Frederick Douglass: The Dehumanization Of Slavery

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The transatlantic slave trade contributed to the instantaneous shift from autonomy to subjugation for many negroes. Hundreds of slave narratives portrayed the suffering of those striped of their freedoms. With the help of abolitionists, the fugitive slaves employed their words solely to elicit support for the abolitionist movement with the ultimate aim to acquire freedom for all slaves. These powerful testimonies not only revealed a raw truth in the deplorable conditions that dehumanized slaves, but also empowered readers to join the fight to abolish slavery. The narratives painted a devastating picture of the environmental conditions within which slaves spent their shackled lives. However, the deeper and long-lasting impact of slavery was …show more content…
On Captain Lloyd’s plantation, slaves were brutally whipped and were usually deprived of sufficient food and clothing (Douglass 359). A country slave owner’s reputation was defined by how barbarous and relentless he was to his slaves. The ability to elicit constant fear from the slaves was well respected and Douglass gave the label of an adept overseer to a Mr. Hopkins. “Mr. Hopkins was even worse than Mr. Weeden. His chief boast was his ability to manage slaves. The peculiar feature of his government was that of whipping slaves in advance of deserving it” (Douglass 399). The purpose of this type of treatment was to ensure that no slave would have the audacity to rebel against his or her master. An exceptionally harsh punishment of one slave would set an example for the many slaves considering to uproar (Douglass 356). On the contrary, slave owners in the city would be demeaned if they were not able to provide enough food and clothing to their servants. “Every city slaveholder is anxious to have it known of him, that he feeds his slaves well; and it is due to them to say, that most of them do give their slaves enough to eat” (Douglass …show more content…
Frederick Douglass was a victim of this conventional type of separation as an infant and did not have any claim to his mother. His mother too was a slave and was hired by a Mr. Stewart. After completing her fieldwork, she would come walking twelve miles to visit him during the night, to be compelled to return to the field by daylight by the shackles that governed her. Douglass asserts that, “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 340). The purpose of this separation was to render the slave emotionless and to make him ignorant of his own situation. Frederick Douglass was not permitted to be present during his mother’s ill health, at her death, or burial for the same reason. Since Douglass was a slave and did not have the birthright opportunity of enjoying his mother’s reassuring companionship, he was not afflicted by her death as strongly as a son should have been (Douglass
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