Within Atlantic systems of slavery the “dominion of the master had to be absolute…but that absoluteness made the master something other than human as well.”
When Colin Dayan says this in Égalite for All, he is arguing that the control of the slaveowners had to be strict and supreme, and due to this conduct, they ended up behaving in such a way that they were perceived as barbaric and demonic. The masters treated their slaves with indecency and in the most inhumane manner, as if they were animals or objects. I agree with this argument, as it is evidently shown in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). In the narrative, Douglass describes the fright and fear of being a slave. He speaks of one of his two masters, “Captain” Anthony, and recounts him as a “cruel man, hardened by a long life of slave- holding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave.” He also states that he was often awakened at dawn “by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood.” [8] These quotes alone shows how beastly the masters treated their slaves, without any mercy or remorse. This argument can also be supported in the Dred Scot Decision, where it states, “It is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included, and formed no part of the people who framed and adopted this declaration …” As stated from this quote, this shows that the slaveowners brutally treated their “property”, therefore they were seen as inhumane.
