Frederick Douglass Dehumanization

The modern reader knows that a the life of a slave was of no doubt, a difficult one. However, what the modern reader does not know, is what made it so difficult and dehumanizing for them, other than hard work and whippings, the normal cliches thought of when the term “slave” is brought up. Throughout the narrative the reader may realize how the slaves were torn apart(dehumanized) so frequently, whether it be whippings, racial slurs, or the separation of families. A specific point in which this practice of dehumanization is prominent is in the birth of a slave. From the dawn of a slaves birth, the cruel practice commences with the newborn being separated from his mother, and being taken to a new plantation, miles or sometimes even states away.

In a particular account, Douglass tells of how this process is undergone: “Before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child's affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.

This is the inevitable result” (Douglass 18). The passage itself is sickening to the reader of Douglass’s Narrative, but the diction that hurts the most for the reader is when Frederik says “to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child,” and “this is the inevitable result.” One knows the that the source of any child's development is the kind, warm hearted compassion of its own mother, and that if anything should be taken from the slave, why must it be the source of the only compassion he’ll ever know. Because that is exactly what the masters wanted. For the slave to not know any

compassion. They wanted the slave to turn into the working mule-like brute. The system of dehumanization is at its climax when the reader is introduced to Mr. Edward Covey: “The breaker of slaves.” After six months of the twelve month sentence of being “leased” to Covey, Douglass acclaims that Covey has lived up to his name. The reader learns the true definition of dehumanization in Douglass’s own words when he informs us: “Mr. Covey succeed in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit.

My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!”(Douglass 67). This passage is one of the many great climaxes to the narrative due to the sheer diction that flows throughout it. Furthermore, the reader learns that Douglass has officially been crushed. His quest for freedom has smothered, as of that of a flame, and he says that he has finally transformed into the brute that all slaves are destined to become from birth. Through the well executed diction utilized throughout this excerpt, which shows how Douglass’s spirit is ultimately crushed through the dehumanization process of Edward Covey, a new word is added to the repertoire of words that comes into the mind when the term “slave” is used. That term being dehumanization. Douglass’s recountings of dehumanization in these powerful passages, can convince any modern reader that the work of Douglass, despite its age, is still a great piece of literary art and history that teaches us of the extreme bumps in the road to

freedom. These bumps dehumanize and ultimately lead to the slaves conversion into the hardworking, mule-like brute, so desired by their masters for the harsh neverending labors, which they are enslaved to accomplish.