Janet – Frederick Douglass

“A thrill of horror flashed through every soul upon the plantation, excepting Mr. Gore. He alone seemed cool and collected. He was asked by Colonel Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted to this extraordinary expedient. His reply was (as well as I can remember,) that Demby had become unmanageable. He was setting a dangerous example to the other slaves, — one which, if suffered to pass without some such demonstration on his part, would finally lead to the one slave refused to be corrected, and escaped with his life, the other slaves would soon copy the example; the result of which would be, the freedom of the slaves and the enslavement of the whites. Mr. Gore’s defense was satisfactory. He was continued in his station as overseer upon the home plantation. His fame as an overseer went abroad. His horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation. It was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of course could neither institute a suit, nor testify against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of the bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped of justice, and uncensored by the community in which he lives. Mr. Gore lived in St. Micheals’s, Talbot county, Maryland, when I left there; and if he is still alive, he very probably lives there now; and if so, he is now, as he was then, as highly esteemed and as much respected as though his guilty soul had not been stained with brother’s blood.”

As we already know in the period of time of slavery many things happened and they were never justified. For instance, in this passage we witness the cruelty behavior of the overseer Mr. Gore, who like him were ordered by the actual owners to supervise the people they owned. Mr. Gore murdered Demby because in his eyes Demby was starting to be a rebel and stand up for his human rights. As the overseer, the owner believed in their word and wouldn’t doubt them. This also proves to what we know, as slaves they did not have any right or any kind of privileges. Slaves were treated as non-humans not only in the way that they did not have human rights but also they were not treated correctly. Slaves couldn’t make mistakes without being punished which in majority of cases they were whipped until they bled. For the owners, slaves had no meaning of life but to serve them and satisfy their needs. I believe Frederick Douglass reveals his strength because as a slave you witnessed many horrific scenes. It would affect them physically but also mentally because getting whipped various times and to the point of your flesh just tearing apart bleeding all over is just too harsh and traumatizing for an individual. Experiencing it and also witnessing the pain can cause you to have mix emotions and thoughts. People would probably also commit suicide because they couldn’t handle the torture they would go through for any mistake of fault their owner thought they had. The questions that were raised for me while reading this passage was why did owners permit this. Why did the owners did not just take control themselves when it came to punishing the people. Also, most importantly why whip the people and make them bleed as if they did not have feelings, whom didn’t feel the pain. I also think about the justice that people needed, for having different pigmentation you were served no justice for whether you were murdered or raped.