Frederick Douglass Essay- One area in the book had me thinking a little bit. In Chapter 10, there's a part where he starts talking about religious slaveholders and how he never wants to be brought upon one again. He states, "...religious slaveholders are the worst," and continues to express how they're so much more mean and horrifying than non-religious slaveholders. This confuses me a little. In my opinion, I would have thought that there wouldn't be "religious slaveholders." That, that goes so far against their ways and what they believe in. Meaning, if someone is religious, I wouldn't see expect that person to go and harm another under God's name and still go and praise him and act like what he/she is doing is what he would want or is saying to do? I would have expected to see "religious slaveholders" as totally against what was happening and what other slaveholders are doing to human beings as completely horrifying and disgusting. I was expecting to see them as people that act as though they are there to torture and hurt their slaves but in reality be trying to save them from the others. Keep them protected and keep them from being beaten half to death everyday from walking a different way. After reading how he saw religious slaveholders, I see them as horrific people. I see anyone that was a slaveholder as a disgusting, ugly human.
I've never understood slavery. I never understood the point of beating ANOTHER human being half to death because of the color of their skin. I've heard a lot about why it turned out to be like this. Things such as, people were scared of the skin tone, they didn't find it normal. Or, they weren't human because they had a different skin tone. That because they had a different skin tone, it showed or in this case, proved, they were property and not human. Slavery will never make sense to me. The fact that the color of someone's skin can create that much hatred and distrust into people not of color is head turning to me. I don't know why or will ever know why people went to such great lengths to prove that they OWNED someone else because they were black. Reading things like, "...gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger" over and over again because they couldn't carry enough wood or continue working for 12 plus hours a day? NO. That's beyond disgusting and horrifying. That's something that doesn't even have a word to describe it because of how vicious and ugly it is. If someone is a different color then you, they are STILL a human being. They still bleed red, they still walk with two feet, they still have emotions, they can still be broken down. They aren't just nothing to be kicked around. I wish there could have been something done way before anything like this ever happened. I wish people would have just seen people with a different skin tone as people as well. Not as property.