Days Of Future Past By Toni Morrison

    Since the beginning of American history, the black race has been the inferior race during times of slavery and times of freedom for black people. They have had to fight to be seen as legitimate first-class citizens, whether that be through slave uprisings in the pre-civil war era, the civil rights movement in the mid-1900’s, or the Black Lives Matter campaign that was started in 2013. Though not everyone has lived an easy life, and not everyone will, the people who have had it the hardest were the enslaved African-Americans in the early stages of our country.

This country is known for two horrific acts against mankind, the inhumane treatment of the American Indians and the enslavement of African-Americans. Both groups are still affected today and this essay will look at how White Americans are still reaping benefits today. The number of slaves brought to North America, South America, and the Caribbean was off the wall as between 1619 and the end of slavery approximately 9.6 and 10.8 were forcibly brought over from Africa (Mintz, 2009). The numbers rose from 36,000 a year in the early 1700s to almost 80,000 a year during the 1780s, the peak of the tragic importation (Mintz, 2009). Most were not brought to the United States, but by 1825 the United States and a quarter of the slaves because the death rate was much higher in other areas of the Americas (Mintz, 2009). The slaves in this country were more removed from their African roots as by 1850, most of the slaves in the Caribbean were born in Africa where those in the United States had been there for several generations (Mintz, 2009). Many of their traditions and customs were taken away or forgotten. Maybe this is why it has taken African-Americans in this country longer to discover their roots than those of other areas.

African-Americans have suffered the greatest indignity in the history of the humankind. Millions of African-Americans were enslaved throughout the United States from the Colonial Era until the end Civil War during which they were brutalized, murdered, kidnapped, raped, and deprived of their natural rights. Meanwhile, African-Americans have fought in every single war to secure America’s

Slavery has been entwined with American history ever since Dutch traders brought twenty captive Africans to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Slavery in America is a subject with minimal truths and stories rarely told. The public school system excludes the fact that eight of the first twelve American presidents were major slaveholders. Emancipation brought freedom, but not approximation. The civil rights movement killed Jim Crow, but shadows remained. Affirmative Action created opportunities, but racism continues.

Q. Discuss how many characters describe Sula’s birthmark which looks different to several people in The Bottom. Does the birthmark reflect their fears or dreams? How so?

When we hear the terms “slave” or “slave trade” the first thing that comes to mind is African Americans. Slave trade a term taught often in history classes has a meaning that has now become synonymous with African American. There term trade summons up images of exchanging goods for service. The sad truth is that this has not become a common sequence, almost like a math equation whose answer is always African American. Some useful ways to talk about slave trade is by restoring humanity to the millions who died under the racial global order. By referring to slave trade as “european slave trade” we are able to disconnect the word african from slave trade however, it gives the audience the wrong idea concerning the awful things these people went through. We need to bring humanity back to the name of the African Americans.

Even though black people have descendants who suffered much more inequality issues than they have faced nowadays, they still have to deal with this historical problem in different ways. The wealth gap between whites and blacks is huge, “every extra dollar of income earned by whites generates $5.19 in new wealth over 25 years while another dollar of income for a black family adds a mere 69 cents to its bottom line (Starkman)”. These numbers show us that we still live in a segregated

Sula by Toni Morrison, is a book about a black female and the various events throughout her life. The majority of these events were at the fault of Sula, but because of her past she did not know, or could not understand any better. Sula became the woman that she was because of the people and events that were around her during her childhood.

One of the points that is consistently brought up in Toni Morrison’s Paradise is that of the all black town “Ruby”. Paradise uses the setting of Oklahoma to discuss how many black towns are shaped by past history and religion. While the town in this novel is fictional, there have been real all black towns in the United States, and it seems that these towns influenced many aspects of the town Ruby, which is why it is so easy to imagine that the story could actually be real. Many authors have written in general about the novel, and specifically about the town within it.

Since the beginning of history around the 1600’s slavery was common, and people were used to pick crops and do other things their owners required of them. Slavery lasted till around the late 1800’s when the 13th amendment was adopted and slavery was abolished. In the 20th and 21st century is when African Americans were starting to be treated as first class citizens. Today one of the most powerful men in the United States is an African American; he holds the highest seat in office. He is the commander and chief, President Obama. Over a century ago people would have thought this to be impossible.

Growing up, I grew with a family that was bilingual in Spanish and English. Some in my family speaks mainly Spanish. Specifically my Tía Lupe. However learning English was my family's main priority, especially enunciation, being able to form fluent sentences in English was essential for future occupations. But mainly we were taught on how we should adapt with new new generations-new languages. As Toni Morrison has stated, new generations should learn from the past but must form their own answers and opinions. Yet maintain the old. Like the old lady in her story who doesn't give a straight answer to the young people, for it is in their “hands.”

At first when reading the story, I cannot help but feel no compassion for Sethe and her situation. I could not really understand why she believed murdering her child was the only option. However, as the story continued I got a greater understanding of her hardships through Toni Morison’s depiction of the horrid experiences that Sethe faced while at Sweet Home. While a slave at Sweet home she decided she was going to kill her children and then herself, but her plan to murder made me realize that the reasoning for the killings were in a way- justified. She knew that as soon as her daughter was born into the world, she was considered a slave just

My independent reading book, Beloved by Toni Morrison, was so full of heavy emotion. I really admire Toni Morrison’s use of language. She gives so much detail that I feel like I am there experiencing everything that Sethe is experiencing. She creates an irie suspense that bad things have happened in Sethe’s past and reveals them one by one as Sethe remember and lives through these memories. Morrison beautifully conveys the message that the past cannot be forgotten, it is always to be with us no matter how much we say we have forgotten it. The horrid memories that we put to death will always hurt, because “anything dead coming back to life hurts.” (Morrison)

Upon Sethe’s arrival she was desperately wanted by the male slaves at the plantation. Rather than forcing her to any damaging actions, they “decided to let her be” (Morrison 12). Sethe was given the choice to pick her husband and had the opportunity to become a mother. During one of Sethe’s many flashbacks she states that Sweet Home was “a blessing…” (Morrison 28). Sweet Home created a benevolent and loving woman that looked forward to a happy life. Unfortunately, Sethe’s fate was transformed once Sweet Home was under the control of the school teacher. The harmful community that the schoolteacher invoked on Sweet Home was the reason Sethe escaped. She had never experienced abuse at Sweet Home until the schoolteacher “punched the glittering iron out of Sethe’s eyes...” (Morrison 11). Sethe’s profound injuries were a constant reminder of the her enslavement. Considering that “those boys come in there and took [her] milk” (Morrison 19), she could no longer wait and had to run. Her milk was precious to her because it was the only way she could nourish her children. Because of Sethe’s incidents with Sweet Home, she viewed 124 as a safe haven that was “ outside the cultural domain of the white people…” and the colored people of Cincinnati that constantly damaged her (Jesser). The constant trauma Sethe endured at Sweet Home caused her to become reserved and

“500 years later” is a documentary filmed the tragic and inequality treatment for African people after the slave trade. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, European colonists increasingly turned African slaves for labor to Caribbean and Europe. In the 200 years of slave trade, hundreds millions of African slaves were shipped to America, Caribbean and Europe. The Black inferiority and White supremacy is still dominate in the Western societies and it results in the poor health and education, failure in self-identity, crime and poverty for Black people. And the racial inequality and mental hurt in Black people is passed from one generation to the next.