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Arguments against Slavery

Slavery has been a hot discussion topic for years just because of its adverse effects on different aspects of life as compared to the good it ever did. Slavery benefited only the white collar people of the society and brought a lack of identity, lack of socialization, hunger, illiteracy, poverty, and racial prejudice in the coloured population of the community. This part of the population has not only faced physical and mental torture, but has also experienced discrimination in many ways such as in economics, health and medicine, technology, comfort, and respect. Unfortunately, there still a group subsist on the surface that supports slavery by arguing that slavery caused several benefits to the humanity and society. Slavery could have had the good impact on the economy, technology, and on the development of other industries, but it has never shown all positive consequences for a significant part of the society as well as it has introduced the community to brutality, racism, discrimination, injustice, and poverty. By extracting evidence from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, I will present alternative arguments against slavery.

Apparently, slaves and slavery benefited the world in various fields ranging from health to medicine, to economics, to science, and to technology among other areas. However, just like animals, even worse than animals, the slaves were not valued as human beings as such because, in return for their services, they just received a counted amount of food and shelter. Douglass provides evidence when he recounts that “The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal. Their yearly clothing..the whole of which could not have cost more than seven dollars”. (Douglass, Chapter 2, Para, 3).

Most times, slaves experienced hunger, destitution, harshness of weather and racial/social prejudice. Moreover, the benefits were just of a specific community, and it is thought that the responsibility of introducing such a brutal and destroying technique of slavery lies in that particular community. Slavery destroyed humanity. Just like animals, slaves had no knowledge of their birth dates, their parents, and the motive of their life. This is evidenced when Fredrick Douglass acknowledged that “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves knows as little of their ages as horses know of theirs...” (Douglass, Chapter 1 Para 1). He further states that he never saw his mother, to know her as such. “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother” (Douglass, Chapter 1, Para, 3).

Slavery is against humanity and ethics because slaves were treated like mounts or riding animals that were meant for work only. If they committed an error, slaves were punished brutally. According to their masters, slaves were third-degree humans who had no right to their life and body. The Slave masters were free in treating their slaves brutally and cruelly because no one could question them for their actions. Such brutality and cruel actions were not only inflicted physical pain on the victims, but they also had the great impact on the psychological and mental health of the victims as well as the spectaculars. This situation is evidenced when Fredrick Douglass narrated the story of his aunt Hester who disobeyed her master. He recounted that “Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked. ...he commenced to lay on the thick cow skin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor” (Douglass, Chapter 1, Para 9).

Masters were allowed to murder their slaves even because slaves had no identity, no self-respect, no legal and moral rights, and no freedom, all the slaves were strangers for each other as it was a custom to separate families at a very early age to save them from forming love and affection. There was no resistance to the master from the slaves at the time of punishment because they were not allowed to refute.

Slavery improved economic wealth for the white community mostly but not for the entire world. More than 450 million people in African region are reduced because of the unjust distribution of wealth and poor treatment of slaves in the past. History is evident that slaves were black people, and white people were their masters. Therefore, still many black communities are the victims of discrimination in education, workplace, and societies. Still they are struggling hard to make their living because they are highly exposed to racism, hate attacks, and discrimination in all aspects of life.

Slaves were considered the property of their masters. The masters had the power to decide the duties of their slaves, their food, their punishment, and other matters of their lives. Slaves were kept illiterate to avoid any future issue that they could raise after getting awareness of their rights. They were made to breed just like animals, to increase their population to strengthen their master’s financial position and to own more slaves. As a result, slaves had no understanding of their rights. They had no emotions and sentiments for their fellow slaves. And the majority of them concluded that their masters were their fathers, and the only motive of their life was to serve their master until death.

Slaves were not allowed to disobey their masters or to complaint about his behaviour and treatment. The slave masters were empowered to punish or sell their slaves to others if they disobey them or complained about their treatment to anyone. Mr. Douglass shared a story of a master named Colonel Lloyd, who was very wealthy and had more than 1,000 slaves. Even many of his slaves had never seen him. Equally, even Colonel Lloyd did not know them all. Douglass tells a story of a slave who found fault with his master, Colonel Lloyd. “The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment's warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by hand more unrelenting than death. This is the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of obvious questions.”(Douglass, Chapter 3, Para, 5).

The story is telling the truth that what slavery has given to the world: the racial prejudice that still exists in the society. Even though coloured people are no more slaves to whites, but still they are assumed as the most little creature on the surface. Just like Douglass, many coloured people consider white men as their enemies and same is the case of whites who remain afraid of blacks. Black people struggled hard and were involved in several fights and law breakings to gain freedom and to get their rights, however, this debate was perceived negatively by the whites. Therefore, they usually stay away from them.

From the above discussion and the narrative of Fredrick Douglass, I can conclude that the economic and social benefits of slavery were very scarce compared to the harms it created in the society. The benefits were limited to that time mostly and for a single community, but its evils do exist even in the 21st century. It is affecting the entire world. The vices of poverty, racism, racial prejudice and immorality that are common in the United States and nearby countries are the product of slavery that is hard to demolish.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Boston: THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, NO. 25 CORNHILL, 1845. Print.