Toni Morrison’s Beloved presents the painful effects of slavery on a variety of characters even after freedom. The novel takes place in Ohio of 1873, after the Civil War. It also includes flashbacks to the events building up to the present time. The story is centered on Sethe, a former slave and a mother of four. She lives with her daughter Denver as well as a ghost that is believed to be her dead daughter. Early in the story she is visited by Paul D, also a former slave that worked on the same Kentucky plantation as her. Focusing on events due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1856, the dangerous effects of slavery are revealed through Sethe, her children, and Paul D. Eighteen years before the novel begins, Sethe managed to escape her plantation
