Frederick Douglass 'Cruelty And Inhumanity'

The practice of slavery is dehumanizing in nature, and burdens the innocent with the cruelty and brutality of society. Frederick Douglass uses his narrative to emphasize the evil nature of slavery, which beheld the United States of America during this period of time. He describes the vile cruelty inflicted upon slaves by their slaveholders for common mistakes. Douglass stresses the horrors of slavery through his own personal experiences as a slave, and includes his reactions and emotions in connection to these events. Since he travels from one master to another many times, he witnesses these terrors taking place throughout the country. His accounts include vivid details of many beatings and murders, including some of his close acquaintances, …show more content…
This violence in particular depicts the brutality of slavery because it highlights the lack of humanity on the part of the slaveholders. To portray this brutality and inhumanity, Douglass includes the details of the beating of Aunt Hester, the murder of Demby at the hands of Mr. Gore, and the beating of Douglass himself by Mr. Covey.
Douglass is only a young boy when he witnesses the beating of his Aunt Hester by his master. This event quickly introduces him to the cruelty and abuse of slavery. Douglass describes why she is beaten when he writes, “He [master] had ordered her not to go out evenings, and warned her that she must never let him catch her in company with… Lloyd’s Ned. Aunt Hester not only disobeyed his orders in going out, but had been found in company with Lloyd’s Ned” (4). Since Aunt Hester disobeys her master’s orders, she is subjected to any punishment that her master can formulate. Although Aunt Hester’s actions would not be regarded with such brutality if she were a free woman, slaveholders were given no limit and often no consequences to their punishments …show more content…
Covey. Covey is widely known as a first-rate overseer who could break slaves and recreate them to be more submissive. The atrocities that Covey commits are coherent when Douglass expresses his state of disrepair and discouragement. Douglass describes his first months with Covey when he records, “I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (38). The agony and misery inflicted upon Douglass by his time with Covey damages his once persistent mind. His strength and willpower to continue seeking an education and freedom is destroyed by Covey’s beatings and inhumanity towards his slaves. The unique qualities which once made up Douglas's’ character are demolished by violence and brutality, just as many others faced during the wrath of slavery. Covey’s actions towards Douglass and the rest of his slaves illustrates how violence is the most brutal of the tortures that the slaves endure, since it breaks their personality and character. Douglass describes one of the beatings when he explains,

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