1874

1874 is the terminal point of the novel's present-tense action, the year in which the accumulated grief and haunting of 124 Bluestone Road finally break open. It is the year the community, which had shunned Sethe for eighteen years, gathers to drive out the ghost that has taken flesh, and the year Sethe, mistaking Edward Bodwin for schoolteacher, tries to kill him with an ice pick. It is also the year Paul D returns to find Sethe lying in Baby Suggs' bed, and tells her that she, not her children, is her own best thing. The year thus closes the novel's long reckoning with the past, offering a fragile but real possibility of a future.

The Year of the Misery's Aftermath

1874 is the year in which the consequences of the Misery, the infanticide that occurred eighteen years earlier, come to their fullest expression. The novel's present-tense narrative, which begins in 1873 with the house "spiteful" and the ghost active, moves through 1874 as the year of reckoning. It is the year Stamp Paid reflects that "Eighteen seventy-four and whitefolks were still on the loose," a statement that situates the personal tragedy of 124 within the broader context of Reconstruction-era violence: whole towns wiped clean of Negroes, eighty-seven lynchings in one year in Kentucky, four colored schools burned to the ground, grown men whipped like children, black women raped by the crew. The year is thus not merely a domestic turning point but a moment of national crisis, in which the promise of freedom remains unfulfilled and the threat of white violence is ever-present.

The Deterioration of Sethe and Beloved's Relationship

By 1874, the relationship between Sethe and Beloved has deteriorated into a doomsday truce. Sethe, having lost her job at Sawyer's Restaurant after arriving late too many times, devotes herself entirely to Beloved, who grows plumper and more demanding by the day. The thirty-eight dollars of life savings are spent on fancy food and bright clothes, and the three women—Sethe, Denver, and Beloved—look like "carnival women with nothing to do." Beloved takes the best of everything—the best chair, the biggest piece, the prettiest plate, the brightest ribbon—and the more she takes, the more Sethe talks, explaining and justifying her past actions. Beloved accuses Sethe of leaving her behind, of not smiling at her, and Sethe pleads for forgiveness, counting and listing her reasons. The bigger Beloved gets, the smaller Sethe becomes; the brighter Beloved's eyes, the more those eyes that used never to look away become slits of sleeplessness. Sethe no longer combs her hair or splashes her face with water; she sits in a corner chair licking her lips like a chastised child while Beloved eats up her life.

Denver's Departure and the Community's Response

In 1874, Denver, who has been watching her mother diminish, decides she must leave the yard and seek help. She goes first to Lady Jones, who gives her rice, four eggs, and tea, and tells her that no one can pay anyone for work they do themselves. Soon after, food begins to appear on the tree stump at the edge of the yard—a sack of white beans, a plate of cold rabbit meat, a basket of eggs—each with a name attached, so Denver can return the container and say thank you. The community, which had held its distance for eighteen years, begins to care for the family. Denver then goes to the Bodwins' house, where Janey Wagon, the servant, arranges for her to work nights. It is Janey who spreads the news that Sethe's dead daughter has come back to fix her, and the story grows until thirty women, led by Ella, gather outside 124 on a hot Friday afternoon in 1874. They pray, then they sing, and the sound breaks over Sethe like a wave, making her tremble like the baptized.

The Attack on Edward Bodwin and the Exorcism

On that same afternoon, Edward Bodwin drives a cart down Bluestone Road to pick up Denver for her first night of work. As he approaches the house, Sethe, standing in the doorway with Beloved, sees him and mistakes him for schoolteacher. She hears wings—little hummingbirds sticking needle beaks through her headcloth—and she flies. The ice pick is not in her hand; it is her hand. She runs at him, but Denver and the other women grab her, and Ella puts her fist in her jaw, knocking her down. When they look back at the house, Beloved is gone. The women see a naked, pregnant woman standing on the porch, but by the time they have subdued Sethe, she has disappeared. A little boy later reports seeing a naked woman with fish for hair cutting through the woods by the stream. The exorcism is complete, but it nearly costs Edward Bodwin his life; he never learns that Sethe was after him, believing instead that she was attacking one of the women.

Paul D's Return and the Possibility of Tomorrow

After Beloved's disappearance, Paul D returns to 124. He finds the house quiet, unloaded, just another weathered house needing repair. He climbs the white stairs, now wound with ribbons and bouquets, and finds Sethe in Baby Suggs' bed, lying under a quilt of merry colors, her eyes fixed on the window. She is singing a lullaby, "High Johnny, wide Johnny," and she tells him, "I made the ink, Paul D. He couldn't have done it if I hadn't made the ink." Paul D, remembering Denver's warning to be careful, tells her he will take care of her, that he will be there in the night. He asks if it is all right to heat up some water, and she asks, "And count my feet?" He steps closer and says, "Rub your feet." Sethe tells him that Beloved left her, that she was her best thing. Paul D, thinking of Sixo's words about the Thirty-Mile Woman, tells her, "You your best thing, Sethe. You are." The year 1874 thus ends not with the erasure of the past but with the possibility of a shared future, a "some kind of tomorrow" that Paul D offers as he takes her hand. The novel's final lines, however, remind the reader that Beloved's story is "not a story to pass on," and that her footprints by the stream come and go, until all trace is gone and the rest is weather.