"Otherwise you would end up killing what you were paid to bring back alive. Unlike a snake or a bear, a dead nigger could not be skinned for a profit and was not worth his own dead weight in coin."(174)
African American slaves being shipped to be traded to other slave owners throughout the United States during the 1900s by unknown artist (University of Michigan)
In order to read and fully understand a novel through the biographical/historical lens, readers must take a closer look at the author's life and any important historical events that occurred. Doing so will provide a better understanding of potential ways that the author's life and historical events can impact the way the novel is written. Finding different factors that can impact a novel will help readers learn the author's thoughts and attitudes throughout a specific time period.
Recalling to Chapter 16 of "Beloved", the 4 horsemen, schoolteacher, slave catcher, and sheriff have arrived to 124 in attempt to capture the slaves that worked in Sweet Home. Throughout this chapter, the horsemen, schoolteacher, slave catcher and sheriff are representing the higher authority and social class whereas slaves are categorized as the lower class and have little to no authority. Being the higher authority throughout the 1800s and 1900s brings lots of fear to slaves who are seeking freedom and a better life away from their plantations such as Sweet Home. Toni Morrison's use of diction and characterization throughout the novel helps illustrate the racial and social divisions between whites and slaves throughout the mid 1800s and early 1900s. Looking back to the quote above and examining it through a white man's perspective towards slaves clearly demonstrates that slaves are "worthless" and "inferior" compared to them. When a person describes the value of another human (slaves in particular) specifically stating, "unlike a snake or bear, a dead nigger could not be skinned for profit" represents that animals have more valuable whereas slaves have little to no value whether they're dead or alive. Understanding slavery at a deeper level, many slaves particularly women were devalued and the conditions each lived through were brutal. Brutal conditions that slaves encountered in their plantations were physical, emotional, and mental abuse which led to severe consequences once they managed to escape from their plantations.
When reading "Beloved," it is highly important to understand historical events where racial and social roles are being illustrated throughout the novel. Looking at the roles of slaves and white men, slaves are portrayed as inferior, uneducated, and worthless whereas whites are higher social class, authority, and education. Reading back to the beginnings of the novel, Mr. Garner begins to discuss with a farmer about his slaves and the pride he has because of the way he treats his slaves. Mr. Garner begins to tell the farmer, "Now at Sweet Home, my niggers is men every one of em. Bought em thataway, raised em thataway. Men every one." The farmer then claims, "Beg to differ, Garner. Ain't no nigger men." They keep discussing about the way slaves are being treated throughout different plantations until Garner states, "But if you a man yourself, you'll want your niggers to be men too." The farmer later argues that he "wouldn't have no nigger men round [his] wife (12)." Throughout this dispute, Mr. Garner is explaining about the dominance he has towards his slaves in becoming men which did not seem to satisfy farmers he talked to. While he claims that he "bought em thataway and raised em thataway" illustrates commonality the slave trade was becoming throughout the mid 1800s. Since the slave trade was becoming more common, many weren't as aware about the conditions that slaves endured because policies weren't being enforced throughout specific states leading to slave owners having the higher authority towards slaves.
The language Morrison uses contains a negative connotation when referring to slaves and the conditions they encounter on a daily basis. When looking at Sethe(main character), she is seen as a mother and former slave from Sweet Home that is still "enslaved" to her past because of the physical and emotional trauma she encountered when working at Sweet Home. Since the trauma she encountered was severely impacting her life, she refused to let her children work at Sweet Home due to her fear of her children encountering the same trauma she went through. The only method Sethe thought was best for her children was attempting to kill all of her children in order to "protect" them from getting captured by slave owners and never see her children again. If her children were to be forced to work as slaves, Sethe wouldn't be able to bear it because she's sacrificed her own life to make sure her children were safe and didn't end up living the same way as Sethe when she was at Sweet Home. Some memories tend to erase but the most brutal somehow tend to stay which was Sethe's case and she wanted to make sure her children didn't have to endure the same experience as she did throughout the time she was a slave at Sweet Home.
