In Beloved, we learn about the history and legacy of slavery from Sethe, Paul D, Stamp Paid, and Baby Suggs. Morrison writes history with the historical voices of the people without the right to speak, and Beloved recalls a history that had been lost – either due to wanting to forget - as in the case of Paul D's iron bit. Beloved varies in tense between the close and distant pasts. It also includes irregular, harsh shifts to the present tense. In Toni Morrison's Beloved, the physical, emotional, and spiritual destruction caused by slavery continue to haunt those characters who were former slaves even in freedom.
             The most dangerous of slavery's effects is its negative impact on the former slaves' sense of self. Paul D is so separated from himself that at one point he cannot tell whether the screaming he hears is his own or someone else. Slaves were told they were less than human and were traded as merchandise whose worth could be expressed in dollars. Paul D is very insecure about whether or not he could possibly be a real man and he constantly wonders about his value as a person. Sethe was also treated less
             than human. She once walked in on Schoolteacher giving his students a lesson on her animal characteristics. She seems to be separated from herself and filling with self hatred. She sees a part of herself as her children. Denver her identity with Beloved's, and Beloved feels herself becoming physically falling apart. Slavery has also limited Baby Suggs self-conception by wrecking her family and denying her the opportunity to be a true wife, sister, daughter, or mother. Since they are unable to believe in their own existences Baby Suggs and Paul D is emotional. While Paul D was a slave, he developed self-defeating coping strategies to protect him from the emotional pain he was forced to suffer through. Any feelings he had were locked up in the rusted "tobacco tin" in his heart. Paul D desc...