Examples Of Abuse In Frederick Douglass

Douglass argues in the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave that slavery is a barbarous system in which should be recognized and abolished as it takes away one’s innocence along with stimulating the utmost mental and physical damage. The corrupt mindset and ignorance that revolves around slavery hinders the individual from discovering their identity which is essentially inhumane. While most know details regarding their birth, it was different for slaves during this time as Douglass shared, “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant”(Douglass 1). It was common for majority of the slaves to be unaware of their origin.

The physical aspects of slavery have a negative effect on slaves’ and Frederick Douglass’ emotionally. Working everyday as a slave on minimal food and rest, can break down a person. Not doing the work that your master assigns a slave or if a slave does the work poorly, they may be whipped or have some other type of punishment forced upon them. Slave owners are extremely hard to please and are never satisfied, as stated by Frederick Douglass, “The longest days were too short for him, and the shortest nights were too

To begin with, Douglass talks about how they witnessed abuse. One example, Douglass writes about is when, he witnessed his master abusing a slave named Henny. It stated, "I have known him to tie her up early in the morning, and whip her before breakfast; leave her, go to the store,

Furthermore, Douglass also had to experience Physical Abuse towards him or to other slaves. As an example Douglass witness physical abuse towards his Aunt Hester when he was young. According to the text ''He commenced to lay on the heavy cow skin and soon the warm red blood come dripping to the floor'' (chapter 1 paragraph 10). Douglass relies how horrifying the abuse slaves get if they disobey their masters and he feared that he might get whipped and he knew that his master wouldn't care about his age. Another example of Physical Abuse is when he was older and his new master who is called Mr. Servere who abuses anybody who doesn't listen him. According to the text '' I have seen him whipping a woman causing the blood to run half an hour and

Douglass does not know when they he was born, like other slaves, but estimates that he might be 27-28 years old. His father was probably his first master, Captain Anthony, and his mother was Harriet Bailey, who was not allowed to see Douglass often and died when he was seven. He explains that the population of mixed-race children, who are considered as slaves, are increasing as a result of the masters raping their slaves. He recalls Captain Anthony’s overseer’s, Mr. Plummer’s, brutality. Captain was also brutal, whipping Douglass’ aunt, Aunt Hester, for liking another slave.

Douglass experienced the horrors of slavery in both his childhood and his adult life. During

Frederick Douglass (1845/1995), a famous abolitionist, wrote the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass telling readers of the mistreatment slaves endured from their white owners, both Christian and non-Christian. Douglass tells readers how Christians used the Bible to support their actions, which led them to be just as cruel, or in some cases more cruel than non-Christians. Through his personal experiences, Frederick Douglass tells the horrors of slavery and shows that Christians who used the Bible to support their actions were just as cruel as non-Christians. Through Douglass’s experiences, he is able to express to the readers the cruelty of slave masters.

Throughout the narrative Douglass often showed the perspective and hardships that he had to face while being a slave while also discussing the hardships that came from being a slave owner. Even though he himself being a slave never owned or could own slaves personally, he still portrayed both perspectives throughout the narrative. In the Narrative, Douglass often depicted the prominent damaging effects of slavery on the slaveholders. He often discussed both the corruptiveness and irresponsible power that came with owning slaves. Most slave owners in that particular time frame enjoyed the amount of power and control they had over a slave’s life. Which can be considered a

Frederick Douglass witnessed the first-hand mistreatment of slaves. “Mr. Severe whooped a woman causing the blood to run half an hour at the time in the midst of her crying children pleading for their mother’s release.’’ (Douglass pg. ) Slave-owners believed that the brutality of beating a slave would teach them to obey and would shape them to have better character. “They constantly lived in fear.”(Douglass pg.) Old Barney and young Barney constantly lived in fear because they never knew when they were going to be punished because the owner found some ridiculous thing about the horse that he did not think was up to par. “He spoke of how they claimed that the black had hit a man for hitting him, so he retaliated on the white man. By the time the slave got back his eyes were swollen shut and his arms were broke.”(Green Journal) Just because this black slave was trying to stand up and defend himself, he faced heavy consequences. Whites thought they justified the situation if they beat a slave until they physically are not equipped to do any work. They found pleasure and satisfaction out of such horror. “They treat us like animals, but tonight we will be forced to be their women.’’(Copper Sun) There is no justice in this! No penalty or consequence for rapeing a women because a man is too disgusting to keep to himself! These white men just used these slaves as toys instead of treating the women like humans beings. “It is only possible to justify treating people differently if there exists some factual difference between them that justifies such difference in treatment.”

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative paints a very real and powerful picture of slave life. During the time that his Narrative was written, some believed that black people were unable to contribute to society and should simply be used as workers for white people. He shows how white slave owners maintained power and control over their slaves by their brutal and inhumane treatment of them and by keeping them ignorant and uneducated.

In the Narrative, Douglass emphasizes how being a slave holder doesn’t just damage slaves, but slave holder families, as well. The

Slavery was the very economic foundation that built the United States of America. In establishing such nation, it was done so on the back of millions of African slaves. In this time period, it was imperative that slave owners portrayed the image of a “good” slave owner in the eyes of the public, this would include how the slave was fed along with treatment. In His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Frederick Douglass reveals the behind the scenes horrors that slaves encountered. From this point of view, the audience can better understand the neglect that came in many forms such as, malnourishment and abuse.

Not only were slaves not allowed to know their age, but they were separated from their family at as an infant because slaveowners wanted to “destroy the natural affection” between families (Douglass 20).

Frederick Douglass was a victim of slavery from birth until manhood, which exposed him first handedly to the barbaric and cruel treatment from slave masters and overseers. Aside from experiencing physical abuse, slaves were also subjected to prejudice and deprivation of human rights from a majority of the Caucasian population. The physical and social mistreatment of slaves blocked them from a life of freedom and security. Even though southerners held slaves in the lowest regard and treated them inhumanely, they heavily relief upon and benefitted from the institution of slavery. Frederick Douglass was not shy to comment on the South’s dependency on slavery and even documented his hardships throughout his life, both as a freeman and a slave in

In his narrative of his native life, Frederick Douglass's describes his hatred for the kind of life he lived. He was born a slave and lost his mother at a tender age. Douglass and other black Americans worked on the farms of white masters who did not consider them human. Despite the ruthless treatment that they received from the masters, the slaves were still supposed to remain obedient to them. Also, they were prohibited from learning how to read or write as this would have weakened their masters’ power on them. Douglass states that slaves were supposed to remain illiterate to follow the orders of their owners without questioning blindly.