Torture In America

According to psychologist Steven Reisner, physical torture affects the brain, but “psychological torture undermines the very ability to think, and it doesn’t leave any marks.” “Slavery” is a word that many people immediately cringe to when the seven letters are processed through their brains. This epoch in America’s history is one that this nation wishes it could forget, but this obviously cannot be done. The physical pain and mental suffering that slaves went through can never again be paralleled. This paper will mainly discuss the topic of psychological and physical torture that took place during the slavery era in the United States of America. Based off of valid and credible scientific evidence, the inhumane treatment that slaves

Popular methods of physical abuse that the majority of slaves underwent include “cart whipping, beating with a stick, sometimes to the breaking of bones, the chain, an iron crook about the neck... a ring about the ankle, and confinement in the dungeon” (Ramsey qtb. in “Slave Punishments” np). One can only sit and imagine the sheer pain and agony that these helpless African Americans went through while being physically beaten with one of the methods listed above. Customary human beings should not have to go through this suffering in their lifetimes. On the contrary, a scar on the human body, given time, eventually heals when granulation tissue fills it in, but can a scar on the human brain from physical abuse heal that

What one may not take in account for is how the human brain is affected when a person undergoes physical abuse or torture. Informed experts in the field of psychology state that victims (in this case the victims are the slaves) of physical trauma develop psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and symptoms which range from social withdrawal to confusion and sleep problems (Landau np). Living with these diseases of the brain without dearly needed treatment irrefutably ruined certain aspects of slaves’ mind and their way of thought. Being worked roughly 16 hours a day during harvest season coupled with managing the psychological illnesses listed above is far more unbearable to cope with than being physically abused or beaten (“Slave Labor” np). The fact that certain slaves allowed an illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder to linger in their minds means that the impulsive decision that their owner made to strike or beat them not only affected them at that very moment, but for perhaps an immeasurable amount of time