Fountain Hughes's Treatment Of Slaves In The 1800s

Slaves in the 1800s were treated not as people, but as property. They would use them to help cultivate cotton in the plantations. The slaves were given enough food to keep them alive and working and shelter that was nothing beyond a shack next to the plantations. There would be slave trades or auctions out in public. They would trade slaves from plantation to plantation just as you would with cattle. There was never as hesitation or thought on what the slaves thought, because once again, they were nothing more than property.
From this quote, I can determine that Fountain Hughes was a slave that had seen and experienced it all. He had been traded from plantation to plantation and he had been treated no better that you would treat poultry. He must be pro-slavery because he would kill himself if he ever became a slave again and you know that he isn’t a slave anymore because he keeps referring to being a slave in past tense.
This quote is emphasizing how worthless a slave was back in the 1800s and in the perspective of a former slave, he definitely can testify to all …show more content…
Just thinking about it makes him feel bad. The things he experienced as a slave were so bad, that if he ever had even the smallest thought that he might become a slave again, he would kill himself. He’d rather die than have to become a slave once more. Also, because he has served his duty to god as a slave, he very likely might believe that because he has been obedient and respectful towards god, he would end up in heaven. Heaven is definitely a whole lot better than being a slave. From this quote, I feel that you really don’t know how bad it is to be a slave until you have actually experienced it personally, and if you ask any slave, not one in a hundred would ever say that they wouldn’t rather die than become a slave