In Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American
Slave, there are numerous references to the slave women. One of their most
striking features is that not one of them is given a voice. This signifies that
women both played the most influential role amongst the slaves and that they
were brutalized and animalized the more because of it.
Douglass
never states how the treatment of the women was taken by the rest of the
slaves, but he alludes to the fact that they played a supreme role in how the
slaves viewed their women. The most striking of these allusions is when
Douglass regales us with the fate of his Grandmother. “She was nevertheless
left a slave – a slave for life – a slave in the hands of strangers” (Douglass
92). Though men tended to be pushed into the spotlight more in the seventeenth
century, Douglass chose to use a woman to illustrate the all-important fact
that slaves were slaves for life, regardless of their lifelong conduct.
Douglass
consistently brings up repeated scenes of excessive brutality against women. His
first example was Aunt Hester, who was savagely beaten in front of him. Of this
event, Douglass writes that “it was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the
hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible
spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it”
(51). Though this was his first time really experiencing the brutality that the
slave owners inflicted upon the slaves, he never describes another scene of
similar brutality done to a man, with as much feeling as he does this incident.
The only other brutal scenes that Douglass describes with such a passion were
the incident with his Grandmother and the Master Thomas’ beating of the slave
Henny.
Douglass’
repeated use of women to demonstrate the worst that slaveholders had to offer
as well as giving us insight into how the beatings of these women affected him
give us insight into the importance of women. It shows that the slave owners used
the women as examples more often than men because it sent a louder and clearer
message to the slaves that they were not to be trifled with.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
I agree with what you are saying that women played an extremely important role in the slave world, especially through their brutalization and lack of voice. The slave women were in a different position than the men, although this is not to say that the men had an easy life by any means. But women’s bodies were enslaved to their masters; this sexual slavery was on a whole different level than what men experienced. It was an endless circle where masters used their slave women for an act usually connected with affection, and then treated them and their children brutally. Like we talked about in class, in this day and age, women were valued based on their purity and dignity. A woman “impure” was considered not a true woman, and unfit for the standards of the world. The slavery system made it impossible for slave women to be considered true women, just like the system made it impossible for all slaves to live truly human lives. Women weren’t allowed to be women and they weren’t allowed to be people; so what were they allowed to be? Degraded, abused, and “breeders”. I think this definitely adds a whole separate level to what you’re saying. Douglass’ use of women to make a more poignant point is made stronger due to the fact that they went through so much, on a human level and as a woman.
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