Slavery In Frederick Douglass Essay

The Cruelty of Masters toward Slaves During the nineteenth century, masters brutally mistreated their slaves. The masters abused their slaves by whippings, a lack of food, a lack of clothing, and malicious language directed at the slave. The injuries that the slaves received could never heal because before the wounds could heal, they were beaten again. Frederick Douglass, a slave during the 1800s, in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, strives to persuade Americans to realize that slaves were treated brutally by their masters no matter if their masters were male or female, rich or poor, or religious or nonreligious. Slaveholders, masters, and overseers, both male and female, acted savagely

Fergus M. Bordewich, holds degrees in American history from the City College of New York and Columbia University, writes in his book Bound for Canaan about a slaved named Josiah Henson, whose master had been Adam Robb, a poor man, left dead slaves lying on the ground for days without giving the corpses a second glance (p. 13). This man did not even care enough to remove the dead bodies of the slaves. The dead bodies that were lying in the fields, rotting away, had absolutely no effect on him. Another poor man named Edward Covey did not even own the farm on which he lived. He was known as a slave-breaker who corrected the ways of difficult slaves (Douglass, 1845/1995, p. 34). Douglass (1845/1995) tells of the whippings Covey inflicted on him. The cuts were as long and deep as Douglass's little finger (p. 35). Covey was merciless to the slaves. Covey sent his slaves on missions that caused near-death experiences, and he did not care the slightest about the slave's injuries. Captain Thomas Auld was poor and cruel. He never gave his slaves a sufficient amount of food and Douglass even compares him to a lion with his leading characteristic being meanness (Douglass, 1845/1995, p. 31). The worst punishment for a slave was not getting enough to eat. Captain Auld never provided Douglass with a full meal and hardly even enough time to eat the minuscule portions that Captain Auld gave to them. Douglass (1845/1995) tells of one of the richest men in Maryland named Colonel Lloyd. He owned around four hundred slaves that worked only on his plantation, more slaves that worked on his other twenty farms, and had one of the most plentiful plantations of the state. Even though Colonel Lloyd was one of the wealthiest men in Maryland, his slaves only received minimal food, sparse clothing, and no beds (pp. 5-6). Cristin Ellis (2014), an Assistant Professor of English at the University of