The existence of slavery has been an issue that has contaminated the history of humanity for thousands of years. Numerous lives have been lost and countless families have been torn apart from each other; ruined. Many bystanders chose to turn a blind eye away from this or have tried justifying it as an essential part of our society. The only way that type of logic works is if slaves are not considered to be equal to other human beings. This is one of the most interesting themes in Beloved, as it shows the effects left on those who experienced slavery firsthand. Throughout their lives, we see that the characters are not able to be their own person and are treated brutally, which carries forward into their future when they are psychologically affected by different instances from their past.
To begin with, the mere idea of being able to call an object or a person their “own” was an element that was forbidden to slaves. Sethe recalls in Chapter 2 that Halle’s thought process towards her did not represent that of a spouse’s. “Halle was more like a brother than a husband. His care suggested a family relationship rather than a man’s laying claim.” (Morrison pg. 15) This quote shows that even if Halle wanted call Sethe his bride, he would not have been able to do so because how can he lay claim on his slave wife when she herself can not lay claim as being her own individual? Moreover, even Halle himself cannot claim himself as his own because he is owned by Mr. Garner and Schoolteacher. Marriage is a legal contract in which two people give themselves to one another in harmony. For two slaves who are already contracted as property of their owners, they cannot have another contract of marriage aside from that. Since slaves could not officially get married to each other, they also felt a disconnect from having a strong claim on their own children.
This disconnect between families of slaves affected the psychological decision making abilities of the main characters in a very brutal way. For example, Sethe is not accepting to the idea of her children ending up in the same timeless cycle of being enslaved by white men. She knows that as a former slave herself, she may or may not be able to have control or “claim” over her children’s future. She would rather kill them herself and see them dead rather than allow them to live the life she had to go through. It is very difficult to conceptualize a situation in which you have to choose between letting a baby live or killing them. It is even more difficult for that decision to come from the baby’s own mother. Sethe clearly knew the harshness of slavery and it inwardly affected her into thinking that killing Beloved was the best she could do to protect her. The psychology of decision-making habits does exactly that; it takes a wide range of experiences and lessons learned and turns into cognitive mechanisms that help you make quick decisions or becomes ways of thinking that affect the way you make your important future decisions. For Sethe, she took her wide range of experiences from being whipped and abused and derived many lessons from them. She then turned that into a cognitive mechanism and quickly rationalized that it would be best to take her children’s’ life in her own hands and prevent the same abuse she endured from ever happening to them.
Another instance in which it is evident that slave culture did not allow for individuals to own their identity is a sentence from the novel that talks about Paul D’s brothers. “And so they were: Paul D Garner, Paul F Garner, Paul A Garner, Halle Suggs, and Sixo, the wild man.” (Morrison pg. 6) At first glance, that sentence confused me until I realized it was a part of the slavery culture. The Paul brothers are named A, D, and F for ease of reference. Although Mr. Garner gave each of his slaves sufficient freedom to make their own decisions and have their own insight on life, the Paul brothers were still slaves inferior to white men. Mr. Garner treated them very well, but the culture at the time still allowed for a superior master and subservient black slaves; thus dehumanizing one group of people in front of another. Their last names are also all Garner, which is the last name of their owner. This marks them as Garner’s property, once again showing a slave’s lack of any type of ownership.
Throughout history and throughout the world, black slaves were literally treated like animals. They were disciplined and trained with whips and chains as animals would be. Similar to animals, the slaves at Sweet Home were often whipped and tortured by their owners to discipline and train them. “One crazy, one sold, one missing, one burnt and me licking iron with my hands crossed behind me. The last of the Sweet Home men.” (Morrison pg. 43). Iron bits are very similarly to a horse bit. The main purpose for the device acts as a form of punishment. It would prevent a slave from talking and would form a type of cage that encases the entire head. They were typically used on slaves who were believed to defy their master’s orders or have eaten more than their fair share of food. They were being punished for basic human rights we now call freedom of speech and free will. This type of punishment is unimaginable and absolutely unacceptable to be used on humans or animals in today’s times.
In the example above, we see that black slaves were treated similar to animals. In the following passage from the book, we will examine a treatment in which black slaves are treated worse than animals are. This passage comes while Paul D is wearing the iron bit as a punishment.
“Mister, he looked so .. free. Better than me. Stronger, tougher. Son a bitch couldn’t even get out the shell by hisself but he was still king and I was …” Paul D stopped and squeezed his left hand with his right. He held it that way long enough for it and the world to quiet down and let him go on. “Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn’t allowed to be and stay what I was. Even if you cooked him you’d be cooking a rooster named Mister. But wasn’t no way I’d ever be Paul D again, living or dead. Schoolteacher changed me. I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub.” (Morrison pg. 43)
This entire quote is a perfect illustration of the point made above about slaves being treated worse than animals. Paul D is sitting with his hands cuffed behind him and an iron bit in his mouth, while a mere rooster is roaming around freely to do what he wills. Paul D calls this helpless rooster a “king” in comparison to him. The term king that is used in this passage is quite interesting, as it represents free will and a type of dominance over its people, or in this case, over black slaves. This king-like rooster was going to be potential food that their masters would kill and eat, but Paul D was even below that. In essence, even if Schoolteacher were to kill Paul D and eat him, that action would put Paul D and Mister on the same level each other. If possible, Paul D claims that he is below that type of treatment.
The type of dehumanization these slaves had been forced to go through is unimaginably painful. It plays with their self-image and crushes their confidence. This eventually forces them to become insecure about their present and future. Paul D specifically says that because of those experiences, “wasn’t no way I’d ever be Paul D again, living or dead.” He is indirectly describing these belittling actions as degrading him to a point where he feels like he’s been changed forever. “Schoolteacher changed me.” Before Schoolteacher, Paul D’s master was Mr. Garner, a man who prided himself for encouraging his slaves to think for themselves and to make their own decisions. Under Mr. Garner, Paul D was treated like a human being and a man in his own right. Under Schoolteacher, he sees that his manhood is not an essential trait and that it belongs to the will of his master. His identity in his current life is completely shattered due to the traumatic experiences he has faced in his past.
In conclusion, the heinous acts of slavery practiced all around the world truly knew no bounds. In Beloved, these slaves are seen as burdensome animals and not as equal human beings. Not only is this how slave owners would think of and treat the slaves, but the slaves themselves began to believe it as well. Along the way of being dehumanized and being degraded as objects with no rights or humane treatments, these slaves began to believe that the experiences they went through were actions that changed them forever. Throughout their lives, we see that the characters are unable to claim themselves as their own individuals and because of their horrible treatment, this affects them greatly in different parts of their future.