Twelve Year A Slave And Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

“The institution that tolerates such wrong and inhumanity as I have witnessed, is a cruel, unjust, and barbarous one.” As Solomon Northup stated in twelve years as a slave the idea of slavery is an injustice as its very existence strips humans of their inherent rights. The two famous narratives, Twelve year a slave by Solomon Northup and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass both demonstrate through their experiences as slaves just how damaging slavery is. Slavery in America started in the 1600s and it was a method of legally enslaving human beings mainly those of color to do hard labor. Most slaves, during these times, were born into slavery like Douglass. While others, like Northup, would be kidnapped and

Douglass demonstrates this when he remarked “... I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. … In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity.” (Douglass 53) The way Douglass points out how slaves lack knowledge and inability to properly read and write degrades their communication skills making him feel like an animal as he goes on to state, “I have often wished myself a beast’ (Douglass 53). This inherent feeling of not being recognized as a person is also backed up by 12 Years A Slave when Northup and Epps, a shave holder, have a confrontation. Northrup starts with “You devil! Sooner or later, somewhere in the course of eternal justice thou shalt answer for this sin!” (12 Years A Slave) in response to Epps whipping a fellow slave. Epps then quickly replies “There is no sin! A man does how he pleases with his property.” (12 Years A Slave) The key word in this interaction is “property”. A person's humanity is when someone recognizes you as a person and it seems that Epps doesn’t do this, which further makes his slaves feel less like humans but as objects. During slavery a slave's humanity was constantly challenged by their owners and those surrounding them as they are referred to as property and not given the needed material

Having a family during slavery was hard for both slaves and slaveholders. In 12 Years A Slave, we come across a woman named Eliza and her children but when they arrive at New Orleans the family is broken up when they don't want to sell Eliza's daughter to Ford. Northup illustrates this sad event when he writes “She called them her darlings … , that knew not the misery they were destined to endure. Soon they would have no mother to comfort them–they would be taken from her.”(12 Years A Slave) Douglass explains a different way families were broken apart when he writes “Mulatto children favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves … to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother …” Douglases quote displays how slavery dehumanizes everyone involved in slavery. A mulatto child is the child of the slave and a white man or enslaver but because of slavery this family broke apart as this child now is now fighting against their own family to survive. Family and one's parental responsibility is a part of a family's humanity which is always crushed by the stresses and norms slavery brought to