Frederick Douglass Case

Frederick Douglass

        During the time that Frederick Douglass was a slave, slave owners treated them very cruel and unfair. Even though that they were treated this way, white people didn’t think that there was anything wrong with this. Their opinion was that as long as the slaves were their property, they were allowed to treat them however they wanted. Sometimes this involved whipping and beating, but other times it would result to the extent of slaves getting shot and killed. Even though slaves were human beings, they still got treated as if they were below their slave owners.

        Frederick Douglass moved around as a slave, so he got to experience different slave owners, and how different owners treated their slaves. He had many owners and masters who were very cruel and treated him very badly. Douglass quickly learned that he had no opinion on anything, and the master didn’t care what he had to say. One time he even witnessed a slave get shot in the river for no apparent reason. And the worst part about this is that the owner who shot the slave wouldn’t suffer any consequences because he was an owner. Even when the slaves had no reason to get abused or mistreated, they still did. Gore said in the story that “It is better that a dozen slaves should suffer under the lash, than that the overseer should be convicted, in the presence of the slaves, of having been at fault” (Douglass, 18).

        Because slaves are humans too, they often make mistakes; however, slave owners didn’t think that this was ok. When slaves made mistakes they were beaten and treated unfairly as if they did it on purpose. In one instance in the story, Douglass was plowing a field with a bull, and the bull broke loose. He was then whipped and beaten by his owner because he apparently shouldn’t have done that, even though it was out of his control. Even when slaves accidently made mistakes, slave owners punished them as if they did it on purpose.