“Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me. When I went there, she was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman… 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.”

This passage clearly illustrates for me the emotional and psychological impact slavery had on even the most tender people. Almost everyone understands the physical hardships and the toll slavery took on the body; but it takes one who experienced and witnessed for themselves what it might do to one’s mentality. Anyone who is forced into a life of slavery from the start knows nothing else. One who knows of real life must have an exponentially more difficult time. As a slave you must work to live, there is know compassion, there is no tenderness when slavery is the limiting factor.

Douglass really paints a picture of that for the reader. The eloquent language mixed with the dark messages that language is sending made it stand out for me. What I ask though, was it possible to go through all they have gone through and still remain the person you are really supposed to be? If not, then how could an emancipated slave live a normal life in the world after? I believe what may seem as a change of heart as a slave, was just the brain forcing itself to adjust to the surroundings in order to better suit the conditions, as horrible as they may be. In the end, most should be able to return to their state of mind as a normal, compassionate person. The means may not have been standard, but if you manage to escape the end should always be the same; a human being.