Dehumanizing Effects Of Slavery

In the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author Frederick Douglass claimed that slavery was just as bad, if not worse, for the slave owners than the slaves. Douglass supported his claim by revealing the “dehumanizing effects of slavery”(Douglass 40) on the slave owners. Douglass’s purpose in writing this book was to inform that slavery was horrible for the slaves and owners of the slaves. The author wrote in a reflective tone for the public to hear what he what he witnessed and learned during his time in slavery.
When Douglass first met Mrs. Auld, she was a kind woman who took time out of her days to teach him how to read and write. She loved teaching Douglass his ABC’s and how to spell words with three and four letters until Mr. Auld found out. He howled at her, “ if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.” (Douglass 41) She was not willing to fight to keep teaching. Instead, she morphed into a malicious and wicked being. Douglass said that you could see
In the south the slave owners treated their slaves with no respect. They viciously beat them and gave them little to no food, clothes, and supplies to live off of. Since they were treated so poorly, they did not want to work. When the slaves do not work, the owner does not make money. But in the north, the slaves got things like a monthly allowance of “ eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and a bushel of corn meal,” (Douglass 23) a yearly allowance of clothes consisting of “two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers…, one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter…, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes.”(Douglass 23) Whereas slaves in the south, the slaves were almost naked and got to eat mush, “coarse corn meal boiled.”(Douglass 36) Out of the two horrible situations which would you work harder for a few pounds of food or