Cruelty Of Slavery

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Slavery was an exceedingly common practice in American society throughout the Nineteenth century. Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and former slave, writes of the dehumanization and cruelty toward slaves in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. As a slave, Douglass endured intolerable levels of cruelty from his slaveholders, as well as white society as a whole. (one more sentence?). Douglass utilizes simile, anaphora, irony, juxtaposition and antithesis to present his hardships and experiences as a slave to clarify how the system of slavery has corrupted slaves, slaveholders, and Christianity. At a young age, Douglass worked on a farm in which the children were fed a mixture of foods called mush. …show more content…

Mr. Auld, a slaveholder, prevented his wife from educating and teaching Douglass to read, stating that slaves should not learn as they could become unmanageable. Douglass explained that what Mr. Auld “loved most, that I most hated. That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read” (27). Most apparent in education, Douglass and Mr. Auld obstinately express their beliefs and differences. Douglass utilizes antithesis in order to present the separation between himself and Mr. Auld through the difference in education created by slaveholders. The separation is the slaveholder’s rationale for his mistreatment of the slave. The system of slavery has convinced and manipulated the slaveholder into taking education from their deserving slaves. Slaveholders hold the believe that if slaves are to be educated, they would they would rise in opposition against this society, similar to Douglass. Mr. Hopkins was known to be “less cruel, less profane, and made less noise, than Mr. Severe. His course was characterized by no extraordinary demonstrations of cruelty. He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. He was called by the slaves a good overseer” (17). Though he did not enjoy whipping his slaves, Mr. Hopkins continued to do so out of “obligation”. Douglass employs irony in order to present the severity of slaveholders’ cruelty. A regular slaveholder is inhumane and takes pleasure in the torment of his slaves. The severity of their actions are great to an extent such that if a slaveholder whipped without feelings of pleasure, he is considered a good master. Ordinary slaveholders see slaves only as property, and barely acknowledge them as human; this miniscule amount of acknowledgement leads to a desensitized outlook to the harm

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