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The Life Of Frederick Douglass Cruel To The Christian Americans

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As the whip lashed on yet another victim of slavery, a distinguished Christian man who attained a high standing in the church supported the scourging of the screaming slave by quoting verses from the Bible. Frederick Douglass spoke about his encounter with Christian slaveholders in antebellum America in his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Douglass gave all of the following generations an idea of how the slaves lived under several types of masters. In this narrative, Frederick Douglass communicated the hypocrisy of Christian slaveholders; he found Christian men were harsh to the slaves through their power and with their rationalization of their sins. Frederick Douglass observed that Christian …show more content…

The slaves were subject to frequent whippings for no obvious reason. Most masters held their slaves in privation, not being concerned of their laborers quality of life. Masters often did not give their laborers sufficient food or clothes because they did not want to spend extravagantly for their free workers. Even if the slaves were fortunate enough to have sufficient food, they would not be allowed ample time to eat. These slaves also lacked adequate time to sleep. In Douglass’s autobiography, he states, “They (slaves) find less difficulty from the want of beds, than from the want of sleep” (Douglass 1845/1995, p. 6). Masters rarely allowed their slaves contradict any of the master’s rulings. One master who asked a slave who he belonged to and after hearing that the slave thought that he himself was intolerable sent the slave to another master in the deep South as punishment without allowing the slave to defend himself (Douglass 1845/1995, p. 11). The masters considered it unsuitable for slaves to contradict the white man's authoritative commands. Masters developed supremacy and were inhumane to the slaves using their decisions and condemnation of the

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812 Words | 4 Pages

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