794 Morrison, Toni
sustains the hopes of so many of the characters—
Sethe, Stamp Paid, Denver—whose future we’re
banking on. In contrast to her mother, who at the
close of the novel has no plans, “no plans at all,” and
whose eyes have become “expressionless,” Denver is
working, learning “book stuff ” from Miss Bodwin
and Denver’s face looks “like someone had turned up
the gas jet.” Christ-like, Denver has been sacrificed,
but in the end she is resurrected, and her story of
triumph becomes a promise of freedom for African
Americans. It is a story to pass on.
Nancy Wilson
Freedom in Beloved
In slave narratives such as Harriet Jacobs’s inCi-
dents in the liFe oF a slave giRl and Frederick
Douglass’s naRRative oF the liFe oF FRedeRiCk
douglass, an aMeRiCan slave, the authors bear
witness to the sacrifices they endured in order to
secure their freedom. In Beloved, too, we learn of
the incredible lengths to which slaves had to go in
their quest for freedom, such as Halle, who works
“five years of Sundays” in order to purchase his
mother’s freedom, and Sethe, who chooses death
over slavery. As W. E. B. DuBois in the souls
oF blaCk Folk (1903) notes, “few men ever wor-
shipped Freedom with half such unquestioning
faith as did the American Negro for two centu-
ries. . . . Emancipation was the key to a promised
land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before
the eyes of wearied Israelites.” However, DuBois
questioned the naïveté of romanticizing freedom,
asserting that freedom alone could not liberate the
African-American people; they would need politi-
cal power and education, as well. Similarly, in
Beloved Toni Morrison de-romanticizes Emanci-
pation. She notes her intentions when creating the
character of Sethe: “The heroine would represent
the unapologetic acceptance of shame and terror;
assume the consequences of choosing infanticide;
claim her own freedom.” One might wonder why
Sethe has to “claim” her freedom. Wasn’t freedom
given? And why would Morrison list “shame,”
“terror,” and “infanticide” alongside such a positive
concept as “freedom?” The answer to both of these
questions can be found in a recasting of what free-
dom really meant—it was an opportunity, not a gift,
an opportunity with a host of complications, com-
ing too late for some, or with memories that could
not be erased, or with new problems that would
prove almost as insidious as slavery. Thus, Beloved
is Morrison’s attempt, as an African American, to
recover her people’s post-slavery history, the good
and the bad, in order to help us understand and
honor freed slaves’ real-life experiences.
One of the ways in which Morrison de-roman-
ticizes freedom is to show that, despite Emancipa-
tion, the damage slavery caused lasted well beyond- For example, Paul D. tells of “a Negro about
fourteen years old who lived by himself in the woods
and said he couldn’t remember living anywhere else.
He saw a witless colored woman jailed and hanged
for stealing ducks she believed were her own babies.”
Similarly, Paul D.’s rusted, tobacco box heart and
Sethe’s recurring flashbacks to her abuse by School-
teacher’s nephews exemplify the way that their slave
days bled into their “free” lives. In fact, although free,
Baby Suggs becomes so depressed by the continu-
ing reminders of slavery, she comes to believe that
God “gave her Halle who gave her freedom when
it didn’t mean a thing.” Although this comment is
difficult for a modern audience to hear, especially
because Emancipation in particular and freedom in
general is so exalted in the United States, Morrison’s
depiction of an old woman’s bitterness at a life lost
to slavery enhances our understanding of how indi-
viduals might have felt that there was nothing left
in them to free.
The ways in which slavery continued to infiltrate
freed slaves’ lives is also evidenced in the haunting,
literally, of not only the freed slaves but the African-
American community at large. As Baby Suggs tells
Sethe, “Not a house in the country ain’t packed to
its rafters with some dead Negro’s GRIEF. We lucky
this ghost is a baby.” Similarly, Beloved relives her
grandmother’s experiences in the Middle Passage,
recalling, “if I had the teeth of the man who died
on my face I would bite the circle around her neck.”
This “circle,” earlier referred to as a “circle of iron,”
is a slave collar in use during the time of the Middle
Passage. The suggestion here is that slavery entered
the racial memory of the African-American people,
shaping African-American culture. Thus, although
Emancipation is often taught as a date in a history