From Old Testament Bible times, slavery has been a part of many societies and civilizations. Slavery has been discussed and debated by many different groups of people, some defending it and some opposing it. Those who have been slaves are best able to share about their experiences. Through Frederick Douglass’ personal experiences, he proved that slaves were mistreated on the plantation, in the city and whether they were old or young.
During the 1800’s in the United States, African Americans were seen as being animals and not as people by the white population. Because of this mindset, whites treated blacks as animals on their plantations. In American slavery, blacks were not allowed to live together as families, but were often split up at birth or soon afterwards. Frederick Douglass (1895/1995), famous abolitionist, in his work, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, states clearly that he did not know who his father was and saw his mother at night only because she lived at another plantation, twelve miles away. (p.2) The slave owner, like Master Andrew, killed Douglass’ brother before his eyes by stomping on his head until he was dying. (p.28) Another injury to slaves was starvation and lack of needed clothing which
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The death of masters often brought big changes for their slaves. In Douglass’ case, his grandmother was sent out to the woods to live alone and die alone. The new masters made her a small hut with a chimney and forced her to provide for her needs. (p. 29) She was too old to care for herself or find her own food. Another example of elderly slave abuse was the murder of an unnamed old man who belonged to Colonel Lloyd. This old man strayed into another owner’s water while looking for oysters as additional food. Without telling the slave to go back to his land, Beal Bondly shot him in the water. (p. 15)The age of the person did not change the beatings or abuse of the slave