Examples Of Dehumanization During Slavery

Isaiah Buehler
Dr. Fontenot
AFR 190
September 30, 2014
Dehumanization during Slavery Throughout the course of American history, blacks were victimized by many hardships such as governmental policies. Through these policies, blacks were easy targets of malicious treatment from white Americans. According to Kovel:
One group was pushed ruthlessly into the total dehumanization that is the ultimate threat of the modern Western order, while the other group literally capitalized upon this-but used their power to move, not forward, but back into a mythic dream. (Kovel 188).
These policies created a white American society that allowed inhumane treatment of the black race through violence and psychological abuse. Throughout Douglass’s autobiography,
Douglass uses to this to show the how slaves are as valued as an animal is. This sense of dehumanization shows the slave owners mindset of only seeing a slave as property. This is seen when owners can buy or sell slaves without the worries of the families bonds that are being broken. Despite the hurt that the slaves endure from this they are forced to accept what happens through this process. Douglass shows this helplessness by this statement: “A single word from the white men was enough-against all our wishes, prayers, and entreaties-to sunder forever the dearest friends, dearest kindred and strongest ties known to human beings” (Douglass, 56). Although it takes a greatly dehumanized person to take part in this act of tearing apart family bonds without even thinking twice, the horrible reality about this is that it was condoned and legal according to the government, and masters, because it was a part of the southern way of
Sophia Aulds. The period that Frederick Douglass spent as a “city slave” was under the control of the Aulds. Douglass illustrates the change from, Mrs. Auld, with this statement: “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass, 45). Since Mrs. Auld never owned a slave before she was oblivious to the customs used to control slaves. Mrs. Auld lacked the mean spirit that, usually, deemed necessary to keep a slave in check. This example was seen when Mrs. Auld allowed Douglass to learn the alphabet. Unfortunately, when Mrs. Aulds husband discovers that Douglass was receiving an education he started Mrs. Auld on the track of dehumanization. Mr. Auld reprimanded Mrs. Auld and demanded that she stopped educating Douglass, and stated that: “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world” (Douglass, 45). Mr. Aulds statement is another great example of how the social order changes due to slavery. Instead of being able to be educated, slaves aren’t given an education to understand how this dehumanization makes them nothing but puppets. The ability to deny a slave access to