The Mistreatment Of African Slaves In The 19th Century

During the 19th century, the living condititons for African slaves in the USA was malignantly unfathomable as humanity had become an ideal corrupted by the mounting manifestations of man; “babarit[ies] of [the] tyrant” (Sydney Smith). Slaves were often required to strip themselves of their humanity in order to stage their masters’ decrees, such as; working lengthy hours, suffering mistreatement from the masters children and overseers’ whip, subsisting from little sustenance and ultimately becoming stripped of guidance and love.
The African slaves were “doomed to cruel mistreatment”, as “father[‘s] and mother[‘s] could not save [their ‘own’ children] from punishement, [and thus submitting to] the same treatment”(source one). Children were
As there was no parental superivision, the delicate slave children had no prospect of “hope, shelter, instruction” or any sense of belonging that would sanction the futility of their everlasting conundrum. Master’s children, who had their parents to guide them, increased the level of despondency that the slave child had felt, through seclusion, however, through the tyranny of “young sirs”, their dilemma had increased in complexity as they now had to submit to ‘children’ that treated them “with the same air of authority” as their tyrannical father’s. Further mistreatments surfaced from “overseerers’, [who took] pleasure in torturing the children of slaves”. Here the corrupted machinations of man are emphasised as the need for power and control taints the morality of one with vice; leaving them mirroring a “lion”. This predicament in time, marks the authenticity of the notions of “power tend[ing] to corrupt, but absolute power corrupt[ing] absolutely” (John Acton). Ultimately, as families were ripped away from the entanglement of their own comfort, they were sent to work “six, [seven] miles” away, which highlighted the babarity of the quandry and also of the whites morality. Hence, conditons were unquestionably
Slaves lived a life that involved the constant fear of receiving “a severe flogging” from their overseer if they were to be reported. Slaves lived in little cabins that “were built to contain two familes. As two families had to share one fireplace, the use of it determined whether the two families had paralleled intentions of peace and harmony. The separation of a hearth “was a sign of disagreement” and if one family were to steel “a hog, cow or sheep”, in the face of needed sustenance; they were in danger of the other family “reporting them to the overseer”. This highlights the mounting corruption of man as ones humanity seems to depart when the need for survival becomes an integral impulse; as the reporter seems loyal to the “overseer”, whereas the supposed ‘rebellions’ appear corrupted and therefore “[subject to] severe a