Today, every child in America is entitled to a free education to prosper later in life, as well as freedom of speech and freedom of making his/her own decisions to a certain extent. No child is alienated or denied any freedom based on the color of their skin or their racial or cultural background. Imagine living in an America where certain children are denied the right to pursue an education, and are not entitled to freedom of speech or freedom of making his/her own decisions to any extent.
Believe it or not, blacks like Frederick Douglass were abused and abnegated the right to any kind of redeem in America during the asses. Revoking basic human rights from people and enslaving them revokes their humanity and the humanity of all involved in the situation. In the memoir, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass is a slave who yearns for what seems to be the impossible: freedom. Through the years of the demutualization of slavery, he ultimately found a spark of humanity within him and rejuvenated the spirit in his heart.
Sweepingly, slavery dehumidifies not only the slave, but also the slaveholder and the slave instituting society. Slavery dehumidifies slaves themselves in an unsubtle manor. To begin with, slaves are not allowed to know of their family’s background. Frederick Douglass did not know of his mother or father; he only knew of his mother’s name and did not have a clue as to why he could not see her. Additionally, when his mother died, he had felt no emotions towards her death. In a sense, the absence of his mother acted as a lack of emotions prescribed to Douglass.
Humans generally feel sympathy towards the event of a death, especially when it involves the death of a family member. The fact that Douglass did not feel any motions toward his mother’s death confirms that slavery had euthanized him by deducting his emotional state of mind. (Douglass 16) Furthermore, slaves were being treated worse than animals. Female and male slaves were forced to sleep on the cold, damp floor, until they were awakened by a horn. Slaves were also whipped until they bled. In fact, Mr..
Severe, an ironically well-named slaveholder Douglass had to tolerate, whipped a woman in front of her children for half an hour and watched her back bleed, disregarding her screams. Douglass wrote, “l have seen him whip a Oman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother’s release. ” (23) It is discernible that slaves were treated not as humans, but as animals. Evidently, slavery was very dehumidifying to slaves considering it deducted the quality of human emotions within them and exposed them to conditions not even animals had to face.
Along with slaves, slavery is also dehumidifying to slaveholders themselves. Initially, owning a slave would corrupt the human mind itself. Hugh Laud’s wife had never owned a lave before Frederick Douglass, so she didn’t understand much about owning a slave. Throughout the process of being in possession of Douglass, Mrs.. Laud demonstrates that slavery is a terrible thing for white people, too. When Mrs.. Laud was first introduced to Douglass, she was a “woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings… He had been in a good degree preserved from the dehumidifying effects of slavery. ” In tact, seen and treated Douglass Just as en appeared to be: a small child. She even taught him the alphabet! However, throughout the experience of owning Douglass, her mind finally became corrupted by slavery. She had changed from a warm-hearted, sympathetic woman to a cruel, envious tyrant (43). Some slaveholders also performed horrible deeds on their slaves, which were executed with pleasure. Horrible deeds with pleasure.
Douglass writes, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder… He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholders. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. ” (17) Slaveholders were indifferent to slaves’ feelings and enjoyed whipping and abusing them, which was the inhumane thing to do. Evidently, slaveholders were mechanized by slavery through the corruption of the state of owning a slave. In addition to the demutualization of slaves and their owners, slavery euthanized society. To begin with, religion played a huge role in society.
Slaveholders society deliberately manipulated Christianity. Generally, the morals of a Christian include kindness, forgiveness, nonviolence, honesty, compassion, generosity, respect of the sanctity of others, and to love all. However, this slaveholders society manipulated Christianity to convey that God enforced slavery. Perhaps slaveholders molded this image of Christianity together to camouflage their sins. According to Frederick Douglass, “We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippier for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members.
The man who wields the blood-clotted coonskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible enemies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me.
He who is the religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred influence, and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families,–sundering husbands and wives, parent’s and children, sisters and brothers,–leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth desolate. We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen!
All for the glory of God and the good of souls! The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church- going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. ” (Douglass 106). In other words, hypocrisy circulates in the society that institutes slavery. Moreover, slaveholders society worshipped the practice of abusing their slaves. This practice was passed on from generation to generation, which acted almost as a part of the American culture. For instance, Mr..
Covey was a “slaveholder” who incontestably enjoyed watching slaves suffer. He literally crept on his slaves to catch them in the act of misbehaving in order to find a reason to abuse them and watch them suffer. People actually paid him in order to correct their slaves. He obviously enjoyed his Job and was known for doing so. This demonstrates that slave-instituting society worked as sort of a team in order to abuse their slaves, which also abused their mental TTY. In distance, slavery dehumidifies all of slave-owning society as well as slaves themselves through irruption of the mind and religious manipulation.
How do we portray people like Frederick Douglass today? Do we recognize them for their cognate of mind, or degrade them based on a stereotypical feature such as the color of their skin? Perhaps we do not realize it now, but will upcoming generations look back upon us and our actions as human beings dehumidifying to others, Just as we continue to analyzed slavery today? Slavery evidently dehumidifies slaves, slaveholders, and slave-owning society through the corruption of the human mind and lack of human spirit. Are we dehumidifying ourselves today?
