Beloved | Tyehimba Jess’ Article | Kalief Browder
Slavery has been a huge topic for our class this semester from Beloved to Tyehimba Jess’ article to Kalief Browder. For this project, I will be comparing these three stories and how slavery plays a major role in every single one of them. I’m going to prove that slavery never really ended. “I don’t think slavery ended in 1865, I think it evolved”, said Bryan Stevenson from the Equal Justice Initiative. What happened to Kalief Browder was more recent so he did not go through slavery. However, what he went through, most people would call modern day slavery.
Beloved
In Beloved, Sethe struggled throughout the entire story. As an escaped slave, it was hard taking care of herself in 1873.
Once schoolteacher took over Sweet Home, it was no longer a sweet place to live. He was a different kind of slave master. Sethe was beaten so badly that a tree appeared on her back. This tree represented multiple scars and because of it, she couldn’t feel anything. Slavery had a huge impact on Sethe. She hated it so much that she killed her own daughter, Beloved, so that she didn’t have to experience it. She would rather kill Beloved than to let her suffer.
Sethe never wants to think about the future because she still hasn’t healed from everything that happened in the past. Slavery didn’t only hurt her, it affected her entire family.
| Character | How slavery affected them |
|---|---|
| Sethe’s mother | She was hung. She told Sethe to remember her by the cross under her breast on her rib. |
| Baby Suggs | Baby Suggs was enjoying freedom by herself and didn’t like when Sethe and Denver came along. She also didn’t like when Sethe fed Denver blackberries while she was still a baby. Suggs stopped preaching because she felt as if she couldn’t win no matter what she did. Baby Suggs was still associated with slaves because she was with Sethe. |
| Paul D | After Sethe tells Paul D the story of what happened to Beloved, he tells Sethe that she is no different than an animal and is less than a human being because of what she did. |
| Beloved | Sethe killed Beloved to protect her from the horrors of slavery. After Sethe killed Beloved, Sethe wanted to lie down in the grave with her. But, she knew she couldn’t give up and had to keep fighting for the sake of her three living children. |
| Denver | Denver becomes lonely because her brothers left, her sister was murdered by her mom, and her grandmother died. At first, Denver had Sethe all to herself. When she began to share Sethe with Paul D and Beloved, she felt isolated. To cope with her loneliness, she went off into the woods. When Denver goes to her neighbor, Lady Jones’ house to learn, another student who goes by the name of Nelson Lord asked her a question. He asked, “didn’t your mother get locked away for murder” (Morrison 123). After that, Denver never went back to that house. Denver’s youth had been comprised of her fear of her mother and her hope for her father’s arrival. Denver confessed that she had loved Sethe out of fear. |
| Buglar & Howard | Sethe wounded her two boys, Buglar and Howard. They decided to run away after their mother tried to harm them. They feared that whatever it was that motivated Sethe to kill her children might resurface again one day. The only reason they survived was because Stamp Paid and the Sheriff stopped her. |
| Halle | Sethe’s husband, Halle, left her after he saw Schoolteacher’s nephews take Sethe’s milk. Instead of helping his wife, he abandoned her. |
She lost all of her family except for Denver, and her life was never the same. She tried killing her children because all she ever wanted was for them to be free. So much happened to Sethe during her life. For a while, she lost hope with unfortunate events happening one after the next. However, Sethe was a very strong woman and overcame adversity by staying firm and strong.
The 1619 Project, Tyehimba Jess’ Article
On page 58 of “The 1619 Project”, an article by Tyehimba Jess explains how blacks and fugitives were freed from slavery by American troops attacking Negro Fort, but nearly all the women and children were killed.
The people in this picture above relate back to Sethe in Beloved because they were running away just like Sethe. They were freed, yet still afraid. It was a constant struggle for runaway slaves because they were always hiding. They were never really free because they could not live their lives on their own terms. They couldn’t have fun because they had been scarred from years of slavery. The beatings and torment were always in the back of their head. Blacks weren’t treated the same either so they were afraid to go places. In the article, it says “with their sweat forging farms in unforgiving heat, never forgetting scars of the lash, fighting battle after battle for generations.” The slaves and Sethe will never forget their scars, but need to move forward from those experiences because it only holds them back. The past can be a dark and scary place to reflect back on. If you continue to confront it, it can be very difficult to come back to reality and see brighter days in the future.
Kalief Browder
Kalief Browder is a story that will never be forgotten. An innocent teenager, whose life was ruined by false accusations. All of the pain Kalief experienced is unbelievable and very comparable to slavery. Kalief Browder was accused of stealing a backpack and went to Rikers Island without trial. Rikers has become the most notorious jail in America. Browder was only sixteen years old and stayed there for three years. He went through so much pain and torture as a young teen. Even if Kalief was in prison for murder and got treated the way he did, it would be terrible. What makes it so much more worse is that Browder was innocent. He hadn’t done anything wrong and he was abused as if he was a terrible person. His situation was so disturbing that they shut down Rikers Island. Kalief was in solitary confinement for two years. He wasn’t only alone in solitary confinement, but was also starved and ignored for days.
Usually when someone gets out of prison, they are free and excited for a new journey. For Browder, life didn’t get better or easier for him. In fact, it got worse. He was threatened on multiple occasions and was also shot and stabbed. Everyone was after him because they thought he had money. He was all over the news and people were jealous of the attention he was getting. Kalief also had to go back to court. The first time he went to court, he was wrongfully accused of stealing a backpack and ended up getting abused in Rikers for three years. So, not going back to court for a chance of all of that happening again is completely understandable. I can’t imagine how terrifying that must’ve been for him.
Browder tried committing suicide five times at Rikers Island before doing it in his home on June 6, 2015. As a punishment of him attempting to hang himself, guards starved him. In 2013, Browder told HLN, “prior to going to jail, I never had any mental illnesses. I never tried to hurt myself, I never tried to kill myself, I never had any thoughts like that. I had stressful times prior to going to jail, but not like during jail. That was the worst experience that I ever went through in my whole life.” Kalief was a totally different guy before Rikers. His experiences in prison changed his entire thought process and attitude. Kalief Browder without a doubt experienced modern day slavery. According to Jennifer Gonnerman from the Huffington Post, “the death of Kalief Browder is an American tragedy almost beyond words.”
Social justice activist, Bryan Stevenson, of the Equal Justice Initiative said, “whether you were born in 2017 or 1930, you are affected by the environment we have created.”
We are all human beings and everyone should be created equal. God made us all different for a reason. We should not be judged because of the color of our skin. Everyone deserves the same amount of love, kindness, and respect regardless of what we look like.
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