Coined by the scholar and critic Saidiya Hartman, who herself builds on the work of Hazel V. Carby and Hortense Spillers, the afterlife of slavery identifies the ways in which American civic and popular culture, public and private life, are haunted by the traumas not only of chattel slavery but also of the unfinished project of abolition. Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) is routinely cited as both an inspiration for and exemplum of this interpretive lens. However, over twenty years after the publication of the novel, Morrison grappled with the question of whether one could imagine life outside the parameters of what would come to be known as the afterlife of slavery. In A Mercy (2008), we see Morrison fabulating social intimacy and social conflict beyond, which is to say before, a predetermined fate. This lecture assesses the compatibility of this fictional project with the afterlife of slavery, with special attention to records showing how Morrison guided the publication of her book.