Ignorance In Frederick Douglass Inhumane In Slavery

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals several inhumane practices of slavery. He gives great description of the many horrors and evils of this practice along with the damaging effects slavery had on both slaves and slaveholders. During this period, ignorance was the most beneficial tool used to keep slaves ignorant and out of touch with reality. Along with robbing slaves of their identity and keeping them in the dark about basic facts about themselves, slaveholders also used false religion to justify treatment of the slaves. Lastly, Douglass describes the injustice and inhumane suffering and beatings amongst the slaves by white men without them ever having consequences. This paper will give a closer look at the

During this time, many people assumed that slavery was normal and that blacks weren't capable to function in the American society and were better off to be owned by whites and kept for labor. Many slaves, such as Douglass himself, weren't properly informed on where they were born, when they were born, and even more disturbingly, who their mothers and fathers were. At birth, slaves were taken away from their mothers and family. Growing up not knowing your mother, age, or even last name extorted slaves of their natural sense of personal identity. Douglass explains how he predicted that the intentional act of separating mother from child is to break their natural bond they share. In the preface, Phillips gives an example of how mental deterioration is a result of slavery as opposed to it being a preexisting quality of the black/slave community. He describes a case of a shipwrecked white man who was captured and enslaved in Africa for three years. When the man was discovered he was unable to remember his domestic language and his powers of reason. After explaining this rare case, Phillips asks figuratively "how can the practice of slavery, revealed to be evil, can be allowed to

At a young age, Douglass witnessed his Aunt Hester being horrifyingly whipped by his slave master; Captain Anthony. He explains that viewing this brutal site made him feel as if he were a witness to/ participant in this evil action. He goes on to say the first time he ever saw this inhumane abuse introduced him to the true hellish world of slavery. After firing their first overseer, Anthony hires another overseer by the name of Mr. Gore. One day, Mr. Gore brutally whipped slave by the name of Demby. Not being able to with stand the pain, Demby goes to a nearby water creek to soothe the excruciating pain. Mr. Gore rudely gives him until the count of three to immediately return to him. Demby bluntly ignored his call and without second thought Mr. Gore fires multiple shots. When Mr. Gore is questioned about his reasoning for shooting Demby, he explains that the slave was creating a bad example for the other slaves. He goes on free and never investigated for this unjust murder. After the death of captain Anthony, Douglass was taken back to serve Anthony's son-in-law. Thomas Auld is even worse than Anthony due to religious piety. Auld considered Douglass to be unruly and sends him away to a slave breaker named Covey. Douglass endured countless beatings and whippings while under Covey. It was up until 6 months when Douglass one day decided to fight back. They fight for two hours straight and as a