How Does Slavery Dehumanize Women

The slave narratives by Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs shows how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physical and emotionally. "Slavery is bad for men, but far more terrible for women." Fredrick Douglass in his poem "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass" describes about how bad men had it during slavery. He talks about the physical and mental circumstances his owner, Mr. Covey put him through. Douglass once stated that he was sick at a time and since he was or weak to move, his owner gave him a "savage kick". Not only did he kick Douglass he "took the hickory slat....and gave him a heavy blow to the head". Mr. covet did not feel any emotion while doing this and at the simpering fact that Douglass was sick. Day by day he says that Mr. Covey "succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in the body, soul, and spirit". No matter what he did, even when he was doing good at his job, his owner always found a way to beat him everyday. Who wants to get beaten everyday? Men went thought a plethora of abuse in slavery, especially since they were stronger. The owners always wanted to show who's boss. …show more content…
The difference between men and women was women also had to deal with the sexual abuse. In Harriet Jacobs poem "Incididents in the Life of a Slave Girl" she writes about how women had to go through worst situations from her point of view. Jacob describe how her owner filled her young mind with "unclean images such as only a vile monster could think of" and how he would talk to her in her ear with sexual words which were so detailed she could picture them. She could not tell anyone because there was no one to run to, no one would help. Women would get raped by their owners and the wives would always hate the slave women even when it was never their fault. Women had it way worst than men because they had to deal with sexual abuse that they could not even