The autobiography of Fredrick Douglas and the poem “The Discourse of the logic of language” by M. NourbeSe Philip emphasized on the destruction of human connection through language during slavery. Slave master used language as a tool for oppression. In the poem, Philip talked about how a slave has no mother tongue, no tongue to mother, and therefore became tongue dumb. Slaves were not allow to speak one common language because their masters thought this will breed rebellion. As a result, slaves were mixed with others from different region that could not understand their mother tongue. And also, As mention in Douglas autobiography that slaves were not allow to keep their children before they breathe their tongue into their children. “It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.”( Douglas,1). These were strategies used by slave master to hinder the human connection between a child and the mother.

In addition, the repetitions in Philip poem suggest that she is trying to use logic to understand the conflict of language during slavery “a mother tongue is not a foreign lan lan, lang, language, anguish, anguish, a foreign anguish.” Similarity, Douglas was trying to understand why a slave was not allowed to learned English the foreign language of his mother tongue. These were the conflict of language they both were trying to understand.

However, these two exceptional writers have broadened our mind of how language was used to break the chain of human connection in the era of slavery.