Response To Frederick Douglass Slave Narrative

My personal responses to Douglass’ Narrative are that of horror and interest. Before reading Douglass’ slave narrative, I was unaware of the extent of the human rights violations against African Americans. In the past I was taught that slavery was a cruel institution which over-worked and mistreated slaves, but I did not, however, know much detail regarding the slaves’ daily lives. However, Douglass’ slave narrative not only exposes the slaves’ extremely poor living conditions, such as a minimal amount of food, adequate clothing, and limited bed-material given to slaves per month, but also explains family life in slavery. In respect to the provisions granted to the enslaved peoples, Douglass writes “The men and women slaves received, as their

monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal. Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers… and one pair of shoes” (Douglas, 2). Moreover, concerning family life Douglass recalls that his mother and he “were separated when I [Douglass] was but an infant,” and that he “never saw my [Douglass’] mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life...each of these times was very short in duration...at night” (Douglass, 1). About his father, Douglass recounts, the he did not have the “slightest intimation of who my [Douglass’] father was” (Douglass, 2). This unjust information about familial life in slavery appalls me, as I am horrified that a young baby was not even permitted to spend a prolonged duration of time with his mother.
While I am unnerved about the family style of African Americans in the era of slavery, I am even more repulsed by the unjustified harsh treatment many slaves received.

Originally, when Douglass says, “I have seen him [the master Mr. Severe] whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time,” I was saddened, but not surprised, by the flogging, as it is a practice many teachers talk about today (Douglass, 2). However, I am shocked and upset by the punishments that Douglass describes next. The author tells the grotesque story of a slave named Demby and his owner, Colonel Lloyd. Once, when Colonel Lloyd was punishing Demby, the master had only whipped Demby a few times when, “to get rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a creek” and refused to leave the river when ordered to (Douglass, 3). Lloyd then penalized Demby for his bad behavior when he “raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Dempy was no more” (Douglass, 3). Although I’d like to think that killing a slave was abnormal, Douglass explains that murdering a slave was not treated as a crime, and thus, the Colonel was not subject to judicial investigation. Moreover, I am thoroughly disgusted that the traditional plantation owners, such as the Colonel, passed on their racist and criminal morals to the children of the South. Douglass clarifies that “it was a common saying, even among little what boys, that it was worth a half-cent to kill a

‘nigger,’ and a half-cent to bury one” (Douglass, 4). Through his account about the cruelty he endured as a slave, Douglass succeeded in vividly illustrating the grotesque human rights violations that occurred on plantations, creating a piece of propaganda against the institution of slavery.

“Splicing” Douglass’ “Appendix” with Key Passage #2 made me think/realize/consider...
“Splicing” Douglass’ “Appendix” with Key Passage #2 made me realize the full extent of the moral corruption that occurred during the pre-Civil War era.

Before reading the “Appendix” and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I thought that religion was one of the only moral institutions that remained in the largely slave-holding South. However, after reading the two excerpts and splicing them together, I was able to understand, from two different points of view, the effects that Southern morals had on Christianity. When Huck feels guilty about helping Jim run away for the second time, he says “if you’d a done it [gone to Sunday School] they’d a learnt you there that people that acts as I’d been acting about that nigger goes to everlasting fire” (Twain, 160). This exclamation, combined with the quote, “he who proclaims it a religious duty to read the bible, denies me the right of learning to read the name of the god who made me” (Douglass, 6), explains the decrease of mortality in Southern religion. The church, an institution that is supposed to guide people to do the right thing, had the same immoral beliefs that the rest of the Southern Society had, and became the pinnacle of southern racism. This quality of southern religion is exposed when Huck thinks he committed a sin by helping Jim run away from his owner. While today’s society would agree, for the most part, that Huck did the right thing in helping Jim escape, because Huck was brought up by Miss Watson in a religious

and traditional household, they boy was convinced that God would punish him for his actions. The relationship between Southern racism and religion is ironic, as one would commonly think that Christianity of Christ was “pure, peaceable, and impartial,” instead, the religion turned into a “corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity” (Douglass, 5). Thus, in splicing Douglass’ passage with Twain’s, I learned that the Southern ideals affected all parts of society, including the supposedly moral church of Christianity.