"The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," offers its readers an in-depth glimpse at the torment Douglass witnessed growing up as a slave. The narrative is a thorough journey that led us from his birth to final freedom. Within his first chapter, Frederick broadly went through many aspects that will be discussed throughout this paper. Considering that the Blacks were already considered slaves, they still suffered lifetimes of torture despite the fact that were doing exactly as told. Within these slave plantations, whipping was common, malnutrition of children was normal, and separating families was publicly known. Believing so, Blacks weren't considered human; they were property. Noticeably, slaves were property and thus were equivalent to those of owned animals. "Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and wine" (pg. 58). .
Frederick Douglass, throughout his narrative, wrote specific accounts of bearing witness to the flogging of slaves. The whippings, done so with a whip made of cow skin, were brutal and left slaves with severe injuries. On many accounts, they were unnecessary, basically done for no reason. The slaves never really knew when the whippings would happen and they occurred usually on the opposite; they were whipped when they "least deserved it but not when they did" (pg. 33). .
Many slave owners beat and tortured their slaves simply for the twisted pleasure of it; to feel a sense of "power" over who they viewed as their personal property."He would at times seem to take pleasure in whipping a slave. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she cried, the harder he whipped, and where blood ran fastest, there he whipped the longest"" (pg. 23). Many reports seem to indicate that no proof was needed for the salve owner to beat his slave, "to be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be punished " (pg.
