Among most humans, evil creates more evil. Slavery is a social structure developed by individuals who felt superior to others and it is still a reality today. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave shows how slavery causes human beings to perform malevolent deeds and have these deeds done to some. Many know about the physical abuse that slaves had to undergo, but Douglass's narrative shows how there was also sexual and emotional cruelty and how these acts where seen as normal and hide behind society's standards. Slavery is evil in nature from the moment it started; there is no completely good person or completely bad person, this system renders the best minds corrupt and freezes the kindest hearts of slaves as well as their owners. Slaves were victims of one of the most graphical and crass physical evil of all times.
The dehumanizing treatment slaves got was physically exhausting and often very painful. Frederick Douglass wrote about many events when the dire images formed the mind of the reader make the book very challenging to read. A particularly harsh vivid image comes to mind when on page 52, the torture and mistreatment of a slave-woman is displayed with these words: “He made her get upon the stool and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his internal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes… red blood… came dripping to the floor.” The slave-owners did not get as much physical pain as they imposed upon the slaves to try to make them comply the orders of a supposed superior race. History shows that the slaves tried to fight back violently only found death. All this graphic pain and evil is depressing and even embarrassing, but a much deeper and complicated pain and evil was inflicted directly in the souls of the participants.
Most people would rather have corporal damage rather than mental and emotional. The psychological harm that slavery caused took its toll on slave-owners almost as much as slaves. Slave-owners who understood freedom and felt empathy towards the slaves were also corrupted. The readers can presence how the monster of slavery itself wrecked families by intimating that the thought of a group's dominance is an ethical belief. Douglass is able to show this devastating feature on page 81 when he writes “ My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by someone else.” Husbands dominating wives is a clear demonstration of how slavery licensed certain people to command others. In addition, the inferiority complex that some slaves were left with can be attributed to this home wrecking devil. Master had their slaves trained by force to act in a more convenient way for them, they would accuse slaves of misbehaving and punish them “To all these complaints, no matter how unjust, the slave must answer never a word.” (Pg. 60-61) This way of raising the slaves allowed their owners to keep them insecure and ignorant so that they would not know how to get out of that horrible deep hole and it had an impact that still lasts until today.
Nowadays, African Americans hold the whole issue of slavery in their favor and even grandchildren of slaves are getting capital that is supposed to somehow repair what the government did to their ancestors. The problem with that system is that it is teaching a race that slavery can be “repaired” which sounds completely incoherent. Slavery has not ended and it is seen in this country everyday with exploitation of people who their bosses even dare to call workers. An evil so big can only be fought with education and knowledge like Frederick Douglass decided to do. Besides showing how evil slavery is, he presents a possible solution to an issue of racism and cruelty.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave , proves that the system of slavery imposes the most evil power into humans, leaving them with a frightening apathy towards the “inferior” races. Not only did slavery make slave-owners be evil by beating slaves but it also destroyed homes and damaged the souls of all who participated in it. Frederick Douglass wrote “I was broken in body, soul and spirit.” On page 105, showing how the material is not all, and there are many ways to get hurt. The long lasting impacts of slavery are seen today even though Douglass suggested a good way to get rid of it. Therefore no matter where, this narrative should always be present in one's mind, to remember what the world once was and not allow it to ever go back.
