The Atlantic Slave Trade Question: How does the absence of humanitarian concerns influence the treatment of slaves during the slave trade? Neglecting humane feelings is what influenced the terrible and horrid treatment to slaves during the slave trade. From beatings and whippings to breaking their bones, slaves were treated and considered inferior for no reason. After reading the documents, certain ones pointed out the outcomes of the absence of humanity. Document 7 reveals how these punishments were horrid and fear causing.
A slave was treated like property and not like a Human Being and owned by other Human Being's. Many people believed Slavery was morally wrong and wanted to do something about it. Granville Sharp was one of the first and greatest campaigners against slavery. He did not manage to abolish the slave trade but still was able to turn the public’s opinion against slavery. He also believed that slavery was sinful and against some religions.
Banneker begins the letter by asking Jefferson to recall the “tyranny” in which he has “suffered” previously as a way to show him what “horrors” the current slaves are being “exposed” to now. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to put an end to injustice treatment of human beings. Banneker shows Jefferson that he is not acting upon his words by personally owning slaves and treating blacks harshly. Jefferson’s “abhorrence” to the “injustice” that drove him to write the Declaration of Independence is not at all being exhibited to blacks. Jefferson had so many disdained feelings when he was being abased by the British, but after his freedom was granted, he lost sight of what was right.
A perfect example of this is when Mrs. Auld is told that if Douglass learns he will no longer be useful as a slave, at this time in the book she began to turn very mean and cruel towards her slaves and treating them more like property instead of being somewhat generous as before. Frederick’s family was forced to struggle through the hard times, and had to live a very unusual life, for example: Frederick’s mother was sold to another slave family so it was very hard for Frederick to see his mother, and eventually she passed away when Frederick was seven, although he didn’t seem very effected. Frederick also ends up proving that Covey was extremely two faced by bring up a very valid point, which was owning slaves was unnatural and unchristian like. As for Frederick’s Grandmother, that truly opened his eyes as to how these slave owners really feel about you, regardless as for what you do. She served her masters for years and then when she grew too old to serve them they just tossed her out like a piece of trash and left her for dead.
For it is a natural human instinct to stereotype. For centuries, we have been stereotyping different races such as the blacks. The whites used to see them as evil doers, but now we realize that it is not true. In the book, Tom Robinson was killed because he was stereotyped. If he had an impartial jury, he would have been a free man.
Even under kind masters, slaves suffer, however, most of them try to find a relief in God. Christian theology is fundamentally incompatible with slavery, but it makes slaveholders more sensitive and provides a safe haven for slaves. In contradiction to circumstances presented above, the Legree plantation is the place, where the evil of slavery appears in its most naked and hideous form. Slaves suffer beatings, sexual abuse, and even murder in this harsh and barbaric setting. If slavery is wrong in the best of cases, in the worst of cases it is a nightmare and very inhuman.
Few people brought attention to the evil and immorality of slavery like Frederick Douglass. In his autobiographical narrative, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass described the effect that slavery had on not only slaves, but also slave-owners. “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage” (Douglass 160), wrote Douglass in reference to his slave-owner’s wife, Mrs. Auld. What was a moral lady with a sense of conscience at first, was now a “demon” deprived of it. Slavery gave owners and white men a false sense of superiority, a sense of power, which blinded any vision of justice and equality.
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”: The idea of self-making and “respect” When reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave written by himself, I certainly wasn’t thinking about the idea of “respect” and self-making. I was too busy focusing on all the horrible things happening to the slaves and all the terrible things the slave owners were doing to them to really look at the fine lines of the story. It wasn’t until I read "Bold defiance took its place"—"Respect" and Self-Making in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Vince Brewton that I really started to look into the story on a more personal basis. The reason why Brewton repeatedly throughout his essay puts quotations around the word “respect” is because he defines “respect” as “an exaggerated version of ordinary self-respect.” He goes on to clarify that “‘Respect’ does not tolerate disrespect, and as a form of identity utilizes active disrespect of others to lay claim to power and the boundaries of that power.” It’s clear to me that Douglass’s story is a fight to earn “respect” and in order to earn that, he believes he has to be free. Douglass has no “respect” because he is thrown into a world of slavery where he must tolerate the disrespect being shoved at him.
She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach” (page 367). Frederick as a slave did not agree with slavery and by her actions being very different then the others, she had the same opposing opinion to slavery as did Frederick Douglass. He said “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” (page 367). 2. After he beat up the slave breaker named Mr.
In past history, enslavement of another was usually the result of an unpaid debt, the spoils of a victorious war, or the consequences of a crime. Enslavement of another human life without reason, however, is a critical sign of the downfall of humanity. In American history, slavery warped from being temporary servitude of any immigrant or unemployed citizen in the hopes of helping them in the end into lifetime enslavement of Africans with no pay and very little hope of escaping the harsh conditions employed by enslavement. Not only did enslavement of the Africans occur, but the harsh racism that formed towards them only worsened their conditions, with the white society’s hate being expressed negatively towards the slaves. Since the time of slavery, many scholars and historians have studied the American enslavement of the Africans to further understand the cause.