John Tibeats: A Life Of A Slave

The only human contact available was with the other passengers occupying the ship. Solomon met various other people on the voyage who stayed with him till the end and formed great bond. At the peak of depravity, it was for these bonds and the thoughts of his family that kept him going. He dreamed of his wife and children. The memories of the past fuelled him and kept him going.

The slaves underwent harsh treatment at the hands of slave owners. According to historian David Brion Davis the treatment of the slaves was inhuman and savage. John Tibeats, a handler of the slaves continuously harassed the slaves. Solomon and the other slaves were constantly berated by him despite following the correct orders. Solomon was cornered and whipped regularly.

Full of a baby's venom." The painful memories of the time spent as a slave and the killing of her daughter come rushing back after the arrival of Paul D. Many slaves were made to believe that they deserved the treatment they received. Sethe too, is so accustomed to the abuse that she does not raise her voice against Paul D, a man who worked in the same house as a slave. Through her fractured psyche, her past is revealed. She was assaulted by the brother-in-law of her owner while her husband watched it all. Sethe is whipped despite being pregnant. Paul D too has suffered barbarous activities at the hands of the whites. He preferred to keep is emotions locked away and his ability to love in the “tin tobacco box” of his heart . Through her central character, Morrison weaves a plot of unspeakable horrors. She brings forward the aspects of racism and slavery by visiting the character’s past through the technique of re-memory. Unless Sethe remembers and acknowledges the painful past endured by her, she cannot heal her wounds and rebuild her identity and life. Seethe visits her memories upon meeting Paul D and even when the ghost visits them. The very ghost of Beloved

To have been uprooted from a life that one was building ever so carefully and be thrust into a circle of abuse, the task of rebuilding that life is tedious and difficult. Northup returned home after twelve years to discover his children grown up and married. The woman he loved was still waiting for him but a gap had been created. Recovery from displacement is often difficult. Transatlantic slave trade caused a radical change in home for many Africans who were bought across the ocean to be sold into slave pens. They were completely uprooted from their nation. Displacement led to a clash of cultures and new diaspora was created. Forceful migration compelled people of different cultures to live together and be united. The religion of the whites was exposed to the blacks and the ideologies were passed on from the mothers to the children. In Beloved, Sethe and the other women of the town rely on the power of the church to help exorcise the ghost in the house. The faith also guided the people in times of harshness. The issue of displacement runs parallel to that of identity. A person’s birth place and culture determine a percentage of their identity. The effect of a culture on a person’s being is significant. The first task undertaken by any slave owner was to rename the slave. The idea behind it was to subvert any identification that reminded the slave of their past life. The re-naming completely