The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Dehumanized America
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American Slaves
In “Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass” Frederick Douglass talked about his experience and journey as a black slave in the South. He then goes on about joining the anti-slavery movement, which lead him to start different movements that made a difference and helped other fugitives and slaves. He went into depth about the hardships he dealt with while being a slave. Slaves in America had many complications. They were stript from their freedom and natural born rights. Dehumanizing the slaves included physical and psychological abuse by the slave owners. They were beaten and treated less than a white person. Blacks were the victims of slavery but being that whites were dehumanizing the blacks, they too were victims. Free Americans should have not taken advantage of black slaves and dehumanized them of their rights using different…show more content… Slaves worked in the fields all day and were expected to finish their daily tasks as they were demanded to do. The whites had no sympathy for the slaves and made the women work weeks after delivering a baby. When the women became too old to work in the fields they would become the nanny to watch over the children. The slaves would be beaten and whipped by the slave owners until they drew blood. Douglass states “I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, who he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood” (4). Whites would dehumanize the slaves by whipping them, hoping that would have taught the slave to not disobey or disrespect them again. Slave owners were entitled to treat their slaves any way they wanted to. Black slaves were inferior to whites which allowed the whites to gain and hold any power over blacks. Slave owners owned on average two to nine slaves