Rights that I believe everyone should be able to have were denied to slaves. Some of these rights include: the ability to have a legal marriage, own property, eat the fruit from the crops they were raising, and they didn’t have much of a say in whether or not their family would stay together or not. The main reasons why a slave family would break up were death, usually caused by over exhaustion from working so hard and from severe beatings from their master, and because of the master’s choice. Slaves were treated as property by their masters and other white non-abolitionists. Although there was abolitionists, there wasn’t many and if they were to get caught, the punishment often resulted in death. …show more content…
Slaves were denied such basic human rights by their slaveholders/ masters just because of the color of their skin.
In their twisted minds, the slaves weren’t human. They were just property such as livestock, and farm animals. Not only were they denied such basic human rights, but they were often regularly beaten with a whip and tortured in very cruel ways. The slaveholders would use the whip to destroy the slave’s manhood, ensure good behavior, and they would replace wages with whippings. According to white non-abolitionists, slaves were destined by god to work for white men simply because of the color of their skin and their “slave-like
qualities”.
Whips weren’t the only source of punishment used by slave holders. They would also use things such as iron masks and collars for more ways to punish their slaves. Iron masks and collars were extremely severe sources of punishment. Iron masks would commonly be put on slaves just to prevent them from eating the crops that they were harvesting. Collars would be put on slaves just to prevent them from running away. They were both extremely uncomfortable and cruel ways of punishment. Whoever invented these devices was a very sick man. The 1800’s was a terrible time for enslaved African Americans. I feel very fortunate to have not of been alive during this time of such cruel acts of insanity. I also feel very lucky to have the human rights that I have today.