Frederick Douglass Essay

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American hard worker, Douglass describes the dehu gentlemanisation of twain slaves and slave owners. M both slaves were dehumanized by getting beat, raped and stock-still killed. He has seen many horrid things like the incident with Denbys last and how he had to fight ein truthwhere scraps of food. Douglass not only describes the dehumanization of the slaves, he also talks about how it also changed many of the slave owners that he had encountered.The first time Douglass sees the dehumanization of the slave owners was when he met Mrs. Auld. She had neer owned a slave before so she treated him with keep an eye on and with kindness. At first, Mrs. Auld is described by Douglass as angelic, kind, and humble. She taught him the alphabet and how to read. Frederick said, When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman. There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came inside her reach.(pg. 82) However, her husband scorned her for teaching a slave how to read. He influenced her with his weaken mindset about treating slaves and changed Mrs. Auld from Angelic to demonic as Frederick described. He said, Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. nether its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike tendency gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.This shows how vastly Mrs. Auld was changed just by her husband commanding her and telling her what was accountability in his mind. Once she discovered this new found power, that she has power over other human being, she used it to her advantage and went from being the nice brothel keeper that taught Douglass how to read to the lady that would punish him if she caught him reading. Another example of the dehumanization of the slave owners is Mr. brood. He was a very religious man and was als o nicknamed the n****r breaker because all the slaves that went to him, he emotionally broke, leaving their intent even more depressing and gloomy. Mr. Covey was proud of his nickname and cared very much for his reputation.It says in the novel, Added to the natural good qualities of Mr. Covey, he was a professor of religion a pious soul a member and a class-leader in the Methodist church.(Pg. 101) Covey was devoted to religion and breaking his slaves to shape on his reputation that he has. The dehumanizing part is that he likes what he does and how he beats the poor slaves. The novel states, My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died the dark wickedness of slavery closed in upon me and behold a man change into a brute this shows how untamed Mr. Covey is that he made Douglass transubstantiate. Everything that he learned went away, his slight sense of joy if there was any was n ow wiped away from him. Douglass also talks about the dehumanization of the slaves. ramous off from Mr. Covey, Many women slaves were dehumanized by being baby machines. Mr. Covey bought a women slave, Caroline, and her only job was to breed with another man which was Samuel Harrison which was a married man. This is very contradictory because Covey claims to be a man of god when he is doing things like this. Another example of the dehumanization of slaves was when Douglass and his acquire were separated when he was born. The slave owners didnt want them to gain love with each other because they thought it would distract them from working. In the novel it says, I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but extensive before I waked she was gone.This shows how his mother would walk all the way to another plantation just to see him at night when he was quiescence because she loved h im very much. It was very dehumanizing when Douglass described what kind of food they had to eat, We were not regularly allowanced. Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called MUSH. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. He later(prenominal) describes how the children were called to eat the mush like pigs and how they had to fight over the little they had. It was the endurance of the fittest. As you can see, dehumanization had an effect on the slaves by destroying them physically and mentally, making them depressed and malnourished, and in some cases, dying. There were also cause on slave owners but not as bold as the ones slaves endured. Mrs. Auld went from being a nice, angelic lady who was nice to everyone and everything to cruel and punishing.