The Treatment And Conditioning Of Slaves During The...

Brandon Rodriguez Dr. Roark Atkinson Intro to US History I 13 November 2014 Paper Assignment II: An Essay on Frederick Douglass The treatment and conditioning of slaves in the antebellum south was one of the most inhumane and merciless accounts in human history. Slaves were auctioned, sold and bought as if they were nothing more than livestock. They were fed with monthly rations—eight pounds of pork or fish. They were given one pair of shoes, two shirts, two trousers, and one jacket intended to last for an entire year. Seldom it was to ever hear of a slave whose shoulders and back weren’t mutilated by a cow skin, a popular form of punishment handed out to slaves accused of committing even the slightest misdemeanor. The life of a slave was not treated as a human life at all. The life of a slave was seen as so insignificant, that the murder of one rarely led to any ramifications, legal or otherwise. The worse that was to be expected from the murder of a slave was the expenses; either from the loss of labor, or the debt yet to be paid off from the purchase of the slave. Though, many times slave-o wners would be expunged of even that consequence, for if it was the government that carried out the killing of a slave, they would reimburse the respective slave’s master. And though the international slave trade was outlawed in 1807, slaves were still being produced at a stable rate either through rape, or the use of â€Å"breeder† slaves. However, an account, whatever or whosever it may