Beloved

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 law enforcement broke into the home, Garner attempted to kill her children, hoping to spare them from being returned to slavery. Before being caught, she succeeded in killing her two-year-old daughter, Mary, with a butcher knife. The family was then captured and re-enslaved. Gaining national attention, the public debated whether Garner should be charged with murder or destruction of property. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction a year after its publication, and was a finalist for the 1987 National Book Award. A survey of writers and literary critics compiled by The New York Times ranked it as the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006. It was adapted as a 1998 movie of the same name, starring Oprah Winfrey.