Douglass, Brent And Human Nature

Everyone has their breaking points; something that just pushes them over the edge. Do you ever notice how some people push buttons and try to get you to break down? Is it in our human nature to want others to break down and suffer? For authors Frederick Douglass and Linda Brent this was a way of life. Slave holders would push slaves to their limits emotionally and physically and wait for a reaction of some sort, either a sign of rebellion or the preferred giving up of hope. Slavery is a very delicate and complex system that deals very much with human nature.

By nature, humans are very curious creatures. It is only natural to want to learn about one's environment. Babies and children touch, taste, feel and ask questions about their environment and they receive the benefit of getting educated. In America today we take education for granted. During the times of Douglass and Brent ,education, such a huge part of young people's lives, was denied them. It was against the law to teach a slave to read or write as Douglass touches on in his narrative. " ...it is almost an unpardonable offense to teach slaves to read in this Christian country" (Douglass 368). Slaves resorted to all sorts of ways of learning or they were lucky and had a kind master who taught them. Douglass had little white boys on the street teach him through the guise that he could write better than they could and when they obviously won, he would copy what they wrote into his master's old writing book (368). Brent was taught by someone to read although education is not so much in the foreground of her story as in Douglass'. Family and belonging are involved in Brent's story.

The need to fit in somewhere or belong is another part of human nature denied to slaves. Most slave owners split up families very early on. Attachment from parents to children never form and little or no emotion is involved in one or the other's death. Such is the case of Douglass and his mother. "I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial... Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence...I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger" (341). In Brent's case she had her family near her but friends were sold and lost so attachment was not too great. "The slave went to her master, and told him what happened...The next day she and her baby were sold to a Georgia trader" (Brent 578). Although both cases were different, both lead to the distrust of white men and free black men. Even other slaves were not to be trusted. This lead slaves to be fearful a majority of their lives.

Being afraid is a part of live, but to be scared for your life all the time is infringing on the part of us that wants to be safe and relaxed knowing everything is alright. Slaves and sometimes whites were sent in as spies to see how others viewed the master. People were always suspicious of one another. This is not a very happy way to live. Douglass recounts an incident in which a slave was on his way to the Great House Farm and a white man, his master he had never seen before because the plantations were so large, stopped him and asked him what he thought of his master. He unfortunately answered truthfully and said that although he got enough to eat he was worked too hard. Later he was handcuffed and sold to a Georgia trader without a moments notice to his friend or family (Douglass 353). Besides fear and not educating slaves, other things were done to keep them from rebellion.

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