Dehumanization In Frederick Douglass

The late motivational speaker and author, Wayne Dyer, once said, “freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery”. This is one of the ideas that is explored in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass tells the story of his life as a slave up until he escapes to New York City. He goes into such detail, that the reader feels as if he or she were at the scenes he describes so vividly. Douglass also talks about how slavery is an institution based on a hierarchy of power that works slaves so hard, they lose themselves along the way. Under these conditions it is basically impossible to form an identity that is different from the person to their left or right. …show more content…
For Frederick Douglass, not only did he lose his humanness, but he also lost his manhood which is another factor that contributes to the formation of identities. There is one instance when Douglass is describing a story in which a white woman kills a black baby and the woman receives no punishment. A mere infant should not be able to be murdered because of his or her color; this is where the dehumanization begins. As Douglass says, “It was a common saying, even among little white boys, that it is worth a half-cent to kill a ‘nigger’ and a half-cent to bury one” (15). The fact that the white boys can actually put a price on a human being because of their race, is degrading them from a human of value to a product for profit. Not to mention that they are saying that a slaves are worth half of the lowest amount of money possible which is essentially nothing. So not only are slaves for profit, but they possess no value themselves. How can a slave be someone, themselves, if they are told that they are worthless? It costs the same amount to kill and bury a slave, nothing. They are so dehumanized that these slaves have become objects that possess no human value, potential, rights or identity. Slavery justifies saying such as this one, where a slave does not cost anything and it makes it very difficult for slaves to find who they are and form an identity. At this point they are part of a body of black bodies with no voice and no escape. In addition, by taking away their humanness, the males slaves are also being stripped of their manhood which is a part of the male identity. Males are supposed to be strong and protect the family, but how can they do that if they are not even considered to be a person. In slavery, the slaves are being subjugated under the control of the white man and as a result they have no individuality or