Effects of Slavery on the African American Family

During the mid-1800s, it was challenging being a slave. Belonging to another human being instead of being free brought numerous hardships African Americans had to endure. It brought about unimaginable pain, frustration, disruption, and stress. In America, slavery was glorified, even though, families were separated and destroyed. Slavery made it tedious to have stability in families because of the effects it had on the African American people. After reading “How Affected African American Families” and “Narrative of Jenny Proctor,” slavery caused African American families to cope with separation, unfair marriage stipulations, horrible living condition, mistreatment and labor, and also the ending of slavery.

In this debate, the discussion will surround whether or not slavery destroyed the Black family. A family is a social unit living together and people descended from a common ancestor. The debate focuses on Wilma A. Dunaway who posits that slavery did destroy the Black family, and her opponent, Eugene D. Genovese, who says that slavery did not destroy the Black family. By analyzing Dunway, Genovese, and a host of other writers I have gather my own ideas for one side to agree with.

It was then that he became aware of his current status: a lowly slave that was considered to be a chattel. And it was then that he wanted his freedom. Meanwhile, the venom slave owner began to poison Sophia?s kind nature. Sadly, Douglass was once again a piece of meat and he no longer viewed the black race as one of the whites. Also, his views for white slave owners changed similarly; his heart was filled with abhorrence for them (Douglass 42). There were many times when Douglass thought about running away to become a free man, but there were few times when he was really determined to fulfill the risky and dangerous task. One of the few times came during the year when he worked for Edward Covey. Douglass became a field hand for the first time in his life. It was one of the few times he felt like a slave. He was not skilled in the backbreaking work required of him. Covey was a harsh and brutal slaveholder. Mr. Covey made his slaves work in all weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard in the field (Douglass 66). And if it wasn?t work, work, work, it was beatings, beatings, and beatings. Douglass was often whipped and battered for not working ?hard enough.? Under Covey, Douglass and the other slaves were treated as the lowlifes of society, as low as horses and pigs. After six months under Covey, Douglass lost interest in reading and the

This man mentally abuses his slaves by making them fear his constant watch. The fear is a direct result of the threat of punishment if they do not adhere to his strict rules: they will be beat. In beating his slaves, Covey turns them into just another body; he never sees their mind. Douglass wants to be move than just another body. He needs to free his mind in order to free his body. In order to gain his freedom, Douglass must use his body and physically fight Covey. Through this fight, he frees his mind of the fear of ever being whipped again. Douglass claims that he “was never again what might be called fairly whipped, though I remained a slave four years afterwards” (43). Through this episode, Douglass proves that first the mind must be liberated, and the body will eventually (maybe not immediately) follow.

The institution of American slavery was fraught with many heart wrenching tails of inhuman treatment endured by those of African descent. In his autobiography Frederick Douglass details the daily horrors slaves faced. In Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave he depicts the plight of slavery with such eloquence that only one having suffered through it could do. Douglass writes on many key topics in slave life such as separation of families, punishment, and the truth that would lead him to freedom, and how these things work to keep slavery intact.

Covey, the slave-breaker. On page 108 the book states “ Mr. Covey enjoyed the most unbounded reputation for being a first-rate overseer and negro-breaker. It was of considerable importance to him. That his reputation was at stake; and had he sent me--a boy about sixteen years old--to the public whipping-post, his reputation would have been lost; so, to save his reputation, he suffered me to go unpunished.” This quote explains if Mr. Covey had killed Douglass (according to lynch law) for putting a hand up against a white man, then other slaveholders/ breakers would have heard about it. This would have given Mr. Covey a bad reputation of a slave breaker. It would have showed that Mr. Covey was not capable of breaking a 16 year old he wouldn't be capable of breaking any slave. Nobody would want Mr. Covey to be their slave’s breaker and Mr. Covey would go out of business. Also the fight deemed Frederick more respect and less whipping. The fight with Mr. Covey was a big reason why Douglass ran away. It gave him empowerment and he says it rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom.He says it also recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired him again with a determination to be

In 1833 Douglass was sent to a “slave breaker” who flagellated him constantly in an effort to physically and mentally break him down. Finally after 6 months of working with covey in all kinds of weather conditions every day except Sunday, Douglass was “broken in body, soul, and spirit.”(Douglass 2064-2128) Douglass lost the will to do anything intellectually he was numbed expressively “my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died…” (Douglass 2064-2128). After enduring this treatment he tried to get protection from his former master and absconded to him. After this covey was set on beating Douglass to death and in a stable he tried where Douglass fought back and told covey “that he had used me like a brute for six months, and that I was determined to be used so no longer.”(Douglass 2064-2128) Only until Douglass seized this opportunity was he no longer subject to covey’s yoke of oppression. No longer bound his mind was free to soar and he was able to pen his autobiography in addition he was also an abolitionist who helped end slavery. His path through slavery was harsh and it took great patience to withstand that condition and to rise up. His experience of slavery was no different than any other slave of the time

The way the structure of family’s among slaves were effected, were by the sexploitation of slave women. Slave Owners, purposely impregnated slaves for financial reasons. These interracial children were being born into slavery, because of their mother being an African American slave and the laws saying that if you have any ounce of black in you, you were labeled as black. Slave owners created this practice to produce more slaves for their plantation. Fredrick Douglass, being an interracial kid and rumors that his father was white and may have been Captain Anthony, he was treated differently from all the other slaves on the plantation. Growing up, Douglass worked in the house instead of the fields. He had developed a relationship with the slave

Fittingly, they treated the slaves as if their family bonds were completely worthless – something they would never have imagined doing to a white man. This is illustrated through Douglass's relationship with his own mother, Harriet Bailey, whom he was separated from as an infant. As Douglass reminisced, "very little communication ever took place between us…I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial…I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger" (26). This passage depicts how the slaveholders became so convinced of the worthlessness of the slaves that they saw no reason to respect the vital bond between a mother and child. Consequently, the slaves' view of family fell askew. Although Douglass appeared to know that his mother was important and desired a relationship with her, her passing clearly did not ever sadden him. He also showed no affection for his brother and sisters, as he lacked the necessary interactions with them needed to form familial bondage. Additionally, slaveholders expressed extreme animosity towards the slave families by raping slave women, impregnating them, and then encouraging their white children to whip their half-black siblings. As a result of the dehumanizing behavior that slavery presents, slaves not only suffered and lost all of their freedoms, but also lost their entire family lives, which the slaveholders deemed necessary to

African American slave families were faced with hardships that white families simply did not have to consider. Most notably, the African American slave family had to constantly deal with the fact that their family was subject to change. They could not reasonably plan for the future since they had no way of knowing how long they would be likely to remain on a particular property. Moreover, the family itself did not hold any autonomy with regard to maintaining the family.

Before I started to read this article, I thought of many ways and experiences of how slavery affected black families to still have an impact on us today. I feel that, slavery impacted black families strongly. Some ways slavery impacted black families is by, the way we cook and prepare food, while slaves we had to find ways to cook food for our family, some other ways slavery has impacted black families today is also by, bringing black families close together by, giving us the urge to want to know about our people and where we came from, slavery today has given us independence to work and get our own, also, one of the most important ways I feel slavery has impacted black families today is by, bringing us closer to God.

Imagine being forced to work for people who have bought you, and not being treated equally due to your race. Well this act occurred during the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth century. This was known as slavery. African Americans were sold to Caucasians, where their freedom would be taken away from them. It was a consistent struggle to fight through the discrimination, that was occurring. African Americans who were willing to risk their lives had the ability to have freedom. However, it was a long crucial journey for people on the underground railroad. Even so, freedom wasn’t always guaranteed. Caucasians did awful things to African Americans, which will never be forgotten. The Pledge of Allegiance says “ … one nation, indivisible…” however, at one point we were not a nation. We were divided. To this day and in one hundred years we will always have that division, based on the act of slavery.

When she wanted to escape into freedom, her bonds to her children were so great that it was hard for her to leave them. Jacobs couldn't stand the suppression and constant abuse of her master. She couldn't leave her children. Her grandmother told her, "Stand by your children, and suffer with them till death. Nobody respects a mother who forsakes her children: and if you leave them, you will never have a happy moment."(Jacobs, 417)

Overall, Family was the most important to Jacob because even though she struggled through her life to have a family. Eventually she gets her family that she wanted and became a free slave. Even though her narrative story was inspirational to many African American women, also white women, she wanted to prove a point that slavery in the south was effecting the family from being sold to different slaveowners. She knew from the very first that her children were the most important people in her and wanted to run with them. However, Knowing the fact that she didn’t want to risk her whole life and her children to a person that brutally abused her. Therefore, In the end of the passage of Incident of the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacob describes about how

Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to