He witnesses firsthand the fate the slaves were up against in the region when he is put to good use of fan his master as he sleeps. A poor slave girl is in the kitchen in an iron muzzle to prevent her from eating as she cooked. When he is brought back, he goes further into detail of the conditions the laborer slaves met. He says that many of the slaves were branded with their master’s initials, underfeed, under clothed, and over worked. As a result, they sometimes were “reduced so low, that they are turned out as unfit for service, and left to perish in the woods, or expire on a dunghill” (103).…
“She stripped and flogged me long and severely with the cow- skin; as long as she had strength to use the lash” (Salih, Pg. 16). This was the life of Mary Prince, who grew up as a slave; mistreated for years. This punishment was the result of a jar accidently slipping from Mary’s hands, causing it to shatter. Sympathy was rarely given to slaves when mistakes were made, and usually resulted in cruel punishment.…
What does the Prison Represent. From the scarlet letter I have choosen to write about the symbol prison. The prison represents a closed society, no escape front the letter, and harassment. You know this because you have seen it in multiple situations through out the book. The prison represents a closed society because the puritans lived in a closed society.…
When a mentally addled slave, Alice, disobeyed his commands, he punished her harshly. Sarny describes: “Then the master he whipped her his ownself with a rawhide whip cut from an old gin belt used on the cotton gin” (p. 43). Waller’s horrific method of punishment drove Alice to the edge, causing unimaginable pain. Alice and the witnessing slaves were severely affected by the atrocious acts of one man and his power over them.…
The subject matter needed to be covered over the course of the essay draws from the book The Classic Slave Narratives edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The narratives contained in the book discuss in detail the lives and trials of the particular author who wrote each individual section. We were asked to cover the experiences in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. With both of these true life stories we are able to have a glimpse into the hardships men and women faced in the slavery circle. White males during this time period enjoyed a better quality of life than their female counterparts, so was this fact one that carried over into the lives of men and women who were slaves?…
Unfavorable conditions, such as starvation and beating, symbolize the idea of romance between slaveholder and slave as the poor treatment portrays the downfall in their relationship. One image Douglass describes in particular is the memory of, “the cruel lashings to which these slaves were subjected” (21). As Douglass encountered many distinct slaveholders throughout his life as a slave, slaveholders would commonly torture their slaves without any provocation. One slaveholder specifically, by the name of Captain Auld, would tie up one of his younger female slaves, and whip her between four to five hours at a time, in Douglass’ memory, for no apparent reason. This tortured slave had no use of her hands, and had also never proven to be problematic.…
The Consequences of a Culture of Shaming In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne develops the dynamic characterization of Hester Prynne from a beautiful, innocent girl into a somber, hardened woman to showcase the evils and hypocrisy of Puritan New England’s culture of shaming. Hawthorne employs rhetorical devices such as metaphor and juxtaposition to further develop the characterization of Hester and his critique of Puritan society. When initially describing Hester, Hawthorne emphasizes her incredible beauty, and juxtaposes this with the other ugly, judgmental Puritan women, adding to the hypocrisy of her being shamed. Hawthorne emphasizes the verbal assault on Hester by employing metaphor and imagery in its description.…
Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman was born into an enslaved family in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents originally named her Araminta Harriet Ross. Her mother’s name was Harriet “ Rit” Green and she was owned by Mary Pattison Brodess. Her Father’s name was Ben Ross and he was owned by Anthony Thompson.…
Douglass paints a picture by relaying the scene to his reader: “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (51). With the widespread knowledge about the treatment of animals, the current reader sees the demoralizing nature of this process. The slaves and cattle were all put through the same inspection and health tests, and were viewed as equal to lesser value to the animals and usually treated worse. Slaves were given close to nothing to aid in the healthy upkeep of their lives. Animals were given sufficient food and conditions to live because the masters needed plentiful meat and good food.…
The second was the terror of whipping for the least defiance. The number of the lashes depended on the gravity of disobedience. Both men and women were whipped on the plantations. Douglass’s narrative is the true description of cruel master, mistress, or overseer getting violent towards slaves. Douglass details his first surveillance of whipping followed by several other whippings.…
But Douglass argues that these slaves, these people, were treated with utter disrespect as if they weren’t even human. When describing how slaves were overworked, he says, “There must be no halting… Mr. Severe, the overseer, used to stand by the door of the quarter, armed with a large hickory stick and heavy cowskin, ready to whip any one who was so unfortunate…” This piece from his narrative shows that not only were the slaves over worked, doing enforced labor from the earliest signs of daylight until it was pitch black in the night, but they were also punished very severely. This makes slave holders look very evil and cruel, especially after they claimed they treated slaves like humans.…
Slavery was a taught institution with a destructive power that corrupted the minds of owners and weakened enslaved individuals’ intellects. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass explores slavery to be damaging to the enslaved individuals, as well as to their owners as well. Through descriptive text, Douglass demonstrates the dehumanizing effects the institution of slavery imposes on enslaved individuals and those who own them. Enslaved individuals were often dehumanized falling victim to the physical abuse imposed by their owners. Douglass states, “My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes” (36).…
For many of the Old South, the idea of slavery did not seem cruel, as they viewed blacks as “less than human,” and believed their slaves were treated well, with some even teaching them to read and write. An example of this demonstrated in The…
Apart from being discriminated and having horrid working conditions the slaves still had to deal with depressing living conditions. “The...slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork...one bushel of corn meal. Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers...one jacket, one pair of trousers... one pair of stockings, and one pair shoes;… when these failed them, they went naked until the next allowance day” surprisingly enough the owners showed shock when they had runaways.…
When Frederick Douglass described this bloody transaction, it involved slaves being whipped to the point of death if convicted of a crime. These crimes could be as simple as a misdemeanor up to a high crime such as running away or rebelling against the slave master all of which meet the slave punishment which was the whip. For slaves on these plantations, they were only allowed a monthly allowance of food and clothing which further dehumanizes them and treated them as just cheap labor. Slaves living on these planation’s were given the bare minimum when it comes to food and clothing to wear with most shirts made from a rough material that burned their skin.…