Adam Cruttenden

Ms.Burke
Honors English 11; American literature
12/9/16
Frederick Douglass Final essay

In the Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass, there are many different acts of

oppression that occur. Furthermore, there are also multiple types of oppression. I

believe that the most significant type of oppression in this book is

emotional/psychological oppression. Three events of emotional or psychological

oppression that Frederick suffered from are, dehumanization, forcing to break

families apart, and harsh punishments.

The action of dehumanization plays a large role in this book. Therefore, there

are many different examples that could be used throughout the entirety of the book.

The main example of oppression throughout this book was the slave-owners not

allowing the slaves to become literate or to learn. When slave-owners took away

learning from slaves, this is the action of stealing their basic rights of a human such

as Article 1, 3, and 5. These three articles from the declaration of human rights are

the rights to equality, life, and freedom from torture and degrading treatment.

These articles are in place to give each person a free and fair chance to live and

when the slave owners do not follow through with these given rights, then it is an

act of dehumanization since they do not consider them human enough to be able to

read. Also, the slave-owners do not trust the slaves, and think they would try to

overrun the plantation if they would can become literate. A quote from the Narrative

Life of Frederick Douglass states The white children could tell their ages. I could not

tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privileges. (Douglass 1) This is a very
powerful quote when referring to the action of dehumanization because the white

children could know their ages and know how to read and write, whereas the African

American slaves were not allowed to know anything unless, the slave owner taught

them. Another very depressing quote is The fatal poison of irresponsible power was

already in their hands, and soon commenced its infernal word. (Douglass 47-48)

This quote speaks more on how badly the slave-owners misused their powers.

These slave-owners would whip slaves for no apparent reason or hurt them because

of a minor slip up. This was a terrible time in the history of the United States, and

because of the White mans actions this lies over our heads like a rain cloud for

eternity.

Another aspect of emotional or psychological oppression is forcing families to

be split apart due to auctions or trading. This is a terrible action toward another

human: to trade them for a crop or farm animals. This could also be considered

dehumanization since you are considering them equivalent to an inanimate object

or a farm animal. Therefore, splitting these families apart would crush them. This

was the only thing in life that made them happy and it could be taken away in the

snap of a slave-owners fingers. Douglass writes in the novel He was immediately

handcuffed, and thus without a moments warning he was snatched away and

forever surrendered from family and friends. (Douglass 35) This quote by Frederick

Douglass proves the point of a family member being taken without a moments

warning. Furthermore, these families would be crushed inside when they were

broken apart such as when Frederick Douglass family was separated twice. Once in

the beginning of the book Frederick was separated from his mother and another

time from his grandmother. Sometimes when they would no longer need a slave

they would set them out into the woods to find their own way to salvation or the
north. Few would make it and most died including his grandmother. This would be a

horrific way of death but also when your family found out what had happened to

you they would be devastated. Such as when Frederick says this in the novel, The

warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters

whole families. (Douglass appendix 1). This quote furthers the point of taking

families from their native lands of Africa, severing their heritage and their families.

The third and final example of emotional or psychological oppression was

harsh punishment. There are multiple occasions of harsh punishment that occurred

throughout the book. Dembys murder was one that stood out. This was a vicious

and violent murder of a slave by the name of Demby, who was hiding from his

master in a river bed. A slave-owner, Mr. Gore had found his slave in the river bed

and had asked him a couple times to come back up, however, Demby knew he

would be severely beaten for his actions and Therefore, he did not return to him.

Since Demby did not do what his master had said that he should, Mr. gore said he

would shoot Demby if he didnt come back up to him by the count of 3. and

without consolidation, an additional call, raised his musket to his(Demby) face,

taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant Demby was no more.

(Douglass 39) This quote tells the story of what happened to the slave Demby and

what happened to tons of slaves if they did not listen. This is a terrible action taken

on such a small defiance of what the slave-owner had wanted. This was one of the

main examples of cruel and unnecessary punishment to slaves. When the quote

says Demby was no more one would think that the reader becomes sadden by

such a dreadful deed by Mr. Gore. These slaves were consistently whipped and were

abused by slave-owners who made money off the slaves. Like it states in this quote

by Frederick, They were frequently whipped when least deserving it, and escaped
whipping when most deserving it. (Douglass 29). This quote describes how unfair

the slaves were treated. Whipped when they least expected to be whipped and for

some reason not whipped when they would mess up gravely. An example of that is

Mr. Covey and how he would treat his slaves. He would sneak up on them and whip

them for no reason. This is one of the wickedest aspects in a long list of horrible

oppressions during slavery.

Overall, this act of oppression was a crucial point in the book Narrative Life of

Frederick Douglass. The slaves that were forced on to plantations were terribly

treated and should not even of had to be on the plantation in the first place.

Therefore, I believe that psychological or emotional oppression was the cruelest and

most common oppression talked about and used in this book.