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…