Essay on the dehumanisation of slaves in "Beloved" - Toni Morrison

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“bit in my mouth”, getting proper sleep, eating decent food, drinking enough water, having leisure time and being able to form their own family with someone they truly loved. Instead they got raped, harassed and starved.

Finally, African Americans suffer from dehumanisation by their lack of simple and basic human rights. Cruelty and hatred leads men to do terrible things causing others to feel powerless and like less of a person: ”They beat you and you was pregnant?”, slaves get no respect at all, and their wellbeing is only considered when it advantages the master. White people have a horrible attitude towards everyone they consider inferior " A patroller passing would have sniggered to see two throw-away people, lawless outlaws--a slave and barefoot white woman within unpinned hair--wrapping a ten-minute-old baby in the rags they wore.” Fake understanding and non-sincere sympathy is just as hurtful and dehumanising as not hiding disgust toward another person. "It had been a long time since anybody sat at their table, their sympathetic voices called liar by the revulsion in their eyes.”

The atrocities of slavery know no bounds. Its devices leave lives ruined families pulled apart and countless people dead. Yet many looked away or accepted it as a necessary part of society, even claiming it was beneficial to all. The only way this logic works is if the slaves are seen as less than human, people who cannot be trusted to take care of themselves. Therefore, Toni Morrison makes it a recurring theme in “Beloved” to denounce the cruelty, savagery and inhumanity of it all.

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