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On Toni Morrison’s bday, I’m thinking a lot about the end of her masterpiece Beloved in relationship to the @WoodsonCenter’s #1776woodson project (a direct response to the #1619Project). #twitterstorians
@WoodsonCenter Beloved’s short final chapter's through-line is a repeated phrase: “It was not a story to pass on” (shifted to “This is not a story to pass on” for its final repetition). The section's overtone is forgetting, suggesting the phrase's literal meaning (don’t pass this story on).
@WoodsonCenter That desire to forget—the character of Beloved, but also the histories of enslavement, slave trade, slavery's horrors, & esp what they demand of all those affected by them of which she’s a living reminder—is entirely understandable & to some degree even necessary for survival.
