Summary: The Inhumanity Of Slaveholders

Improved Essays
The brutal way that slaveholders abused their slaves was dehumanizing and evil. Slaves were given out of line disciplines and they figured out how to utilize different people groups botches as cases. Families were moved to inverse sides of the nation given no contact. Ultimately they were dealt with more awful than creatures and plainy slighted. The Inhumanity of Slaveholders is a prominent theme in Douglass’ and Jacobs’ texts. owing to the fact it visualizes the physical and psychological abuse, the slaves utter state of desuetude and it paints a vivid illustration of the methods of the slaveholders control.

Slaveholders considered slaves to be just creatures and they believed they could treat them that way. They were inhumane and chilly
…show more content…
"They had a pet puppy, that was a disturbance in the house. The cook was requested to make some indian mush for him. He declined to eat, and when his head was held over it, the foam spilled out of his mouth into the bowl. He passed on a couple of minutes after." "[The ace was irate and faulted the cook, so he influenced her to eat it. He thought he stomach would be more grounded the pooches, yet she kicked the bucket too.]" Jacobs Pg. 3. This demonstrates how brutal slaveholders could be. The relentlessness it would take to deliberately bend that much enduring to someone else is sickening. This was a long way from the most exceedingly bad slaves got. Ordinarily they wished passing upon themselves, and implored have there anguish and their families enduring to end. "Mr. Bunch gave me an exceptionally serious whipping, reducing, making the blood run, and raising edges on my substance as vast as my center finger." Douglass Pg. 7. This is a case of how much more regrettable it can get. In the content Mr. Covey was rebuffing Douglass for being rebellious. He was the most delightful slaveholder Douglass had gotten, and even he beat and tormented him. "He generally figured out how to have one a greater amount of his slaves to whip each monday morning" Douglass pg. 11. This was one of the more regrettable circumstances for slaves. He needed to influence cases to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    During the Antebellum Era, slave narratives were prominent historical sources that gave great insight to the first-hand experience of slaves in America. As they signified to white America the true horrors and exploitation of the institution of slavery from the witness accounts of enslaved African Americans who actually experienced it. In the narratives, the enslaved stressed the horrors of slavery through their various life experiences in the south with their slaveholders and their great will to escape their bondage. Thus, demonstrating the immorality of such an institution to their intended audience of white America in order to not only tell their story but move their audience to see the demeaning and inhumane institution for what it is to hopefully abolish it. Through Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and the story of Harriet Jacobs documented in the documentary Slavery in the Making of America’s “Seeds of Destruction,” their struggles reveal the horror and triumph of surviving and escaping such…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Douglass saw the first glimpse of this cruelty when his aunt was beaten severely. The slave owners made sure that their other slaves were present, including the children, because they wanted to instill in them that if they broke the rules that they too would be beaten. Douglass describes his account of his aunts beating as, “It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle” (Douglass 4). Another instance of this threatening was when Demby would not obey his master and join the rest of the group.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the most common forms of punishment slaves had to suffer through was whipping, such as the one Douglass witnessed, where his aunt, Esther, was cruelly flogged. This was one of the first major events that made him question why things were the way they were. Following the flogging of Esther, he starts to see it more often, like in the cases of Nelly and Denby, where extreme force and cruelty were used. This brutality makes him question why more is not being done about the problem of slavery and why God would create a situation like this, especially given “that killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community.” It lights a fire within Douglass, sparking a motivation in him young, to fight the institution of slavery, giving him a reason to someday become a…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The significance of this can not be underestimated, for the mere act of rebellion would surely end any slave’s life. His risk in doing this was immense, however, his gamble did end up repaying itself. Later in that chapter, Douglass battles Mr. Covey and manages to…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Frederick Douglass's 1845 autobiography titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Douglass stresses the miseries of the institution of slavery (as he recalled during the first six months of his stay with Mr Convey—his master). In his autobiography, Douglass addresses the toll that the institution of slavery had place on his “body, soul, and spirit” in which he explains to the ignorant Northern region of the United States, that the institution slavery is “hell” and degenerating. In his crusade in an attempt to end the institution of slavery, Douglass hopes to educate not only the North, but the entire world to realize slavery as a sinister practice. Through his use of barbaric diction, inhumane imagery, and dreary…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He only had one of two options. He would either be sold off or suffer day in and day out . Even though Douglass never got whipped when he was on Captain Anthony's plantation he witnessed very violent experiences of his aunt Hester getting whipped naked until her blood would drop on the floor. This expierence was his very first time witnessing a beating and it traumatized him. He hated being on the plantation and couldn't understand…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Frederick Douglass was a prominent American abolitionist, author and orator. After escaping slavery, Douglass went on to become a world-renowned anti-slavery activist. His goal was to advocate for the equality and humanity of all African American slaves. Many of his writings highlight the many struggles or brutalities of slavery, a quest for freedom, and hypocrisies associated with Christianity. Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one 's own behavior does not conform.…

    • 1820 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    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.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The slave masters were aware of the importance of violence in order to continue their profitable institution, as they implemented many forms of punishment on their slaves to retain their power over their “property.” During this dark chapter of American history, slaves endured many forms of violence: physical, psychological, and sexual. Even with all this abuse, slaves were able to find ways to maintain hope and humanize their existence, just as Thomas Jones who was fortuitous enough to…

    • 1316 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When describing the false benevolence of slaveholders who gave a short holiday at the end of every year, Douglass describes how it is “one of the grossest frauds committed upon the down-trodden slave” (43). Through careful choice of words such as ‘fraud’, he is able to not only portray the deceitful nature of slave owners, but also demonstrate how they were clearly acting to hurt the slaves; the term also implies a businesslike connotation, which portrays how the cruelties of slavery were a trivial business decision made by owners. While slave owners attempted to appear altruistic by providing time off for slaves, slaveholders were truly hypocritical in that they only afforded this privilege in order to subdue their unruly slaves. Douglass also portrays the negative impact of hypocrisy after a description of Mr. Covey, stating that “the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes… a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,-- and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection.” Integration of the word ‘infernal’ helps Douglass describe both the evil and hellish nature of slavery.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are a variety of strong feelings that accompany the word “slavery”, whether it be feelings of anger, reflection, or acceptance of what has happened in the past. Historians have reviewed many sources, some from former slaves, slave masters, northerners etc. Yet there is still no picture painted clearly enough to give us a perfect view of the past. However, there are still various stories of how slavery was for all parties involved, all of which could be used to prove the institution of slavery was one of bloodshed, pain, and defiance. Former president Andrew Jackson is a prime example of a proud slave owner.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Frederick Douglass argues in his narrative that slavery dehumanizes both the slave and the slave master generating a dependency for each other. For slave’s, this dehumanization came in the form of having their name, culture and personal identity stripped away from them and for the slave master, the inability to function when deprived of slave assistance. In this essay, I will use Frederick Douglass’s narrative; along with, first-hand accounts to demonstrate how both the slave and the slave master became dehumanized through the institution of slavery. Using Frederick Douglass’s narrative, I will explain how slaves became exploited for cheap labor by the slave master creating a society depended on slaves.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the use of descriptive language, Frederick Douglass explains the cruelty and harsh conditions slaves faced at various points in their live. He gives detailed accounts of different scenes that he experienced or witnessed during his life as a slave. By the end of these introductory chapters, the reader has a good visual of the daily struggles of a slave, what they were punished for and how they were punished. From Douglass’ use of descriptive language, the audience witnesses a few cases of the day-to-day hardships slaves faced. One of these cases is about the separation of a mother and her child.…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When Douglas is sent to live with Mrs. Auld, he initially was treated with kindness as Mrs. Auld had never owned a slave prior to Frederick Douglass. As Douglass and Mrs. Auld adjust to this new arrangement, Mrs. Auld begins to teach him his ABC’s. This arrangement is quickly stopped by Mr. Auld who declares “unlawful” and “unsafe” (Pg). For those who had never owned a slave, the education of slaves was of no great consequence, but to those who participated in the institution, education was the key to the locks placed on the slaves. Mr. Covey even goes as far as to state that “if you give a ni**er an inch, he will take a mile” (Pg).…

    • 1028 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The book, “American Slavery: 1619-1877” written by Peter Kolchin and published first in 1993 and then published with revisions in 2003, takes an in depth look at American slavery throughout the country’s early history, from the pre-Revolutionary War period to the post-Civil War period. The first chapter deals with the origins of slavery within the United States. It discusses the introduction of slavery to the nation even before it was officially a nation. The colonies in the United States were agricultural and the cultivation of crops required labor.…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays