In Beloved, slavery is apparent everywhere. Slavery is something that dehumanizes African Americans and embeds it in their minds. Beloved talks about the four horsemen riding towards 124, before Sethe killed Beloved. The book Beloved says, "When the four horsemen came-- schoolteacher, one nephew, one slave catcher, and a sheriff. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are first seen in the last book of the new testament in the bible. The four horsemen are often seen as symbolizing conquest, war, famine, and death. If you look at slavery in Beloved, you can see how the four horsemen are applied to racism and what was going on at the time for African Americans. All of the four horsemen combined have the ability to cause destruction and slavery is a combination of these four symbols.
The first horsemen represents conquest. In terms of slavery, conquest is everything. Slavery is all about controlling people using force and destruction. Over the years, slavery has been able to control African Americans from birth until death, separate families, and dehumanize and subjugate people. Racism and slavery were able to and in some cases still rule over not only the United States but the world. Slavery has been seen everywhere, showing its ability to take over people's lives and embed racism into peoples minds forever. The second horsemen represents war. This is pretty easily seen during this time period through the Civil War and slave rebellions across the south. The only way for slavery to end was through war and the death of people controlling it. Slavery and racism had the ability to apply rules and laws to African Americans and their only way to become freed of these laws was to fight for it and risk their lives. The third horsemen symbolizes famine. Famine is seen all across slavery through the widespread malnutrition, starvation, diseases, and increased mortality rates of African Americans. The conditions that these slaves lived under were that of animals. Slave masters did not care about the well being of their slaves; all they cared about was them being able to do there work and not rebel. The final horsemen represents death. In slavery, death is seen everywhere through hangings of slaves for not doing proper things. Slaves were killed for trying to escape, rebelling, and even not doing there work. Even if they were not killed, they were constantly beaten and whipped.
The four horsemen are seen throughout slavery in all different aspects. The four horsemen riding to 124, the schoolteacher, nephew, slave catcher, and the sheriff are all representing either conquest, famine, war, and death
This is a very interesting perspective on the four horseman. I never would have thought of the men to symbolize anything, but upon reflection, I understand what you're saying. I think your analysis was very accurate for the times that the slaves endured. Each horseman represents a true struggle that they endured, both literally and metaphorically.
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