How Frederick Douglass Depicts the Cruelty and Hypocrisy of Slaveholders

In his 1845 work Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, former slave Frederick Douglass describes the conditions he endured in bondage as well as the motivations that inspired him to escape slavery. During his bondage, he witnessed many abuses that strongly influence his testimony on American slavery. In his autobiography, Douglass demonstrates that slavery corrupts the morals of both slaves and the slave masters. Though his masters varied in the severity of their treatment of their slaves, Douglass expresses both the cruelty and hypocrisy of his masters through illustrations and imagery that depict their atrocious actions.

In his first accounts of slavery, Frederick Douglass describes the sadistic nature of his first master, Captain Anthony. Describing Captain Anthony, Douglass remarks that the slaveholder owned up to three farms and was not considerably wealthy (Douglass 5). Further, he describes Captain Anthony as being exceptionally cruel and assesses that he gained pleasure from whipping his slaves (6). To illustrate this point, Douglass describes a recollection that he has of Captain Anthony whipping his aunt: I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest (5).

This scene is effective because it shows the reader the merciless manner in which Captain Anthony administered corporal punishment. Further, it enables the reader to understand the excessive cruelty that was involved in whipping slaves.

In his account of the living conditions under which slaves lived, Douglass also highlights that his masters primarily viewed their slaves as property, with no sign of freedom in sight. Describing the allotment that slaves on the plantation received, he reveals that they were given insufficient food and clothing (8). Further, because children were not able to work, and thus were not of value to slave owners, they were not provided with clothes and were often nude until the age of eight (8). Further, the living quarters that slaves inhabited were sparse and lacked proper beds for rest (8). These details not only describe the conditions to which slaves were exposed, they describe the low value that plantation owners placed upon slaves. Highlighting the mindset of his masters explains how they rationalized their excessive abuse of their slaves.

In addition to abusive slave owners, Douglass notes that the overseers who supervised the work were especially zealous in torturing slaves. Utilizing descriptive imagery to highlight the extent to which overseers were willing to mistreat slaves, Douglass presents a scene where the overseer Mr. Gore murders a noncompliant slave named Demby:Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight and blood and brains marked the water where had stood” (20).

Through this description, Douglass expresses that while this scenario is shocking, it was also a casual occurrence of abuse on the part of an overseer. The atrocities committed by overseers demonstrate that not only the individual plantation owner, but wider society was implicated in the abuses inflicted upon slaves, thereby strengthening the continuity of black oppression.

Though Douglass was eventually sent to live with a mild-mannered owner, he recognizes that the master-slave relationship even tainted owners with good intentions. For example, Douglass describes Master Hugh’s mistress as having “the kindest heart and finest feelings” (28). He notes her efforts to treat him like a human being and discusses her zeal for charity (32). Yet, he writes, “Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (32). As Douglass’s observation assert, simply being authorized to hold power over an individual corrupted the positive aspects of her nature.

Finally, Douglass demonstrates that the institution of slavery creates a condition of hypocrisy among slaveholders. This is conveyed through his description of Mr. Covey, who was a religion professor and a leader in his Methodist Church (68). Contrasting Mr. Covey’s religious convictions with his treatment of his slaves, Douglass writes, “Mr. Covey’s forte consisted in his power to deceive” (54). In addition to assigning brutal work assignments to his slaves, Mr. Covey purchased a slave for the sole purpose of breeding and forced her to conceive children with a selected suitor (54-55). However, Douglass noted that because Mr. Covey saw the children as “an addition to his wealth,” Mr. Covey was unable to see the impropriety of forcing a slave to procreate (55). Thus, Douglass highlights that the institutionalization of slavery enabled slave owners to contradict their own values.

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass describes the horrendous behavior of his former slave owners in vivid detail. These descriptions allow the reader to understand the nature of the atrocities committed by slave owners. Further, Douglass demonstrates how the institution of slavery aided in affirming the mistreatment of slaves, undermining the efforts of well-intentioned slave owners, and hiding the hypocritical actions of slave owners. Though his descriptive accounts of brutality, Douglass illustrates the corruptive effect of slavery on all participants.

Work Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Boston: The Anti-Slavery Office, 1985. http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf