Impact Of Slavery.
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Introduction
Frederick Douglass (c.1817-1895) is a crucial figure in African American history; he was born a slave and escaped slavery in 1838. He rose to be a leader and spokesperson for the US Abolition movement and eventually became a central figure for the US Civil Rights movement. His legacy would live on through diverse groups ranging from liberals to conservatives to nationalists within the African American community. This paper seeks to explore his narratives and the impact of slavery in society during the 1800s.
Douglass’s speech, narratives, and articles strongly argued against slavery, terming it cruel, unnatural, ungodly, and unjust. He explained that it had numerous social and psychological impacts on the enslaved. In his autobiography published in 1846, he described instances of physical torture, mostly whipping. Still, he went ahead and described this process in detail to bring it to life —”the warm, red blood… [that] came dripping on to the floor,” the blood-clotted cow skin.” He also touched on the verbal abuse and torture in which the enslaver abused his aunt calling her a “damned bitch” and other despicable names. Douglass also portrays the enslavers’ use of embarrassment and humiliation as a tool for torture. Such as when the enslaver “stripped her from neck to waist.”
Douglass narrated that Slaveholders wanted slaves to feel troubled by thoughts of freedom. During breaks and holidays when slaves were not working, Douglass observed that the slaveholders were keenly encouraging the enslaved to get drunk. Douglass viewed this tactic as an attempt to condition the enslaved brain with a false sense of freedom; he termed it as “deceived into a belief,” It showed that the slaveholders wanted to change the slaves’ minds set about themselves. Through enticing them to think in a specific way about what they would do if given freedom. They wanted the slaves to see themselves as failures in liberty when left alone. A slave who had self-doubts was less likely to seek escape as they would be unlikely to see themselves as successful if they did escape. Douglass saw this method as a primitive psychological principle.
Douglass describes many incidences where slaves were aware of their dependency status. The slaveholder’s associated rewards of higher position and comfort with faithfully serving the Oppressor. Through this oppressive system, the masters’ will and enslaved were linked. These offers of ranks and rewards acted as the binding factor. The slaveholders worked to make the enslaved grateful. It creates dependency as the slaves would acknowledge the role of the slaveholder to sustain them. It would make the enslaved grateful, and the slaveholder would further solidify his position through this link between dependency and gratitude. During holidays is when this concept would come up as Douglas writes; Most of the slaves] engaged in such sports and merriments as playing ball, wrestling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whisky; and this latter mode of spending the time was by far the most agreeable to the feelings of our masters.
Slaves working in holidays were seen by the masters as people who did not deserve them and were said to have rejected favors from the masters. The slaveholder intended to make the slaves act gratefully, thus reinforcing the enslaved position of dependency. By demanding appreciation, the slaveholders believed that they were giving good things and that the slaves should be very thankful as the passive receivers. Douglass further taught that freedom is about building and strengthening connections and not just cutting specific bonds that bind us to others.
The slaveholders prevented the enslaved from forming the security of family and community ties. Oppressors saw this as a threat as they believed free people as those born and developed together in a family set-up. Douglass was a victim of this; he described it in the following way; My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off.
Douglass heavily suspected it to break natural ties of affection. Douglass’s amazing realization of injustice did not come from harm done to him, but from discovering that the injustice was on a loved one. It shows why the slaveholders feared the creation of close communities. In Douglass’s case, observing injustice done on someone he held dear was the most annoying experience of his captivity, and this annoyance can bring about motivation to transform. It provides one reason for the tactic of separation.
Another reason was that slaves turned to family for any help in escaping bondage. The community gave people status and responsibilities. Through family relations, the enslaved could develop a sense of duty that rivaled the importance of commitment the slaveholders wished to instill to the enslaved. For the Oppressor, this competition is dangerous. When a slave experiences a robust, loving relationship from family or community, the enslaved can compare it to a master-servant relationship. Through this, the enslaved might find out that one relationship is better than the other and become aware of new possibilities.
In the 1830s, slavery existed in many different forms. African Americans worked as slaves in small farms, large plantations, in towns, inside homes, in industries, and out in fields. Some slaves worked as domestic workers; they provided services for the master and acted as “house servants.” They were under regular scrutiny by their mistresses and masters, meaning services are in demand at any time. House servants’ duties are less than those who worked in the fields; they also had limited privacy compared to those on the field.
The enslaved peoples’ diet was insufficient and could not meet the demands of their massive workforce. They lived in rough housings that often left them susceptible to diseases and bad weather. Their clothing and bedding were inadequate as well. The slaves working as “house servants” coped better as they would get disposed materials from their masters and had easy access to food stores. After falling ill, the slaveholders did not treat the enslaved adequately. Some ended up dying; the slaves could not recover in time were forced to work while sick.
Slaves resisted their bad treatment in various ways. They slowed down when working, faked illnesses, destroyed crops, and disabled machines. Others fought with their masters, stole livestock, food, and other valuables. Some burned buildings and forests, killed their masters through poisoning or using weapons, and ran away to live in hidings. The enslaved openly found ways to sabotage the Oppression system. Numerous cases of slave revolts were also common throughout history.
Conclusion
To conclude, slavery brought only hatred, discrimination, and inequality to society. It destroyed the self-confidence required to act freely and achieve personal goals. The Oppressors tore relationships apart, families separated, and some human beings viewed as objects. The justice system should eliminate all forms of slavery in modern-day society and all human beings treated as equal.
.References
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. JA, 2018.[1]
Merritt, Keri Leigh. Masterless men: poor whites and slavery in the Antebellum South. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Owens, Deirdre Cooper, and Sharla M. Fett. “Black maternal and infant health: historical legacies of slavery.” American journal of public health 109, no. 10 (2019): 1342-1345.