved and tortured forced her to make this decision that, to a normal sane person (which the schoolteacher apparently was, as in the aftermath, the story was being told from the perspective of the schoolteacher), is an incredibly cruel thing to do.
    This one decision, while it did give Sethe a rather scathing look in front of other people (including, but not limited to the schoolteacher, one of the schoolteacher's nephews, a slave catcher, and the sheriff), it's a very important decision to note in this book. Because of the harsh, traumatic reality of slavery, Sethe would rather her children die than go through all that she went through if not worse. While this is just one example in the book, something that is crucial to understand is that there is no true parent  that would ever want their child to die. And Sethe is not an exception to this kind of parent. This kind of parent loves their child so much so that if they were to outlive their child, the grieving would be immeasurable. But something that makes Sethe so significant (and something that would probably make slavery as a whole so significant, too) is that she decided that she would rather her children die than go through the hell that was slavery.
    This book is already disturbing enough as it is with the explicit content that's within it, but this part should really make people think over it. Slavery was seriously that bad that one had it within herself to go out of her way to kill her child just so that that child wouldn't have to go through what she had to go through. She decided that it would be better for her children to die than to go through slavery. How bad must slavery really be for one to come to that kind of conclusion!

Comments

  1. MitchellDecember 19, 2024 at 12:22 PM

    This is an excellent and poignant consideration of the deep impact of the central scene of this novel, and how Sethe's "rough choice" is itself a powerful condemnation of the system that would lead someone to such a point of desperation. When you describe Sethe as "scarred for life" by her experiences at Sweet Home (especially in the final months, after Garner's death and the arrival of schoolteacher), remember that she is also *literally* scarred by the beating she is given after schoolteacher learns that she's told Mrs. Garner about the assault in the barn. The wounds on her back are open and likely infected badly during her escape, and during her 28 days of freedom in Cincinnati, she is nursing the open wounds on her back. She can presumably still feel the pain in her back when she is crouched in the woodshed with her children, so we can imagine this pain as a stark and immediate reminder of what she is saving her children FROM, or what it MEANS for "schoolteacher to take them."

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  2. AnonymousDecember 20, 2024 at 9:27 AM

    Infanticide. The last thing parents, in any time period or situation would think of, is the action Sethe performs. It details the mental scarring Sethe carried with her after leaving Sweet Home. This event was one that solidified the truly traumatic experience of slavery in the eyes of readers.

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  3. Chizara OnyemereDecember 21, 2024 at 7:22 AM

    I think Beloved does a good job of highlighting the horrors of slavery. Sethe wanted to do everything in her power to make sure her children didn't have to deal with what she did. This lead her to killing her child which is something no parent thinks about. I think this aspect of the book shows how horrible slavery truly was.

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  4. RossJanuary 1, 2025 at 1:01 PM

    This blog does a great job of highlighting the importance of Morrison's use of flashbacks. These flashbacks show the trauma Sethe endured as a slave and how it shaped her actions. These flashbacks let the read better understand the killing of her child; they make the action that without context seems immoral become more understandable.

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  5. DavidJanuary 5, 2025 at 6:20 PM

    Hi Blessing, I think this whole book can be seen on a commentary on the horrors of slavery. I like your empthasis on the flashbacks in Beloved- I think that is a vital part of the story, to help illustrate how the characters are strung down by their past trauma. Moreover, through these flashbacks we get an exact description of the true horrors of sweet home, contextualizing Sethe's impossible choice.

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