The Relationship Between Slaves and Their Master Essay

These horrible acts happened not only because masters owned their slaves as property, but also because men held all the power in the patriarchal society which gave men the indication that consent did not apply to slave women. The system of slavery didn’t deal with human beings in the eyes of the masters, but instead objects or property. Once you bought a slave, they were yours according to the terms (Piquet, 20). Male slave owners took advantage of their power to coerce them into sexual acts. Mr. Williams, Piquet’s master, used his power to convince Piquet that she was not committing adultery because she was only having sex with one man (Piquet, 14). Mr. William told Louisa that if she behaved well, he’d treat her well, but if she misbehaved, he’d whip her almost to death (Piquet, 11). That threat of having a slave’s life in their master’s hand made it virtually impossible to protect slave women against sexual violence because it was a method of compliance towards your property. Patriarchy reinforced the domination of the male slave owner not only over the female slaves, but also over the male slaves by showing them who was in charge of their wives, sisters, daughters, or female friends. Men’s sexual freedom to do what they pleased in their world subliminally showed power to all the people below

The writting of Lordship and Bandage by G. W. F. Hegel explains the relationship with the master, and their slave. He explains this by basically saying that for one to receive self conscious they must engage with someone similar to them. However, this backfires, because not knowing how to communicate often creates conflict. This then leading towards a fight between the two people to find who will be superior, or in other words, the master. The person who loses the fight, and is seen as weak, will become the slave. Hegel then explains the relationship between the master, and the slave will instead include the positions switch. Meaning, the master will become the slave, while the slave will become the master, due to the three influential principles.

For the most part, masters made young, single slaves the objects of their sexual pursuits. They did on occasion rape married women. The inability of the slave husband to protect his wife from such violation points to another fundamental aspect of the relationship between enslaved

The interactions between the masters and their slaves were very different. Slaves were treated inferior compared to other people, and “The words of the master had to be accorded respect

Prompt: Douglass maintains that slavery dehumanized both the slave and the slaveholder. Quoting specific passages in the Narrative support this thesis with examples.

Jacobs is born to her mother in the southern states of America. She is born without freedom and rights as she is black, property to her master as a slave. Her mother is a slave to a man name Dr. Flint and so therefor she too is a slave of his property. On page 26, the first sentence of chapter 5, Jacobs states "During the first years of my service in Dr. Flint's family I was accustomed to share some indulgences with the children of my mistress. Thought this seemed to me no more than right, I was grateful for it, and tried to merit the kindness by the faithful discharge of my duties." Harriet shows gratefulness for a period of time that she is a slave. The next line says "But I now entered on my fifteenth year -- a sad epoch in the life of a slave." Harriet starts to show hatred for her slavery and sadness. As a fifteenth year slave she is getting tired of how she is being treated, many girls that are her age at this time would be very frustrated with this too.

Jacobs in “The Trials of Girlhood,” tells a story of a young slave girl in Dr. Flint’s household. She felt disgust with her master, but she

Jacobs portrays slavery in her narrative as an institution that is corrupting society. Throughout Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs explains how the injustice of slavery between whites and blacks corrupted not only black society but white society as well. Jacobs illustrates how religion practised by white slave owners in the south was often corrupt and did little to alter the effects of slavery on white society. Jacobs also illustrates how slavery, while it did create unbreakable kinship, broke apart the black society. Jacobs’s narrative also makes it very clear that slavery was not in any way a beneficial way of organizing society. Incidents in the Life of a

Investigation of The Bondwoman’s Narratives, Mary Prince and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano uncovers the resistance systems utilized by blacks to battle both subjection and the dehumanization that went with the ideological device that looked to legitimize their monetary abuse. This demonstrates they were conscious of the way that the monetary exploitation portrayed subjection was connected to character development. While the male slave challenged the development of the black as sub-human and substandard, female slaves too needed to

Growing up as a slave Jacobs was constantly exposed to sexual abuse from her master. She was forced to learn what it meant to be a slave that was

As a result of my suffering from the bullying behavior, I can relate to the slaves’ fright in complaining about their master mistreating them. Douglass reveals this matter and says, irresponsible power is the norm of the slaveholders and the slaves are trained to speak kindly of their masters. It is unsafe for them to even mention the slightest thing about their master mistreating them because they are constantly being watched. They are severely punished for giving the wrong answer. The right answer is always, their master treats them well, even though they are harshly punished for no reason. Consequently, the slaves speaking highly of their master are the norm and plain common sense. It is unnatural for them to do otherwise (20). The

The black identity during the nineteenth century in America was one based on a position of inferiority. The inferiority of slaves to their masters was expressed in several different ways, but all were designed to secure a dependent relationship of the slave to the master. Masters often viewed their slaves as deserving of a moral or religious upbringing, and saw themselves as responsible for completing this task. Paternalism transformed the relationship of slave and master into one of child and parent. In such cases the slave may have been spared the abuse of a cruel master, but suffered no less subordination. A benevolent master created a comfortable environment for slaves, ultimately producing complacent,

“The whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose whilst the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of master and father.”

Slavery has numerous of components that deeply help open up the very meaning of race. However, many of these topics usually do not reveal a side of slavery that happens on a regular basis and that is sexual abuse. People seem to avoid sexual abuse because it is challenging to provided evidences that the abuse is not consensual. However, this topic strongly impacts the way slaves life is shape daily. Therefore,sexual abuse will help deepen our understanding of the institution of slavery and its effect on our society as a whole by revealing that slaves must faces constant superiority and jealousy from their masters in order to survive.

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