What would it be like to be a slave today? One can only imagine. The closest one could get would probably have to be in a prison that still has the chain gang. It would have to be a place where you are told what to do all the time and basically treated like you were nothing but property that makes your owner money. There are only a few aspects of slavery that claim high importance. The ones described in this passage are heavily descriptive and unbelievably understandable. Frederick Douglass makes the stories of slavery come to life with his specific detail. He tells how it was to be a slave at that time, along with what it was like to be a free colored man. .
Douglass brings out the animality of slavery by showing how slaves treated when they did something wrong. Your hands were in some way contained while you were whipped or beaten until you nearly bled to death. To show this Douglass brings up the description of an overseer that worked for his first master. Douglass states: "He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the women's head . I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he use to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood." For all of the gory beatings and countless labor in the field the living conditions were not much better.
According to Douglass the slaves had no beds, which means they all slept on a floor which was probably cold. He best describes it by stating: " old and young, male and female, married and single, drop down side by side, on one common bed, -- the cold, damp floor." Today no one sleeps on the floor except for animals. To stay happy the slaves showed a lot of unity. They sang songs that were full of spirit and rhyme. A lot like gospel music. "They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep .