Slavery Is the Most Dehumanizing and Aspect of Human Life

It is the most dehumanizing and intrusive aspect of every human’s life that it touches. Slavery is the very institution that affects the social, economic, and cultural aspects of every person’s life. Although many people viewed slavery as a necessity, others have strong critiques of the institution. We are able to gain knowledge of these very critiques by the first-hand accounts of Mary Prince in the narrative The History of Mary Prince and From the Darkness Cometh the Light by Lucy Delaney. In the narratives, Prince and Delany communicate to the reader a plethora of critiques to slavery. The most powerful critiques that Prince and Delaney agree upon are the destruction of family, the condition of the slaves, and the moral that it creates on the lives of the people most affected.

During the time of slavery, it was a common practice to separate one from their family. Families tend to have the ability to rally together and create a sense of hope and confidence. It was the idea of slave owners to separate them so the sense of loneliness and a lack of confidence will come over the slave. This practice is noticed in Mary Prince narrative when she describes the auctioning of herself and he siblings. She states, “I then saw my sisters led forth, and sold to different owners; so that we had not the sad satisfaction of being partners in bondage. […] When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us.”(4) Prince and her siblings were all young when they were sold. Today, and even to some during this time period, this practice seems absurd. Children, in this case, are meant to grow up around their family members for guidance and to learn right from wrong. Prince empathizes this critique of family separation as wro...

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...ter and worker relationship. For a slave that was brought up with this skewed mindset, they suffered for it when they got older. Delaney describes the reaction Mrs. Cox had on her mother when she says, “when something did not suit her, she turned on my mother like a fury, and declared, “I am tired out with the ‘whit airs’ you put on””. (21) Anyone who grows up with a certain mindset is going to have difficulty sheading it in an instant. Unfortunately, slaves were disciplined for an idea of life that they ignorantly developed.

Slavery was a condition that no human being should ever endure. It is a mechanism that shaped every aspect of everyone living at that time period. Common and the most powerful critiques of this institution was that it broke up families, resulted in poor living conditions, and shaped the lives of everyone involved from youth to their adulth