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Torture In America

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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Mahatma Gandhi, the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement states “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” This is important because torture is brutal on the body and mind. The article “Torture’s Terrible Toll” by John McCain is more convincing then the article “The Case for Torture” by Michael Levin because McCain provides more logical reasoning, he adds his own personal experience of being a captured prisoner during the Vietnam War, and he creates an emotional bond with people around the world. Through more logical reasoning McCain Argument is more valid than Levin.

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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, vacant esteem; ever-present anger and racial socialization are all very important to making America a fair and equal country. Post traumatic slave syndrome is the everlasting effect that slavery has had on African Americans for example how African Americans perceive other darker and “bad hair” African Americans less than fair skinned and “good hair” African American. This was practiced by the slave owners and would give more power and privileges to the fair skinned good hair slaves. This is just one example of PTSS and its effect on African Americans today.

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Many slaves being shipped to America had been betrayed by their own race, kidnapped and sold into slavery. The conditions on the ship were horrendous and each man was chained to an area and given about six feet long by fifteen inches wide. The boats were extremely packed with close corners and no bathroom, and women or children got even less space than the men. Many a times, the crew tried to justify the chaining by stating the it was a form of protection to avoid an uprising. In one of the examples Rediker gave, the slave ship, with Captain Tomba, who was known for brutal beatings including whipping, handing out cruel punishments to scare the other slaves into not acting out.

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Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

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In Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture”, he uses many cases of emotional appeal to persuade the reader that torture is necessary in extreme cases. There are many terms/statements that stick with the reader throughout the essay so that they will have more attachment to what is being said. Levin is particularly leaning to an audience based in the United States because he uses an allusion to reference an event that happened within the states and will better relate to the people that were impacted by it. The emotional appeals used in this essay are used for the purpose of persuading the reader to agree that in extreme instances torture is necessary and the United States should begin considering it as a tactic for future cases of extremity. One major eye catching factor of this essay is the repetitive use of words that imply certain stigmas.

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In the story “Kindred” by Octavia Butler the slaves hardly fought back. The book showed that the slave owners as a whole weren't the entire problem, society was. No matter how much the slaves fought against it in their personal lives it was still widely accepted and enforced. The slaves had virtually no rights and were seen as sub human even when they were freed. Every part of society was against them and fighting back did much more harm than good.

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While analyzing “The Torture Myth” and “The Case for Torture”, it is very clear to see the type of rhetorical appeals used to persuade the audience. Anne Applebaum, the writer of “The Torture Myth” --in context of the decision of electing a new Attorney General--would argue that torture is very seldomly effective, violates a person’s rights, and should be outlawed due to the irrational need upon which physical torture is used. On the other hand, Michael Levin strongly argues that physical torture is crucial to solving every imminent danger to civilians. Levin claims that if you don’t physically torture someone, you are being weak and want to allow innocent people to die over something that could have been simply done.

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In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.

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Kevin Bales once said, “Slavery is theft -- theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a slave might have borne”. Slavery takes your freedom away and forces you do whatever your master or leader wants you to do. This quote is proven to be true by the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by himself, Frederick Douglass tells his life story as a slave which ends in freedom. George Fitzhugh thinks otherwise when he writes an essay called “Slavery Justified”. In this essay, Fitzhugh argues that slavery is justifiable.

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Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

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From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

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his plantation, the amount of violence Northup details becomes more frequent, and he describes the fear that all slaves faced at the beginning of the new work day “Then the fears and labours of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest. He fears he will be caught lagging through the day; he fears to approach the gin house with his basket-load of cotton at night; he fears, when he lies down, that he will oversleep himself in the morning. (Northup, pg.171). Solomon Northup captures the relentless emotional and physical toll that slaves faced every day at the hands of their masters and the hired help.

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Slaves faced extreme brutality and Morrison focuses on rape and sexual assault as the most terrifying form of abuse. It is because of this abuse that Morrison’s characters are trapped in their pasts, unable to move on from the psychological damages that they have endured. “Morrison revises the conventional slave narrative by insisting on the primacy of sexual assault over other experiences of brutality” (Barnett 420). For telling Mrs. Garner what they had done, she was badly beaten by them, leaving a “chokecherry tree” (16) on her back. But that was not the overriding issue.

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