The Dehumanizing Effect Of Slavery By Frederick Douglass

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Slavery the act of “legally” or economically applying principles of law to humans, allowing them to be classified as property, to be owned, bought and sold accordingly. While a human is enslaved, the owner is entitled to the productivity of the slave 's labor, without any payment for work or service. The rights and protection which may be none, of the slave will be regulated by laws and customs in a time and place, which may lead to a person becoming a slave from the time of their capture, purchase or birth. Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery sometime around 1818. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes. Among Douglass’s writings …show more content…

Douglass an individual who was born into slavery was separated from his mother at an early age, from my point of view without my parents specially my mother I would not be where I am today. Even though Douglass was separated from his family and in a way, did not have sense of family he did not let himself to be broken by this. He was a smart child who was determined to enjoy life to be best he could, even though at an early age all he understood about a slave life was misery. As he matured and grew, he started to noticed that there was more than just slavery but he was eventually broken by the harsh treatment of slavery. As Douglass …show more content…

Mrs. Sophia Auld was unlike any white person Douglass had met before because she had "the kindest heart and finest feelings." She had never owned a slave, and, prior to her marriage, she was an industrious weaver. But her personality soon changed. At first, Mrs. Auld taught Douglass how to read, but Mr. Auld admonished her and explained, "Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world . . . if you teach that nigger . . . how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave." She doesn 't understand much about the slave-owning culture, as she becomes corrupted by the experience of owning Douglass, she shows that slave owning is terrible thing for white people too. She is changed from a warm and sympathetic woman to a cruel, jealous tyrant. As Douglass mentions: My new mistress proved to be all she appeared when I first met her at the door, —a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings. She had never had a slave under her control previously to myself, and prior to her marriage she had been dependent upon her own industry for a living. She was by trade a weaver; and by constant application to her business, she had been in a good degree preserved from the blighting and dehumanizing effects of slavery. I was utterly astonished at her goodness. I scarcely knew how to behave towards her. She was entirely unlike

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