Morrison expresses the atrocities of slavery in a language that I personally have never experienced before. Instead of the typical overused adjectives and factual descriptions she employs beautiful metaphor and a disturbing plot line to make her point. She is raw and shocking. This technique sheds a light on slavery and the purposeful dehumanization of the slave that is almost never depicted in the history books. It is important when talking about the effect of slavery to consider what it takes for the slave owner to be able to treat another human being in such a bestial way.
In the ninth chapter of her book, Jacobs mentions that “If a slave resisted being whipped, the bloodhounds were unpacked, and set upon him, to tear his flesh from his bones.” These methods were used to spread fear upon slaves, and lead them to be fearful to try to escape. After I read the part where a slave who had been tortured by her mistress raised her hand and dealt two blows on her dead mistress’ face saying as she was doing it “The devil is got you now!”, I had mixed feelings. I thought it was good for the slave as she was able to ease her pain slapping the mistress; at the same time, I thought it was sad because slavery made the good woman stoop to the level of disrespecting a
Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” contains many different underlying themes, one of which includes the evils of slavery. Melville shows this in Cereno as he “ attempts to strike a balance between people divided by race and class, thus speaking to the new multiracial readership of popular works on slavery” ( Melville 18). Slavery can bring out the evil in individuals when they try to gain dominate control over someone. The same can be said about the slaves about the San Dominick merchant ship. Babo, acting as the leader of the revolt, ordered the brutal slaying of any non useful sailors.
Slavery, which was a major uproar from colonial America to the civil war, is the racial epidemic of the enslavement of people for money and cheap labor with extensive abuses. The question that could be asked is were the slaves dignified, did they still keep their dignity? The word dignity is the conducting of self-respect as a person sees himself or herself rather than, how others perceive that person. Slavery has been around for years and slaves have been treated unfairly for countless of reasons and situations. Did they still keep their self-respect?
(Beloved, p 93) I found that this quotation is also well describing about how many slaves were cruelly mistreated from their owners in slavery lives. In here, Amy calls Sethe's ineradicable wound on her back from abuse with very positive images such as cherry blossoms, and bloom with an optimistical way. I had many questions about this expressions so that I assumed it in two ways. It may symbolizes freedom after extreme pain and agony in slavery life but also hope or dream that someday not only slaves but also ex-slaves can be completely released from their disgraceful and shameful memories of the past days as they challnge to get a new happy life. Then, as time is passed, gradually they can forget the excessively sorrowful memories one by one.
Why? Answer: Because Mr. Plummer and I quote “Was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster.” Mr. Plummer was the one that gave him the very memory of his aunt having her hands held by a hook and standing on her toes on a stool, and being whipped even after blood was pouring from her veins. He was a cruel man that didn’t care about what happened to the slaves. He was so descriptive about Mr. Plummer because Mr. Plummer left a “scar” on him. He left an emotional scar that Frederick will never forget.
Narrative of an American Slave Douglass' Narrative begins with the few facts he knows about his birth and parentage. He knows that his father is a slave owner and his mother is a slave named Harriet Bailey. Here and throughout the autobiography, Douglass highlights the common practice of white slave owners raping slave women, both to satisfy their sexual hungers and to expand their slave populations. In the first chapter, Douglass also makes mention of the hypocrisy of Christian slave owners who used religious teachings to justify their abhorrent treatment of slaves; the religious practice of slave owners is a recurrent theme in the text. Throughout the next several chapters, Douglass describes the conditions in which he and other slaves live.
Many of them were stripped from their mothers and the identities of their fathers remained unknown. Douglass’s states that he knows the identity of his father; to his knowledge he was his former master. This account gives proof that slaves were raped and impregnated by whites. The opening scenes of Douglass’s narrative provided me with a very unique and vivid experience. Alongside his narration, my thoughts projected scenes.
He supports this argument by looking closely at the meaning of the symbolism behind the color black. (Winthrop 14) The skin color of many enslaved cultures were often linked to the hard labor that was done outside, exposed usually to the burning sun. He ultimately argues that a dark skin became a rationale for enslaving people of darker skin tones. The argument that Williams makes is that Economics was the main driving force behind the creation of Slavery, not so much Racism. To support his thesis, he pointed out that any lower social class was sent to do manual labor.
The cycle continues with Grange’s son, Brownfield, as he brutally abuses his wife and children—murdering his wife in the end. Ruth, Brownfield’s daughter, is able to beat the odds and break the sequence of domestic abuse and racism. Several factors prompt the victimization of women illustrated throughout the novel. The main force is the need for male dominance and power, a desire that results from societal oppression (racism), which the African American men face in the South. All of the characters victimized by racism, as well as domestic violence, are negatively impacted.