America S. – Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas

In Chapter VIII, page 256, second paragraph we have a comparison of animals and slaves during slavery in America, the home of the free, “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, we ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children”. Slaves weren’t seen or treated as humans. The slave owners which were white treated the slaves as objects that can be tossed around and whipped without feeling remorse. Also lowered the status of slaves to be equal to the ones as animals, giving a feeling that the slaves could be replaceable by animals. The slave owners even went ahead and evaluated slaves with animals categorizing them as equal. In addition this quote connects to a quote in the beginning of Chapter I, “by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (Ch I, pg 236). Slavery was inhumane, treating people as animals based on their skin color and Fredrick Douglass knew that they weren’t allowed to gain knowledge because it would bring chaos and the slave owners didn’t want to deal with this since they had slaves working for them and profited from their labor. So, the slave owners knew it was better to keep them frightened to prevent them from rebelling. Soon, after Douglas gained the knowledge he understood why the master wanted him to remain “ignorant” and Douglas himself also damned having the knowledge to read. All of this reveals that in Douglas point of view, all slaves were treated as equal to animals and they were evaluated without regarding their emotions or say.