Beloved: AO3 (biographical)

Morrison’s grandfather

• her grandfather was born a slave + she’s old enough to remember her grandfather and great grandmother

  • he grew up in a time where it was illegal for black people to read

• presents how what we view as history/the past isn’t that far away

• lived memory/experience

• sense of responsibility in writing

Howard University

• a historically black institution for her college education

• experienced racial segregation in a new way: racial hierarchy divided people of colour based on their skin tone

• the community still allowed her to make connections w other writers/artists/activists

• graduated w a Bachelor’s degree in English

religion

• when she was 12 she converted to Catholicism and was baptised under the name Anthony after Saint Anthony of Padua

• she later went by the nickname ‘Toni’ after this saint

familial influences

• father: saw a black man get lynched when he was older

• an embittered racist who found reason to distrust ‘every word and every gesture of every white man on earth’

• mother: taught Morrison the value of black women and their solidarity among one another - ‘a tightly woven net’

The Black Book

• a book by Hollis Lynch & K. Leroy Irvis in 1974

• it sought to compile & document the history of African Americans

• includes documents, photographs and narratives

• Morrison named the book as one of her key inspirations and references for ‘Beloved’ which gave her a historical basis by which to explore the African American experience after slavery