How Slavery Affects the Institution of Marriage by novel The Beloved - Essay Example

How Slavery Affects the of Marriage The slavery dehumanizes people, and its characteristicsinclude psychological and physical control, possession, and ownership. By ownership, it means the masters are entitled to the labour and bodies of their slaves, while possession means the master control and manipulate the slaves’ psychology in the slave-master relationship, to an extent of convincing and making the slaves believe that the slavery institution is justified (Maschler 4). Morrison’s novel The Beloved has a setting in the era after the civil war, a period where slaves had just been freed. Morrison uses a variety of power relations to show the consequences of the civil war, however, from the black perspective. She mainly focuses on master, slave, and marriage (Fultz 11). Of the three, the master holds the most authority, the slave is victimized, and the marriage institution suffers because of the exploitative relationship between the master and slave. According to Maschler, women are important players in the marriage institution, and therefore, the effects of slavery on slave women will affect the entire institution of marriage (6). Tolman notes that in Morrison’s The Beloved, women are portrayed as having unconditional love for their children and families, although mothers are not portrayed as perfect or flawless (4). However, motherhood, which is equally important in marriage, is greatly affected by slavery, as mothers in slavery underwent great troubles to raise their children. In this novel, Morrison shows women as the central figures in families of former slaves. The men are often missing because of the slavery heritage. In this case, men were still regarded part of the family. However, they did not have time for their families, and could hence not play the main role in the family. During the slavery period, men were sold, while some escaped slavery. This has continued to affect the psyche of women who experienced this (Tolman 9). During slavery, the society was paternalistic, and women headed families, as Morrison shows in his novel. The women were used to living without their men around. This is because black men would be sent away, or would leave their families for reasons related to slavery. On the other hand, women could not leave; they were caged in their homes, as they were responsible for the upbringing of their children. Davis argues that this largely denied these women their freedom as they were forced to stay at home and could not leave. This plunged the women in psychological and economic problems (35). Therefore, slavery, in Morrison’s novel affected mothers as they are shown as exhibiting a level of self-sacrifice and enduring humiliation. The fact that they had to bring up their children without their husbands and teach the children to be proud of themselves shows the kind of endurance they possessed (Maschler 4). Morrison shows that the main problem of women in slavery was not the fact that they were living in a patriarchal society, neither was it because of the hardship they faced while raising their children, rather, it is the aspect of racism in the society, as well as the effects of slavery. This way, most women were not expected to raise any children as slavery and racism posed as the biggest obstacles in the marriage institution. Therefore, as Shaffer and Regosin note, today, this assumption remains in countries that were the most affected by slavery and racism. The historical legacy of slavery and racism has deterred most women from entering into the institution of marriage and raising children there (23). When men were forced to abandon their families due to slavery, women were left as the sole providers in their families, undergoing emotional and financial strains. They however could not escape this as they had their children to protect. Thus, it is this protection of their children, which cost the women back then, as it resulted in their misery (Shaffer and Regosin 30). In slavery, men working in the fields away from their homes were restricted from any kind of communication with their families. They were also expected not to show affection to each other. Similarly, in order to increase the population of slaves, the young women were forced to give birth to as many children as possible. The children of slaves did not experience any parental love as the slave-owners took them away. Their mothers had to instead take care of the slave owners’ children. In addition, the women’s husbands did not participate in the upbringing of their children and played no important role in the lives of their wives. It was equally hard for men to live their normal life after slavery as they were emotionally disturbed by their experiences in slavery. This therefore, was demeaning to the slave marriages (Cott 19). According to Tolman, the impact of slavery on the marriage institution is an aspect that still raises concerns today. Most modern scholars are convinced that slavery is the major contributor to the weak and feeble position men hold in marriages (4). Most modern marriages and families lack a strong, influential position of the man as head of family. Therefore, most families are matrifocal, as they have the woman playing the most important roles in the family. This is a common occurrence both during slavery and after the emancipation of slaves (6-7). The most affected are the black marriages, as these share the history of the evils in slavery, and most were those children, who missed a healthy upbringing, and depended on their mothers only for all help. This is why today, most black families prioritize their families. Slave masters were strict and did not allow slaves to legally marry. If married, the slave families were not recognized (Tolman 7-8). Similarly, the slave parents had no control over the life of their children, as the masters took them up. Slave parents lacked a legal claim over their children, and the marriage institution was disabled as husbands and wives could not live together with their children, as a normal family should. They could only visit each other if their masters allowed them, which mostly they did not allow. The greatest effect of this was that many marriages of the slaves experienced long periods without the presence of the men due to the distance factor. Slave children therefore lacked total parental love (Cott 33). According to Tolman, the separation of slave families worked against the capability of families to function normally, as this resulted in dysfunctional families. The family members were now not at liberty to share family responsibilities, as well as providing each other with love and affection. All slave families were victims of family separation. This therefore made all slave marriages to be marred by high degrees of insecurity. To prove this reality, statistics were conducted between 1864 and 1865. These showed that in four of African American marriages, one of the marriages suffered permanent separation of their spouse at an early period (9-10). Tolman also argues that, the failure of slave men to provide care and support in their marriage negatively affected their masculinity and ego. In marriages with children, the aspect of control in children was downplayed due to lack of attention from both father and mother to their children. This therefore compromised the level of discipline in slave families, as neither of the parents was wholly available to conduct punishment of the children when they went wrong. The discipline of slave children, a role of slave parents, was shifted to the slave masters. This instance undermined the importance of slave parents, as well as their authority, as the slave masters disciplined the slave children in the presence of their slave parents. In addition, studies show that slave marriages were faced with a high infant mortality rate. The children of most slaves died while they were under 1 year of age. This was a high mortality rate, which could not compare to that of the whites. All these challenges in slave families have forced scholars to believe that slave marriages were divided, matrifocal, and largely pathological. Most scholars agree that today, most black marriages and families have become a tangle of pathology. The element of matrifocality, in which the woman was the main player in marriage and family has had a negative influence even on today’s black marriages (10-15). Fultz notes that, the history of black people today is reflected in their culture, spirituality, and love of the family unit. Black people today consider mothers as central and important in the family. However, black mothers today are still under the evils of racism, whereby their relationship with the community is complicated due to the impact of slavery, which left many emotional scars on people (40). Morrison therefore depicts the marriage institution as being affected due to the mothers’ and other individuals’ torment by the haunting memories of slavery and racism. Conclusively, the institution of slavery is dehumanizing and often results in the commodification of human beings, which is derogatory to their dignity and human rights. Slavery that was practised in the past did not consider the human rights of the slaves as this practice exploited the slaves publicly. The voiceless slaves had no one to address their plight. Slavery involves the physical and psychological manipulation of the slaves by the masters. This way, the slaves do not have power to make their own independent decisions in their lives. Instead, their masters make these decisions for them and mostly, this impact negatively on the slaves. Slavery in the past therefore, affected the entire life of the slaves in a negative manner. More specifically, the social relationships of the slaves were affected adversely. Since slavery involved the trading of slaves, these slaves were moved away from their communities and their families. This relocation to new places always detached them from their loved ones, therefore, resulting in their alienation. This way, their marriage life and family ties are cut from them. The institution of marriage was therefore, largely affected and threatened by slavery. Slaves were not allowed to marry legally, and if they married informally, the slave masters placed many obstacles in their ways. Slavery also separated wives and husbands, leaving the family responsibilities to the woman, and this resulted in their emotional and financial strains. The slave children brought up single-handedly by their mothers lacked fatherly love hence did not experience a healthy development. All these are vital issues in marriage, which slavery downplayed. Although slavery is history now, it left psychological scars on black mothers, and was a threat to the marriage institution. Works Cited Cott, Nancy. “Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation.” New York: Harvard University Press, 2002. Davis, David. “The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture.” London: Oxford University Press, 1988. Fultz, Lucille. “Toni Morrison: Playing With Difference.” New York: University of Illinois Press, 2003. Maschler, Sabine. “The effects of slavery on the female characters in Toni Morrison ́s Beloved.” New Jersey: GRIN Verlag, 2007. Shaffer, Donald & Regosin, Elizabeth. “Voices of Emancipation: Understanding Slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction through the U.S. Pension Bureau Files.” London: NYU Press, 2008. Tolman, Tristan. “Africa-American Research: The Effects of Slavery and Emancipation on African-American Families and Family History Research.” Crossroads. Pdf. March 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2012 < http://www.leaveafamilylegacy.com/African_American_Families.pdf> Read More