Describe the relationships that slave mothers have with their children in the novel, Beloved.

In many respects, Beloved is a story about motherhood and how slavery impacted Black women’s ability to be good mothers. Starting with Baby Suggs, who had all but one of her children sold to plantations far away from her, it’s clear that slavery erected many physical barriers between a mother and her children. Sometimes these barriers existed even on the same plantation, as Sethe and her mother demonstrate. As Sethe’s mother toiled in the fields, another woman assigned to look after the plantation’s children raised Sethe. This left little time for Sethe and her mother to bond and build a relationship (Morrison 111). As a result, the physical barrier became an emotional one as well.

Looking at Sethe, we see slavery’s impact on Black mothers at its most extreme. Rather than watch her children become slaves, Sethe attempted to kill them. At first glance, Sethe’s actions seem opposite to our expectations of a mother’s behavior. Everyone who witnessed her behavior, from Stamp Paid to the schoolteacher, struggles to comprehend her seemingly evil and barbaric act. However, if we consider the idea that a slave’s life is a fate worse than death, Sethe’s actions become easier to understand. She believed she was being a good mother by sparing her children from slavery and all its horrors. However, since Sethe became a social pariah after her actions, it’s clear that very few agree with her reasoning.

Sethe also struggles with her guilt and has a strained relationship with her surviving children. Her children have been raised in a world where they are free, and thus they cannot comprehend the fear that fueled their mother’s actions. So both sides keep their distance, further widening the divide between mother and children. By the end of the novel, Sethe’s relationship with Denver seems to be improving. This is mostly because Denver recognized the damage Beloved inflicted on Sethe and assumed the responsibility of caring for Sethe. This is a reversal of the traditional mother-daughter relationship where a mother cares for her daughter, and it gives us a poetic sense of closure. Sethe is finally receiving the type of mothering that slavery had kept from her.