Frederick Douglass Slavery Effects

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the autobiography of the African-American abolitionist, former slave, writer, and social reformer Frederick Douglass. The book details his early years of being born into slavery, onwards until his marriage to Anna Murray and their relocation to Massachusetts. Since much of the book is about Frederick’s time served as a slave, slavery and its effects are a major thematic element of the book. It would be heinous crime, one on par with slavery itself, to say that slavery was not a terrible thing, but it I believe that the effect slavery has had on America throughout its history is equally devastating, if not worse. Specifically, I am going to focus my attention in this essay on the effects observable …show more content…
He then goes on to describe the humiliation Anthony gave his slaves before whipping them, stripping Aunt Hester topless, and calling her slurs. This is the sort of cruel behavior that comes from a life of slaveholding. Most people are not generally cruel or evil inherently at birth. For example, I remember back in elementary school, one student would lose a game and as a result had, to be the winner’s servant all day. It was a silly little practice. However, it never became cruel. This goes to show how the effect of slavery was most likely the cause of Captain Anthony’s cruelty towards his slaves. Another example of the negative effect of slavery on slaveholders evident in the novel was Sophia Auld. Sophia was the wife of Hugh Auld, who was one of Douglass’s masters. She was described initially as a kind woman, who most slaves would even feel at ease around. However, Douglass goes on to describe a change in Sophia that was brought on as a consequence to being exposed to the cruelty of …show more content…
I think it is safe to say that slavery, and its legacy, have caused a fair share of damage to our nation. From the Civil War to Sandra Bland, our nation has been plagued with the infection of racism. Slavery is how it began, ushering out indentured servitude and beginning the idea of African-Americans being less of a person, their proper place as a slave to the white American. However, even after the Civil War, and the freeing of all slaves and granting basic rights to African-Americans, racial tensions did not cease. It seemed removing the tumor that is slavery was an effort that was simply too little, too late. Slavery had already metastasized into racism, hate groups, stereotypes, you name it. However, to say slavery did the most harm to white Americans is tantamount to spitting in the face of every brave soul who fought to end slavery. Slavery’s effect on white Americans can be summed up to a few key points. It instilled a sense of superiority, the idea of white supremacy. Slavery gave white Americans money at the expense of hard physical labor on the part of slaves, who often died working for their masters, or even at their hands. Slavery divulged us of compassion for our fellow man simply because of the color of their skin. Those are the terrible things white Americans had to go to sleep at night knowing. Such a travesty, compared to the African families torn