Many Ran from It as seen in Toni Morrison’s Beloved “all persons held as slaves within’… ‘the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free’…’and the United States, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” The Emancipation Proclamation, although signed in the middle of the American Civil War, ordered the end of the practice of slavery in the United States. However, a white man’s note from the north could never truly liberate the slaves. A proclamation could not end slavery because the abuses of slavery were not purely a physical torture that burdened the slaves as they were in chains, it was also a prison for their state of mind, and the permanent brand that slavery left on its’ victims is apparent in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and is displayed powerfully through all the characters and events in the novel. The eternality of slavery, though, was particularly apparent in the character Paul D, and he experienced a remarkable shift in who he was as a human once he realized the truths about his condition, and although he tried to escape its grasps, he realized and learned to live with the fact that slavery will be a part of him until the day he dies.
The personality of Paul D changed dramatically throughout the almost quarter century described in Beloved, and what seems to have been the catalyst to most of these changes is the situations Paul D was thrown into. Paul D although a slave, was content with his life at Sweet Home, he even “grew up thinking that, of all the blacks in Kentucky, only the five of them were men” (147), referring to the five Sweet Home men. Paul D was happy at Sweet Home because he was almost naïve because of the half-freedoms he was given which kept him from having thoughts of dissent. These half freedoms, such as the ability to hunt and being able to speak freely, had such a resounding effect on Paul D’s psyche that even after Mr Garner died and the freedoms were taken away Paul D still needed “time to think about” (262) whether he would be willing to escape Sweet Home and his life of bondage, along with the other slaves. This period of Paul D’s life can be best described as complacent, as Paul D was willing to look past all the atrocities of his life because he was disillusioned and kept content by the thought that he was one of the best treated slaves alive. But be that as it may, Paul D only truly became alive once Garner was not. The death of Garner brought about changes in Paul D’s life that woke him up and began to mold him into the resilient human he eventually becomes, “Everything rested on Garner being alive. Without his life each of theirs fell to pieces” (259), and Paul D was able to pick up these pieces and turn them into something new.
The death of Garner made the slaves of Sweet Home become willing to escape, eventually including Paul D, and once he saw through the smoke that Garner had created in order to keep him tame he “will never [again] be suitable” (266) as Schoolteacher described him. Paul D finally realized why he should run from slavery, and registered that his life was hell and “everybody was on his own” (265) once his attempt to escape slavery failed. Paul D’s unsuitability to be enchained laid the foundations upon which Paul D lived out the rest of his days as a slave, because once he became unsuitable he was sold over to Mr Brandywine and almost immediately Paul D tried “to kill Brandeywine” (125) which led to Paul D being sent to a prison camp in Georgia-which he also escaped, and then he went on to escape “from Willmington, from Northpoint” (316), and each of the five times Paul D tried to escape further emphasized that he was no longer the proud Sweet Home man he started out as, he was now determined to run for his freedom. His willingness to run and fight any who tried to restrict his freedom prominently captured the change Paul D underwent, regardless if these changes were caused mostly by the circumstances he was forced to endure. Poetically, even though Paul D tried many times to run away from the institution of slavery it always caught back up to him and this is directly paralleled by the relatable human truth of slavery- that it forever kept its place in the minds and hearts of those who were a part of it, and the memories always returned. Slavery returned and made Sethe kill her daughter (194). Slavery returned and made Baby Suggs lose her faith (211).
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Slavery returned and made Denver feel unwelcome at school (121). But then slavery was abolished, slavery could no longer return, or so they thought. Almost immediately after slavery was officially eradicated by the end of the civil war, the truth that slavery was forever was realized by Paul D. Paul D believed he “should have been able to walk’…’the main roads” following the abolition of slavery but his hopes were thwarted when he saw “twelve dead blacks in the first eighteen miles” (317) from Selma to Mobile. The actions that racist southerners took against freed blacks however was not the only way in which slavery lived on forever. The ghost that haunts 124 seems to be a remnant and a reminder of the days of slavery, and once Paul D arrives to the home he fights the ghost and after the wreckage believes that “it was gone” (22). However, as time goes on Paul D sees that what he fought off at 124 remains alive “he thought he had made it safe, had gotten rid of the danger”, Paul D finally understood that the traumas of slavery lived on inside of Sethe and he could now see the effects and how they still showed up in Sethe’s life, decades later “this here Sethe was new’…’it scared him” (193). The remains of slavery lived on in Sethe, and although it scared Paul D once it was first made clear to him, he goes on to understand Sethe and can relate to her and all slaves through the truth that slavery stays with them, and he beautifully articulates this sentiment when he says “Sethe, me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow” (322).
The characters and even places-like the haunted home 124, in Toni Morrison’s Beloved all convey the human truth that the past leaves a permanent mark, and Morrison also relates this truth to the reality that all slaves faced, and the pains they had to withstand and keep inside of them for their entire lifetimes. The voice from the heavens may have demanded the freeing of the slaves, but the reality was slavery was more than just the cracking of the whip. Slavery also created a reliance where slaves needed their masters for food and habitation, and trying to restart their lives anywhere else was close to impossible. Even when communities welcomed ex-slaves, the horrors of slavery followed them everywhere, both mentally and through the abuses of those who still kept the hatred in their hearts alive. Beloved by Toni Morrison focuses on the real life remnants of slavery in its victims, while also creating a story in which the metaphysical reverbs of slavery are able to manifest themselves in a living being. In her story, Toni Morrison is able to follow the lives of certain characters, and in the life of Paul D she highlights how slavery had a changing definition and changed people and she reveals the truth that slavery did not end when the institution of slavery was abolished, and remained in its victims for life.
