Douglass' audience for this work is those who want to know the cruelty of slavery. His audience was anyone who was interested in the topic. A majority of white men and women either didn't own slaves and wasn't able to see the cruel inhumane nature of the act or they were numb to it because black people were viewed as less than humans. If you remove the humanity from a person you become numb to any cruelty. Douglass' goal was to prove and show how slavery was inhumane and offered nothing but cons to the slaves and their masters. The beating of Douglass' Aunt removes the innocence from the young Douglass. Before the whipping of his Aunt, Douglass was kept away from the cruelty of slaveholders. His grandmother prevented Douglass from seeing the …show more content…
Auld taught Douglass' how to read. Mrs. Auld never owned a slave so she didn't know that there was a certain way to treat them. Since Douglass was here first slave she wasn't affected by the harsh nature slavery gave to the slaveholder. She stopped teaching Douglass because her husband informed her that slaves couldn't be taught these things. Mr. Auld claimed teaching slaves to read was unlawful and not safe, if you give a slave a little they will take the whole lot. He also mentioned that slaves who could read weren't slaves anymore. I found a particular sentence from Mr. Auld interesting "It would make him discontented and unhappy" (Douglass,250). That sentence alone shows the lies that were spread in order to justify the nature of slavery. I have read a lot of work on slavery thanks to my mother, during my reading I learned about how slaveholders would comment on how their slaves are happy on the plantation. I also read that slaveholders would claim that they are giving slaves shelter and safety rather than living in the huts in Africa. It is hard for me to recite these lies without feeling completely disgusted. The method of slavery alone was completely inhumane, the ways the act was justified is as inhumane as the act of slavery