Negative Effects Of Slavery On African Americans

Slavery: Negative for Slaveholders as Well as Slaves Throughout the 1800’s, slavery was a prominent issue throughout the United States. The nation was divided between the north and south because of the controversial topic of whether or not slavery should be abolished. Former slave, Frederick Douglass, wrote The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to show the hardships he faced while growing up as a slave. Although African American slaves were severely treated, the act of slavery also affected the owners of the slaves. Douglass displays many examples throughout the story how slavery is economically, socially, and morally wrong. In Chapter 10, Douglass was faced with an incident between himself and Mr. Covey, his current master of the time. Douglass had disobeyed Mr. Covey and was expected to receive a brutal beating. Instead, Douglass slapped Mr. Covey out of anger. Douglass said, “The truth was, that he had not whipped me at all. I considered as as getting entirely the worst end of the bargain; for he had drawn no blood from me, but I had from him” (Douglass 75). Mr. Covey did not act of rage towards douglass’s actions because he did not want to risk killing Douglass and losing a valuable slave. This is a prime example of how slaves are treated as a piece of property to their slave owners and how the
They would disguise how their slaves were being treated just to be accepted more by their neighbors. Slaves were also expected to lie about how they were treated whenever they were asked. Douglass stated in Chapter 3, “It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost universally say they are contented, and that their masters are kind” (Douglass 21). Douglass continued to explain the extreme measures that slave owners would take to ensure that their slaves would always speak highly of