Beloved, By Toni Morrison

Many people often refer to the past as something that is dead and gone, believing that it can no longer affect them; however, Toni Morrison’s Novel, Beloved, is about the ghost of slavery that remains present, taunting the black community. The title Beloved derives from a conversation St. Paul Epistle was having with the Romans to argue that the Gentiles where Jews and Children of God stating, “I will call them my people, which are not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved.” Slaves were a commodity and significant to the economic growth in the United States, yet they were viewed as subhuman, being treated like animals instead of people. The title Beloved signifies the anguish and pain African Americans have endured. Although slaves were useful and convenient, love is not a word masters used express to their feelings towards the enslaved. They loved the ability of the man, but not the man himself.

The home Seth and her daughter Denver lived in was 124 Bluestone Road, also referred to as 124. This home is significant throughout the story because the home is along the path of the Underground Railroad being a safe haven in voyage to Canada. 124 was a way station for news, sanction and comradeship for the colored people of Cincinnati. The setting of the story is especially important to the plot because although slaves were intending to escape the horrors of slavery, the emotional bondage lingered. Boone County, Kentucky on a plantation known as Sweet Home also has relevance to Beloved. Sweet Home or plantations that enslaved blacks, are the place where the emotional trauma for slaves occurred. The use of both settings acknowledge how the past has the ability to effect the