Beloved (novel)

Beloved is a 1987 novel by American novelist Toni Morrison. Set in the period after the American Civil War, the novel tells the story of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. Sethe, a formerly enslaved mother of four, grapples with her traumatic past. Morrison sought to depict the limitations that enslaved women faced and to present a physical manifestation that was lacking in the world of literature. Moreover, Beloved explores the interior life of the formerly enslaved. The narrative of Beloved is loosely derived from the life of Margaret Garner, who was born into slavery in Boone County, Kentucky, and later attempted to run away to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856. She is remembered for killing her daughter to protect her from the cruelty of slavery. Morrison uncovered the story of Garner in an 1856 newspaper article, "A Visit to the Slave Mother who Killed Her Child," initially published in the American Baptist. She discovered the newspaper article when working as an editor for The Black Book in 1974, a collection of texts on Black history and culture published by Random House. Morrison notably did not write a historical retelling; and there are many ways that Beloved diverges from Garner's story. In January 1856, Garner fled Maplewood Farm in Richwood, Kentucky, alongside her husband, his parents, and their four children in hopes of attaining freedom from slavery in Cincinnati. After fleeing, they were subject to capture under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The group first travelled by horse to Covington, Kentucky before continuing on foot to the home of their free relatives, the Kites, in Cincinnati. The family planned to proceed to Canada through the Underground Railroad. However, they were found at the Kites' home by their enslaver, Archibald Gaines, and U.S. marshals. As...