AMST 384 1nd Edition Lecture 15Outline of Last Lecture II. Relating the stories we read to oneOutline of Current Lecture III. Historical version of Beloved Lecture: Beloved in a Historical Context- Toni Morrison says “I want the reader to be kidnapped…just as characters were snatched from any place to any other without preparation”o To do this language must get out of the way- Fugitive Slave Law of 1850- Beloved dwells on slavery like in 124 but does so so that it can be released in the end, Beloved dissipates, she is a familiar ghost and haunting experience just like slavery- Perplexed by how to be wife in a time of slavery, marriage was not legal, family structure was less intimidate than today, why Baby Suggs has lost all 8 of her children and can only remember her names, nothing moreo Baby Suggs gets liberty as an old woman but none of her children seen again- Killing of Belovedo Goes against her hope that freedom could mean something o Transgression of intimate family Sends Baby Suggs back to her grave Margaret (Peggy) Garner- real life Sethe- A mulatto enslaved woman who escaped with family in 1856 across Ohio Rover to Cincinnati during coldest winter.- When captured by slave catchers and US Marshalls she killed her own 2 year old daughter (and wounded her other children) with a butcher knife rather than let them be returned to slavery o Thought of as “saving her children from slavery”- This historical event gave Morrison base of story, invented her thoughts in the booko Morrison admitting her story is historically true but not completely factual, there is some literary license- Schoolmaster’s intent was to use Sethe as a breeder to make more property for himself, and produce profitable, valuable slaves o Horror: slaves were whites most valuable possessiono Came to take Sethe family back to Sweet HomeThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.- Outcomes of slavery: only chance of liberty is through the promise of the next life, up to the divine to bring justice and mercy to all in the next world, Next world as haven of liberty- Peggy Garner’s Trial o Abolitionists argue about look what slavery is doing, mothers are having to kill their own children Slavery is so inhumane “Rather than giver her daughter to that life, she killed it. If in her deep maternal love she felt the impulse to send her child back to God, to save it from coming woe, who shall say she had no right to do so?”o Irony of this trial- was Peggy Garner a person or property? Does she have rights to be charged as a murderer if she isn’t considered a person? Would criminal law take prescience over fugitive slave law? Could not call her a murderer because she was property and so thus returned backto her slave home o Punishments of Rebellious Slaves Sell them down the river-deeper into slavery, making it harder to escapeSojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman - Cincinnati was right by Underground Railroad- Leaders of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves liberate themselves and escape- Individuals who were previous slaves - Morrison is trying to show the women’s side of the story unlike Benito Cereno and Madison Washington’so Toni, female author, tells female’s side of slavery o Struggle of a woman, wife, and mother o Dredge up the reality of woman in slavery “If you don’t tell it like it was, it can never be as it ought to be” –Rev Fred Shuttlesworth, ally of MLK- Morrison is doing this- Thinks horrible history is being left in oblivion - Haunting by bodies like Beloved- Need to confront the past, and then free one’s past from the hauntings of the pasto Beloved is a creature who returns from the repressed into beingo And then hauntings stopped after slavery addressed Morrison in Beloved- “There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks” –Baby Suggs last words, give up her freedom- Official and dominant memory: Sixo says “definitions belonged to the definers-not the dfined.” Trying to verify his stealing and as a result is burned to death - “The world done up the way that whitefolks loved it” “Nothing could be counted on in a world where even when you were a solution you were a problem” –Sethe - Image at the end of the book: Coin Bank of racist depiction of black person with big mouth and big lips and once coin goes in, it says “At your service”o Still servants - “Anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind…dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn’t think it up” –Sethe, doesn’t want her children to be returned to dirtiness, blacks are preyQuestions of Beloved:- Describe major events in Paul’s life that caused him to bow up his “red heart” in a “rusty tobacco tin”o How can you keep living, loving heart with all negativity around him- Baby Suggso “nastiness of life” (28)o Got freedom “when it didn’t mean a thing” (28)o Baby Suggs barely knows the name of her kids, trying to remember that much at least o White person knocks her down she can barely get up because of her bad hipo Unchurched preacher woman who speaks from the heart and celebrates self-embodiment Not mainstream Christianity  Only thing she has left is her beating red heart - Stamp Paido Collected berries that led to celebration, don’t warn Sethe that whites are coming o Saved Denver from Setheo Helped Sethe escapeo The one who feels responsible to check on Setheo “high-minded soldier of Christ” or “truth and forewarning” (200).o Used to be called Joshua but changed name  Vashti, was his wife, who was raped by slave owner  Doesn’t forgive her and breaks her neck Breaks his own wife’s neck bc of slavery, similar to Sethe killing her child- Ellao “Don’t love nothing”o “People who die bad don’t stay in the ground”Rememory:- 87 lynchings in one year alone in Kentucky- “Grown men whipped like children, children whipped like adults” –Morrison- Red Ribbon around hair that still had a bit of scalp on it o Rememory, remembrance - “What are these people tell me Jesus what are they”Morrison talks about danger of excessive love:- “unless carefree, motherlove was a killer” (155)This is not a story to pass on…- the resurrection of supported black community who once ignored Sethe and her family