Frederick Douglass Dehumanization

Douglass’ narrative masterfully argues the dehumanizing nature of the institution of slavery, as well as sets itself up as a foil to the belief that African Americans at the time couldn’t achieve a higher level of human nature. In order to show the ways in which Douglass’ accomplishes this throughout the narrative my paper will show how slavery was dehumanizing in its use of sheer physical violence, the treatment of slaves on the level of livestock or property, and the maintained state of ignorance of most slaves by their masters. While in the second half of my paper I will analyze Douglass’ use of metaphor & personification, imagery & sentiment, and the presentation of his own ideology & philosophical questioning to in fact exemplify the

humanity of himself and fellow African Americans.
Most prominent in the dehumanizing aspects of slavery was the brutal physical violence that was commonplace amongst slave plantations. As Douglass’ stated there was no empathy, slaveholders would go as far as to whip a slave for the smallest of reasons only stopping due to their own fatigue. Slaveholders would pay no mind to the backs caked in a layer of blood, or the cries of their victims. Slaveholders would often leave their slaves in a bloodied state, often for no reason at all as can be seen by the example of Mrs. Hamilton, who would simply whip those under her “care” as they passed by her seat. Leaving one slave, named Mary, with a “head, neck, and shoulders… literally cut to pieces… nearly covered with festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress.” Finally, perhaps the most dehumanizing form of this extreme violence was the use of a slave as an example to the others as a Master Andrew did to Douglass himself by stamping on his brother’s head until blood gushed from his nose and ears. These examples, among numerous others, truly showed that there was no sympathy for the slaves, that their pain and torture meant nothing to those who they called master, because as they saw it they were below them.
Slaves were seen on such a lower level in fact that they were labeled as livestock and property, and continuously reminded of this common belief in their treatment. In the simplest example they were fed mush from a tray or trough, such as a gathering of pigs would be. A tradition which left the nature of a slave’s life to survival of the fittest, weeding out the runts of a litter as it would be. Furthermore, it was common for a slaveholder to purchase a female slave, labeling them breeders, as one with livestock would purchase a cow for the sole purpose of increasing one’s livestock. This wasn’t particular to female slaves however, it was commonplace for slaves to be brought up for auction being poked and prodded in a process of valuation mimicking that which was used to apply value to a farm animal, and they were in fact even grouped together with horses, sheep, and swine as this was the rank they were given amongst other forms of property. Then of course there was the ease with which the loss of slave was faced, even when it was a loss in the form of murder it was easily justified by the community, as the “property” could be paid off since it was “worth a half-cent to kill a “nigger”, and a half-cent to bury one”. Still, slaveholders did realize the economic value of their slaves and it is for this very reason which slaves were further dehumanized by being kept ignorant to maintain value.
Not only was it believed that as a lower being African Americans couldn’t achieve any feasible amount of intellectual growth, masters would take it upon themselves to keep each slave as ignorant of themselves as a horse would be.

Furthermore, slaveholders held that with any form of knowledge being gained a slave would become discontent and unhappy, they were in a sense happily dumb because all they could and would want to be suitable for was the good of the master. They were dehumanized not only by the idea that they couldn’t achieve a level of knowledge even close to on par with that of a white man, but they were in fact also dehumanized by the notion that they had no use of the simplest forms of education.
Altogether, through Douglass’ narrative it is made apparent that slavery effectively dehumanized African Americans, whether slaves or free men of color, by targeting them with the most extreme and cruel acts of punishment, without a care to their wellbeing aside from maintaining them at a level fit to work, casting them as cattle, or livestock, and property that can be easily replaced once they are of no use, and that as such low level beings are and should remain brutes to maintain value and ignorant

happiness.
However, Douglass in his writing is able to project just how human he and his fellow African Americans truly were or could become. His mastery of literary devices and the eloquent nature in which he presented his ideology & philosophy were testaments to the growth he personally achieved and the potential that was truly within each person held down by the ties of slavery that were so ignorantly inhibiting them.
Firstly, there is the use of metaphor and personification to portray the evil and fear that could be placed alongside slavery. Douglass compares the violent actions of the slaveholders and his first introduction to the extent to which a slaveholder would go to “the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which” he was about to pass. He is able to describe the torture of being a slave and the somber cry of the slaves within their slave songs, “they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God…”. This personification of the songs sung through the march of the slaves allows us to see this deeper understanding in Douglass, the complexity of the emotions felt by him and his fellow African Americans. Then there is Douglass’ personification of the ships in the Chesapeake Bay, he beautifully present these ships as angels, deliverers from the hells of slavery, free to go as they please in contrast to the bonds which hold him still, the inability as it were to sprout wings or take to the water with as much ease. Altogether these extended metaphors and personifications show Douglass’ ability to delve into the depths of slavery as an institution, to show its dark nature, the awareness of each slave of their bitter states, and an overall want to escape in beautification of freedom.
Douglass’ further strengthens his mastery of the written word and himself as an example of humanity within slaves through the imagery he presents.

For example, he once more instills an image of slavery as a hell that can twist and sully the most innocent of things with his description of his new mistress prior to and after the change brought upon by her introduction to slavery, “…a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions… Her face was made of heavenly smiles, and her voice of tranquil music… That cheerful eye… soon became red with rage; that voice… changed to one of harsh and horrid discord, and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon.” Then there is the sentiment which he seeds well into his writing, it is often a great deal of pain and sorrow, along with once more gloomy imagery. This shows not only that he is capable of mastering prose and using knowledge effectively in contrast to the slaveholders belief, but it is also evidence of the great deal of sympathy and lamentation that could be present within any slave; it juxtaposed against the idea of a brute incapable of anything but serving their master and rather showed a being full of compassion that was in fact seemingly absent within the common slaveholder. Douglass most prominently demonstrates this in his response to the, in a sense, exile of his grandmother when her old age places her in a position of no longer being necessary, “The hearth is desolate. The children, the unconscious children,

who once sang and danced in her presence, are gone. She gropes her way, in the darkness of age, for a drink of water. Instead of the voices of her children, she hears by day the moans of the dove, and by night the screams of the owl. All is gloom. The grave is at the door. And now, when weighed down by the pains and aches of old age, when the head inclines to the feet, when the beginning and ending of human existence meet, and helpless infancy and painful old age combine together – at this time, this most needful time, the time for exercise of that tenderness and affection which children only can exercise towards a declining parent – my poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve children, is left alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim embers. She stands – she sits – she staggers – she falls – she falls – she groans – she dies – and there are none of her children or grandchildren present, to wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death…” These concepts being put forward by his use of imagery further play into his direct presentation of ideology and philosophy.
Douglass laces his narrative with a sense of spirituality both with a deep and confident faith as well as with a morose questioning of this same faith that would allow slavery. First there is Douglass’ clear moral ideology offered to us in the statement “But I should be false to the earnest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence” . Then there is his deeply philosophical questioning of God that is most evident when he states “Does a righteous God govern the universe? And for what does he hold the thunders in his right hand, if not to smite the oppressor, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the spoiler.” , displaying both his awareness of the injustices present and hypocrisy with which religion was used throughout the establishment of slavery. In concord these two projections of Douglass’ morality and philosophy work to counter yet another dehumanizing aspect of slavery, that an African American couldn’t possibly hold themselves with the moral composure of a white person and that furthermore they couldn’t hold a thought, let alone deep comprehension, of a higher being and Christian values. Douglass not only shows his own morality but he also exhibits comprehension of religion, its values, and even the relation of a Christian set of traditional values with the actions and nature of slavery.
Thus, in spite of all the efforts of slave-hood to dehumanize the average African American it is through a eloquently crafted prose, that reveals both the hypocrisy and innate nature of slavery to twist the most pristine of peoples, the instilling of images and gloomed emotions, which reveal to a reader the immense compassion and ideals held by slaves while under the bonds of a hellish institution, and the manifestation of Douglass’ own moral complexity which he is able to bring out the humanity of these same people.