THE EFFECTS OF CHILDREN DURING SLAVERY

Introduction

Slavery is a system in which human beings are the belonging of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their arrest, buy or birth, and deprived of the right to depart, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. In some societies it was authorized for an owner to kill a slave. In others it was an offense to kill a slave. (Kevin, pp. 160-174)

The number of slaves today continues as high as 12 million to 27 million, though this is likely the least significant percentage of the world's population in history. Most are liability slaves, mostly in South Asia, who are under liability bondage acquired by lenders, occasionally, even for generations. Human trafficking is mainly for prostituting women and children into sex industries. It is the fastest increasing criminal industry and is forecast to finally outgrow pharmaceutical trafficking. (Davis, pp. 111-120)

 

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

Major Themes

One of the most prominent topics in the Narrative involves the association of literacy with freedom. The acquisition of the one precipitated the desire for the other, which was, for Douglass, a two-edged sword. He had occasional regrets about the information that literacy afforded him because without the proficiency to change his rank as slave, he was more sad than ever. Nonetheless, Douglass's ability to tell his article in his own phrases firmly refuted the routinely held conviction at the time that slaves were incapable of communicating through the benchmark conventions of American literature. Douglass not only brandished his facility with the dominant literary modes of his time, but he furthermore incorporated folkloric elements from both very dark and white cultures into his text. Robert G. O'Meally points out that Douglass drew on the custom of the African-American sermon, itself grounded in folklore, and that the Narrative was intended to be preached as well as read. (Douglass, pp. 35)

Douglass's ambivalent connection to Christianity is another important topic of his story. The Narrative revealed the hypocrisy of one-by-one Christians whose treatment of slaves was fiendish and inhumane, and of organized Christianity as a entire which, with couple of exclusions, sustained the institution of slavery and even asserted that it was sanctioned by proceedd. Douglass accepted that the more devout the expert, the more cruel he would be, and asserted that “of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst.” Douglass's rough condemnation of Christianity was moderated by his subsequent writings. (Douglass, pp. 35)

Apart from the values to which children were put, how they were influenced by their slave knowledge has been little studied, and our causes are often sketchy. “Children did not hold journals or other notes of their remedy while in bondage” (David, pp. 155-161). Adult slaves, especially set free slaves, noted details about their childhood, but their reminiscences, albeit highly precious, are filtered through subsequent experiences. However, there is some firsthand information on those children who were set free from apprehended slave boats or ...