THE HISTORY AND WRITING OF THE NOVEL

Beloved by Toni Morrison

WRITING THE NOVEL

Released in 1987 Named the “best American novel

published in the previous 25 years” by the New York Times Book Review in 2006

Winner Pulitzer Prize for Novels 1988 Morrison won the Nobel Peace Prize for

Literature in 1993; she was the first Black woman to win this award

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Novel is set 1854-1874 Its themes are based on historical facts

relating to slavery in America Transportation of kidnapped Africans The Fugitive Slave Act Black Codes

THE MIDDLE PASSAGE

20 Million Africans were kidnapped from inner Africa to be transported from the middle of the continent to ships waiting along the coast. Roughly one half did not survive this journey.

The Middle Passage was the mid-point of the three-point journey from Europe to Africa to the Americas back to Europe.

Those taken had no way of knowing what would happened to them because those who had disappeared before had not returned.

THE JOURNEY

Africans taken from their homes were branded, shackled, and roomed with 300-400 others in quarters so tight there was not even room for a bucket for human waste.

The lack of ventilation and close quarters caused disease and death.

Suicide was not allowed. 10-20% did die.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT, 1850

Referred to by Baby Suggs as “the Misery”

Federal marshals could be fined $1000 for not helping owners reclaim slaves

A black person could be taken without being able to testify for him/herself or with benefit of trial.

Runaway slaves or free Blacks could be turned over to someone on his word of ownership alone.

REBELLION TO THE ACT

Anyone aiding a runaway slave could be imprisoned 6 months and fined $1000

Captors got $10 as finder’s fee for the return of a runaway; some would kidnap the free

Some Northern states enacted laws to hamper the Act, but these laws

were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

SLAVE MARRIAGE•No legal standing•Might be done by just getting permission and moving into the same cabin•Some times ceremonies for house slaves•The meaning of jumping the broom could vary from one plantation to another•Once Blacks could legally marry with rings, the tradition was not needed

Tradition from Ghana of sweeping away evil; jumping used by both white and black in the SouthTwo brooms facing each other to jump togetherSome jumped backwards over broom a foot off the ground to see who would “boss”Broom given for new household; broom showed wife’s commitment to the home

BLACK CODES

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE RURAL SOUTH 1860s & 1870s Lynchings Klu Klux Klan Race riots Institutional racism which led to Jim

Crow laws Education Employment Location

BLACK CODES IN NC A “person of color” was someone whose

lineage as no more than ¼ white Blacks were given the same rights as

whites unless otherwise stated by law Black couples living together as married

people at the Emancipation had to declare themselves married to the clerk of the court and would be declared legally married

There would be no legal marriage between black and white; officiating or granting a license $500 fine

No person of color could serve on a jury or be called as a witness

A man of color convicted of attempting to rape a white woman would be sentenced to death

A person of color would be punished the same as a white person except where noted by law

Those able to work but who did not would be charged as vagrants

BLACK CODE TO JIM CROW

Arkansas had a law forbidding black students from attending school with white students

Texas passed a law requiring trains to have separate cars for black passengers

Black people could not hold political office

Black men could not serve in the state militias

MARGARET GARNER

MAGIC REALISM “a narrative technique that blurs the distinction

between fantasy and reality” Common elements

Occurrences of opposites Objective author/narrator Author’s silence Supernatural and natural coexist not as theme or

source of conflict Common themes

Terror prohibits renewal Time is circular not linear Theme of carnivalesque