Experience Of Slavery

Slavery in the United States lasted for nearly 300 years before it was finally abolished after the Civil war of 1861-1865. During this horrible period, humans were sold off like goods, and separated from friends and family, whipped constantly, overworked, starved, placed under the harshest of conditions which led to the untimely death of many of them (Critique of Slave Trade, 1987). Frederick Douglass also narrates his experiences in his book from when he was little and we see that they were very similar to the conditions of the slaves highlighted in texts on colonial labor. He was separated from his mother at a very young age and while he was just a little boy, he watched his aunt being beaten until she was covered in blood, he watched as a slave was shot dead just because he trespassed, he watched heads get slashed and people beaten beyond recognition (Douglass, 2-7). Looking at the horrible experiences slaves had to go through, it is somewhat difficult to understand why the slaves could not do much to get themselves out of their adversities but instead had to subdue themselves to such inhumane treatment for their entire lifetime. …show more content…
Some might even say “if they hated it that much, then why did they not come together to fight against it? Throughout history, we have heard of several cases in which many people, if they did not like their conditions, did something about it, but why did it take the African Americans 300 years to be free? I am going to analyze this issue using the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as well as other colonial labor texts to show why it was so difficult for the African American slaves to obtain emancipation. The three main reasons I will discuss as to why it was hard for slaves to obtain freedom are that slave owners made it difficult physically, the owners created psychological barriers, and the slaves lacked material resources. The slave owners made it physically difficult for the slaves to fight for their freedom. Slaves were exposed to the harshest of conditions, making it difficult for them to think of anything else other than just survival. They barely have enough food to feed themselves, especially slaves of the southern towns. They also do not have enough to clothe themselves, sometimes they have to go naked when their clothes failed them, which was very frequent. They are made to work very hard but yet, they hardly have enough time to rest or sleep and even their steads are not comfortable. They also have few breaks both daily and yearly and are whipped for anything and everything. With all these conditions, the slaves do not even have time to think of how to fight or escape, talk less of planning for it or taking any action in such line. Even if they try to, the punishment they would have to go through if caught is so severe that it just was not worth it to try to escape. Moreover, several measures were placed to make sure that even if the slaves made it past the plantation, settling would be difficult because as a Black, he would need to show a pass to move freely or can be easily turned in. When Slaves were convicted of attempting to run away from their masters, they were taken to a place where they are severely whipped until they were broken, put on board the sloop and sold off to some other slave trader as a warning to the remaining slaves (Douglass, 10). Even when educated Frederick Douglass created a good strategy to escape with his fellow slaves, he was arrested and removed from that community. He would have gone through a worse situation as punishment if not that his master was kind enough, which I find surprising, to send him somewhere else. Whites also created measures to prevent any mass revolts from Blacks such as lynching, burning alive, death by hanging or by the breaking wheel or the starvation of those accused of insurrection, sometimes without being rightfully convicted (Fear of Slave Revolts, 1744). With all these barriers set in place, one would see that it was very difficult for