Toni Morrison based her novel Beloved off of the story of a real escaped slave, Margaret Garner. She had 4 children 2 boys aged 4 and 6, a daughter Mary aged 2 and a half, and an infant daughter, Priscilla. Finding herself surrounded by slave catchers, she was prepared to kill her children and herself rather than return to slavery. She killed Mary before being caught, so Beloved is representative of Mary.
There are a few things that were changed in the novel. In Garner's case, her husband Robert Garner was holding off the slave catchers, apparently even being successful in wounding one of them, while in Beloved, Halle wasn't present. Also, in Beloved, only Sethe and Denver went to prison, while in the real story, the whole family was moved to prison. Sethe ended up staying in Ohio at 124 while Garner ended up fleeing to Arkansas.
It's interesting to compare and contrast the differences in the stories, and consider why Morrison wrote it that way. I think the historical context of this novel makes it all the more interesting.
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