Effects Of Slavery

Jake Newbart and Shawn Lavi
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The “Brutalizing Effects of Slavery upon Both Slave and Slaveholder”

“The warm, red blood came dripping to the floor. I was so terrified and horror stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet and dared not venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over”(1942, Douglass). In this passage, a little slave boy experiences the degradation that is slavery, throughout his life this memory haunts him, and while not being haunted, the man who committed this atrocity has become corrupted by the influences of slavery. Through their narratives Douglass and Morrison convey their feelings about the institution of slavery and its degrading influences
on people. The whipping of Aunt Hester and the murder of Beloved, both negatively influenced the blacks and whites that were involved. Douglass and Morrison’s characters use their painful memories to present an argument against the institution of slavery because it degrades and tarnishes blacks while consequently corrupting whites. While in servitude slaves became a degraded and mistreated people, while their captors became tainted and abusive. During his captivity, one of Douglass’s fellow slaves, Demby, was whipped by his barbaric overseer. Demby, ran to the creek to soothe his pain, “and stood his ground” when told to return, even under the pain of death from said overseer. “Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with anyone, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more”. Mr. Gore was known for committing “the grossest and most savage deeds upon the slaves under his charge” (1948). Demby fearing even more pain from Mr. Gore’s whip, refused to come out of the creek, and chose death instead of the demeaning life of a slave. Mr. Gore committed the heinous acts as an overseer such as the murder of Demby because he was the superior. In the society that Mr. Gore lived in blacks were not seen as people and violence was condoned against them. Whites needed this racism and violence to control the blacks, in turn this corrupted white society in which slavery and violence was disregarded for the betterment of society. Furthermore, the remorselessness among whites was intensified in an incident involving the evaluation of Colonel Lloyd’s property. After his death, his property was divided amongst his children. Included in his “property” were “men and women, young and old, married and single, [which] were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. All [held] the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (1958). In this moment Douglass “saw more clearly than ever the more brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder” (1958). Douglass was subjected to the utmost humiliation a human can endure by being compared to simple farm animals, and with this he “had now a new conception of [his] degraded condition” (1958) .Douglass’s owners were cruel and misguided in how they viewed and treated their slaves. They saw them merely as property and a means to an end, with little or no importance put on the human life itself. These memories of slavery haunted him and perverted the whites that committed such atrocious acts. In a misguided and perverted attempt to control blacks, whites treated them as little more than animals that could be beaten and killed at their own discretion. These “animals” were treated horribly and all forms of violence were condoned against them. Furthermore, these blacks became a downtrodden and feeble people whose memories of these events haunted them for the entirety of their lives, while the mistreatment corrupted white society in almost every aspect. Blacks were demeaned in unspeakable ways during slavery by whites who abused their superiority in depraving ways, these abuses led to a pervasion of corruption among slaves and slave owners.
Schoolteacher taught his students about the inferiority of blacks compared to whites. Racist ideas such as this led to the condonation of violence towards blacks and corruption among whites. For example, the teachings of inferiority led to the beating and milking of Sethe, which indirectly led the death of Beloved. “Those boys came in here and took my milk…Held me down and took it” (Morrrison, 19). After Sethe told Ms. Garner what the boys had done to her Schoolteacher beat her mercilessly. Sethe was treated like a goat while being milked and after asking for compassion received violence instead. This incident led to the rationale for killing Beloved, arguing that “If [she] hadn’t killed her she would’ve died and that [was] something [she] could not bear to happen to her,” (236). The thought of her children experiencing the same horrors that she experienced while in bondage warranted in Sethe’s mind to attempt to kill her children. The story of a slave killing her child as a means of protection from returning to slavery is based in reality and is where Morrison came up with the idea to write Beloved. The thought of a mother killing her child is unthinkable to most but as a result of her experiences in captivity she would do it to protect her child from those horrors. Had Schoolteacher not corrupted his nephews the inhuman treatment of Sethe and the death of beloved could have been avoided. Moreover, the cruelties that blacks experienced at the hands of whites caused them to become rebellious. Paul D attempted to murder his new master after being sold away from Sweet Home, because of the mistreatment that he experienced throughout his life, as a slave. After this incident he was sold to a “chain-gang” in which he experienced the most brutal days of his life. After “eighty-six
days” in prison “life was dead. Paul D beat her butt all day every day till there was not a whimper in her” (129). For 86 days he had been asked “‘breakfast? Want some breakfast, nigger?’” and if he responded “‘Yes, sir” he was sexually assaulted by one of the guardsmen. “Occasionally a kneeling man chose gunshot in his head” instead of sexual assault and the unthinkable life of a chain ganger, (127). The power that the guardsmen held corrupted them and allowed them to take advantage and commit such inhuman acts against the slaves. The horrors that Paul D experienced as a slave were locked away in his “tobacco tin,” where his heart used to be. The advantageous position that the whites found themselves in and the corruption that followed negatively influenced the blacks who were subjected to it. The memories of these tormenting experiences manifested within the slaves who were burdened by them for the remainder of their days. For both Sethe and Paul D their past demons haunted their lives and molded who they became post-slavery. Through the use of painful memories shown through their characters, Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison argue against the institution of slavery, because it debases blacks, while tainting whites. Both Douglass and Morrison argue against slavery because of its negative influences on both blacks and whites. The institution of slavery inherently causes inequality on a massive scale. Little white boys are taught “to put human characteristics on the left” and “animal characteristics on the right” when concerning black slaves, (Morrison, 228). Comparatively, Douglass was also “ranked with horses, sheep, and swine,” (Douglass, 1958). This animalistic connotation of blacks that was construed by whites was and still is a view that is held by people today. This corruption of white society took part in the beginnings of racism and segregation. These teachings led to the disenfranchisement and debasement of blacks within American society. Sequentially, these hateful ideals fouled up white society and lowered the perceived innocence of slave-owning America. Racist ideals also led to disturbing amounts of violence which had “brutalizing effects … upon both slave and slaveholder” (Douglass, 1958). These violent and demeaning acts caused clashes among slaves and their owners. These instances include the murder of Demby, Paul D’s attempted killing of his master, and more unthinkably than any other, a mother killing her daughter to shield her from the horror that was slavery.