Being a slave was not only physically
exhausting but also mentally. Fredrick Douglass makes this clear in his book Narrative
of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave, with personal experiences
that he has gone through. Not only are they beaten if they get out of line but
they are also stripped of their voices and beaten if they say the wrong thing.
The
physical enslavement wasn’t just the beatings that they were given, it was also
the conditions in which they were forced to live in. Douglas explains how they
were forced to sleep when he says, “drop down side by side, on one common
bed,--the cold, damp floor” (Douglas 55). Along with not having any other
clothing than a shirt, they also only had “miserable blankets” to sleep under
(Douglas 55). Having very little sources of warmth made it very difficult to
sleep. Even though they would were getting very little sleep they had to be up
at their “post” by the “morning summons” and “for if they are not awakened by
the sense of hearing, they are by the sense of felling” (Douglas 55). This is
saying that if they did not wake up in time they would be beaten awake.
In
order to enslave them mentally they took the slaves voice from them. They were
not a loud to speak their minds, and had no say in anything. In order to keep
the slaves in line, “the slaveholders have been known to send in spies among
their slaves, to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their
condition” (Douglas 62). This forces the
slaves to lie about things such as how they feel about their owners, because if
they tell the truth and the owner finds out that slave would have been beaten.
Douglas states, “I have been frequently asked, when a slave, if I had a kind
master, and do not remember ever to have given a negative answer” (Douglas 62).
This shows that by planting spies it made it so no slave could trust another
one, therefore they would lie to each other. I also believe that this could
have been a plan to keep the slaves from bonding, making it an everyman for themselves
situation. This would make the slaves less likely to try to overtake their
masters because if they were to do it they would have to team up.
The
slaves would also play a psychological game on their owners. They would sing
songs to vent about their problems in way that their master’s wouldn’t notice. They
would, “sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the
most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone” (Douglas 57). This means
that the slaves would sing sad songs happily and happy songs sadly to throw off
their owners. This was their way of rebelling slavery and praying that one day
this would end, Douglas shows this when he says, “every tone was a testimony
against slavery, and a prayer to god for deliverance from chains” (Douglas 58).
Slaves were forced to live in
treacherous conditions and beaten. Alongside that, they were treated poorly and
were given no rights. They were treated worse than animals, for “if a horse did
not move fast enough, or hold his head high enough, it was owing to some fault
of his keeper” (Douglas 60). They were stripped of their voices, which
dehumanizes them that much more. These things don’t only destroy you physically
but also slowing brings you down mentally.
I wanted to add on to your comment that slaves weren’t given any rights. It wasn’t just that they weren’t given rights they weren’t even categorized in the same class or species or anything like that of the white men. They were ranked for the auctions by being compared to animals and what stood out the most in this passage was the order that Douglass chose to put them. In chapter eight Douglass describes this valuation- “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children all holding the same rank in the scale of being.” (Douglass 60) It stood out to me that men didn’t come before horses, that the animals were ranked higher than the people they were being compared too. He also uses the phrase ‘the scale of being’ which would signify that the his presence on earth was like that of a horses, that slaves weren’t human, they were just another being put on earth for the use of white men.
ReplyDeleteIn the very beginning of the book Douglass makes this same kind of reference to animals and being no better than them. “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs” (21). And again a reference to horses and animals can be seen in the quote you mentioned, that “if a horse did not move fast enough, or hold his head high enough, it was owing to some fault of his keeper” (60). This may be going out on a limb but I think that the repetition of this simile, that slaves were like horses, was done on purpose by Douglass as a way to signify just how badly the slaves were dehumanized. Not only were they stripped of all of their rights, beaten and mistreated, but they weren’t even thought of as being in the same species.
To agree with you, yes, the thought of this would be psychologically draining. Imagine a world where you mean nothing and to make it worse you have no support system to lean on and help you through this, you are alone and viewed by everyone else as no one and nothing of importance.
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ReplyDeleteVincent,
When you discussed the spies that slave masters would plant amongst their own slaves, I liked how you described that this forced slaves to think like it was an “everyman for themselves situation.” This creates a scenario where bad-mouthing one’s own master becomes a rare occasion, forcing slaves to think positive thoughts about their master instead of the hatred that they felt within. Demonstrations of consequences for those who do speak out, such as the colored boy Colonel Lloyd met on the highway described by Douglass on pages 61 and 62, proved as a successful scare tactic for the remaining majority of slaves. The public display of affection for their masters shown by slaves even stretched into fights amongst slaves of different owners, in which the rival slaves would “quarrel among themselves about the relative goodness of their masters, each contending for the superior goodness of his own over that of the others” (Douglass, 63). This mind control that white slave owners gained over their slaves was done so strategically, but that does not diminish the cruelty of their actions. The slave owners would break down each and every slave physically first, and then attack the slave’s mental status while they were at their weakest points. I am extremely grateful for the termination of slavery in America, and hope that one day slavery will be terminated throughout the world.
Out of all the works we have read thus far in the semester, what makes this work all the more engaging is that it is a work of nonfiction. It is hard to imagine that there were people who actually suffered through this—not only is this a work of literature, this was what many slaves knew to be reality.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of physical enslavement, even the slaves themselves believed they were property, under the possession of the slave owners. These slaves were also taken away from their mother and father at birth, having no identity of their background or their family. This concept reminds of when canines give birth to their litter; these puppies are separated from their parents and siblings and later sold, as an object, as a means of household companionship for others. This comparison of the slaves to animals is constantly present throughout Douglass’ narrative.
Psychologically, what this means to the slaves is that they are conditioned to believe they are lower than the slave owners. Yes, it indeed is very interesting that the slave owners stripped the slaves of their identity and were taught to believe that it was every man for himself. I believe that it was the slave owners belief that through this, not only are they now allowed the opportunity to “team up,” they are not allowed to understand the injustices of slavery.
Douglass mentions that they were also dehumanized to the point where slavery was the only means of life; there was no other option than to allow themselves to be enslaved without the knowledge of the injustices of slavery.