Frederick Douglas Post-Class Discussion
Something that we didn’t heavily discuss in class that I thought was probably the most intense part of the narrative was the description of Mr. Severe. His whipping of men, women, children and letting them bleed for half hours at a time for small problems was horrible. He had absolutely no respect or care for these slaves and he treated them worse than he would his onw mule or dog. The care of the slaves besides the phyical pain was alos mental. By waking them up and controlling their sleep it made them become almost completely submissive and feel mentally incapable of having any sort of revolution against their masters. By making these people feel so weak it gave the masters and slave owners a large boost of their ego and feeling of power. They literally controlled every aspect of a slaves life.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Brayden-
I agree with your view on Mr. Severe’s impact on the slaves. When I first read Frederick Douglass’ narative I realized to myself how cruel it was fo Mr. Severe to treat these human beings like this by phsyically beating them. But I was not aware of the his impact on them mentally before reading your post. The slaves lack of sleep and physical pain day after day must of screwed them up. Imagine waking up every day wondering will today be the day I get shot or whipped?
December 5th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
I also related the slaves to a dog today, but it’s sad to think that the dogs were probably treated with more respect and given more love than the slaves. Owners were crule to slaves. I can’t imagine having to put myself in the shoes of a slave at my age. I find that whipping the slaves also mentally messed with their minds just as much as controlling the slaves sleep. The slaves probably felt that they were doing something wrong when they were whipped, when really they had done nothing wrong and it was the owner who was wrong, but felt justified in whipping the slaves becuase of their skin color. I find it interesting that by doing such horrible things to the slaves, it only puts the master in more control, and eventually the owner was able to control every aspect of the slaves life.