"We are all trying to leave our bodies behind... It is hard to make yourself die forever..." - Beloved, A Slaves Journey to America

Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, follows the story of escaped slaves living at a house, 124. Here at 124 Sethe and her daughter Denver are visited by Beloved, a character that may or may not be real. Beloved just happens to be the name of Sethe’s daughter, whom she killed years ago. Regardless of the actual state of being Beloved seems to be, she changes things at 124 and provides insight into the past.

            Towards the end of the book Beloved describes an event where she is crouching in a crowded room, surrounded by people who are crouching as well or who are dead. This passage starts on page 248. She is watching all the people around her. Some people have faces, some don’t, some are trying to die, and some are already dead. Beloved describes these just horrible, gruesome conditions. The “rats do not wait for [them] to sleep” (248). Everyone in this room are “trying to leave [their] bodies behind” (249). The people here are trying to die because death is a better option than their current situation. Beloved also mentions getting “food” (which is a loose term to what they actually receive) from the men without skin. These men, though not specified, most likely refer to white men.

            This chapter is describing the horrible transition black people were forced to make between Africa and the Americas. The people of Africa were taken from their homes and were later transported on boats, with terrible conditions, to America where their lives would be changed forever. I went to Africa last summer and while I was there I visited two different slave castles on the coast of Ghana. This is where slaves were kept before being put on a boat. We toured the castles and learned about what life was like for a slave while staying in these castles. Despite the term “castle”, their stay there was horrible. Most slaves would stay in the dungeons. These were large rooms that were made completely out of stone. It was cold, there was horrible air circulation, and almost no light being let into the room. Slaves would have no choice but to constantly stand due to the over-crowed rooms. There were some rooms where the owner of the castle could look down at all the slaves. Here is where the owner would chose women to rape. Apart from the main dungeons there were also rooms which slaves knew, once you were forced in that room you didn’t come out. Those rooms were completely dark, and very small. They even had skulls engraved over the entrance. These rooms were kept for slaves who misbehaved. Most slaves spent the most of a few weeks in these castles before they were shipped out to America. There the boats were just as bad. They were crowded. People died of diseases. Beloved seems to be describing the time on the boats. She watches people die and is frequently looking for a face in the crowds. She sees the face but then loses it again. She is worried and says that she “cannot lose her again” (250). She chases after the face and then she “is gone  now [she] is her face [her] own face has left” (252). The end of the chapter has Beloved coming out of the water and realizing that she isn’t not dead. It is then uncovered that it was Sethe’s face she was looking for. To me Beloved coming out of this water is her actually coming out of the river and finding 124 where Sethe is waiting for her.

            This chapter was very interesting to me having actually experienced being in a slave castle. I stood in the dungeons where women were chosen to be raped. I stood where slaves were pressed against each other with no room to sit or even to go to the bathroom. I stood in the rooms where slaves were left to die after misbehaving. I could really picture the gruesome events being described in this chapter. Although this chapter is being told through Beloved’s perspective, which can’t always be trusted, I think it resonates well with the reader. Slaves really went through horrible conditions to just get to America where they were treated even worse. It really gets you to think about how horrible it must have been to leave your home and travel across oceans where all you care about in those moments is finding your family. It is horrible to read about how poorly other human beings were treated.

This is one of the slave castles in Ghana, Africa.