Possibiltiy Of A Better Life

Possibility of a Better Life

Imagine waking up before the sun rises feeling sore and unrested. You pull yourself together and start your daily duties with just seconds to spare before your master realizes you are late. As you begin your chores you cringe when you hear the crack of a whip followed by a sharp, painful scream from a fellow slave. You quickly distract yourself from wondering if there was a reason for the abuse or if it was "just because". The daily monotonous routine is taking its toll on your body as you stumble and accidentally break your master's tool. Overcome with fear you hide your mistake and continue your job. Hours later, still regretting your error you feel a hard blow to the back of your legs. Turning around you see your master yelling and swearing. You cover your face in shame and fear as you are beat until unable to move and covered in blood. Forced to finish your day's work every move you make is accompanied by agonizing pain. Finally, the day is drawing to a close and you stagger to your "bed". Closing your eyes you can feel your stomach turning in hunger and you pray that God will either give you the strength to continue or allow you to die. You finally doze off in a restless sleep only to wake up and to do it all over again. As awful and unrealistic as that sounds it was a reality for many slaves. Despite being harshly treated many slaves still had a positive and hopeful outlook on life.

Slaves were treated like animals and in some cases worse than animals. Slaves were bought and sold at auctions and considered "property". They were examined along with the horses and pigs "holding the same rank in the scale of being" (Douglass 2002, 373). Many were not even given the luxury of a bed. A coarse blanket on the cold, damp ground would serve as a place to sleep if time allowed after the tasks for the day were completed (Douglass 2002, 346). Eating a full meal was a concept that was unknown to some slaves. Competing with the pigs for food was the only way to stay alive (Prince 2002, 366). Among the many reasons slaves were purchased was to serve as a breeder. For a slave owner to increase his wealth he would buy a woman slave and get her pregnant (Douglass 2002, 387). Any children a slave woman would have would become slaves. Their lives would be immediately filled with fear and loneliness.

The harsh treatment of slaves is sickening but the cruelest of masters somehow found a way to justify themselves. Religious slaveholders were among the worst, quoting and using the bible as "a dark shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest and most infernal deeds...find the strongest protection" (Douglass 2002, 398, 381). Whipping and beating slaves for no reason at all was common to inflict fear and discourage any future uprisings (Douglass 2002, 399). Satisfying a master was sometimes impossible to do. Beatings would occur to serve as an example for the others slaves to obey their masters in every circumstance even if the victims of the floggings had done nothing. A slave's explanation was absolutely not allowed. No matter how innocent a slave might be "it is better that a dozen slaves suffer under the lash, than that the overseer should be convicted, in the presences of the slaves, of having been at fault" and a master kept to that maxim (Douglass 2002, 355).

Not all slave owners were cruel. Relationships developed between some slaves and slave owners as strong as if they were family. If a slave was lucky enough to get a master that treated their slaves well, their lives were quite happy. "Obediance to [their] master's commands [were] cheerfully given; it [sprang] solely from affection...and not from fear..." (Prince 2002, 254).When circumstances occurred where a slave would have to be sold out of such a family there would be tears and mourning as if a loved one had died. Both the slaves and the slave owners grieved (Prince 2002, 257).

Sometimes all a slave could do was "wish...[they] could escape from this cruel bondage and be at rest in the grave" (Prince 2002, 263). Death often seemed like the only option. Running away only produced the ultimatum "to go home and be whipped to death, or stay in the woods and be starved to death" which either way produced death (Douglass 2002, 392). Being an educated slave could be considered "a curse rather than a blessing" because a slave understood their circumstances