I have finished the novel and am still contemplating the many ironies and elucidations of the text. As we discussed in the previous class period, Colonel Lloyd and the overseers see any reason applicable to punish the slaves severely. Brutal punishments were incurred by trivial actions, such as feeding the horses food that was too wet or too dry. This by the way would be entirely impossible to tell by Lloyd unless he physically handled the food before the animals consumed it. This illusion of law, of crime and punishment, is much like the greater illusion of law in the Nation. The Fugitive Slave Act was an unjust law, the legality of slavery was unconstitutional, and the slave trade went against the ideals of the American Revolution. The corruption of the “law” on the plantations was equally as brutal as the corruption of law in Washington. While the congressmen of Washington may not have physically assaulted slaves, the allowance of slave states in the union was extremely detrimental to the American Values they so valued, not mentioning the quality of life for the entire slave population, and African-American freedmen as well. No Caucasian person would testify against another Caucasian who killed a slave; they valued the lives of slaves as equal to a horse, cow, or pig, literally. Slaves were seen as inhuman, as merely valuable property to be exchanged as easily as money may be transferred from one hand to another.
This is what is really ironic, those viewed as inhuman, the slaves, are not the one who act inhumanely. The slave drivers and overseers act with the viciousness and disregard as a common animal, with no empathy for another human being. Empathy is one of the main distinctions between our species and that of other animals, at least in my opinion. The reversal of roles is quite evident in the many gruesome examples provided by Douglass, such as when a white woman, Mrs. Giles Hicks, beats a 15-year-old slave to death for falling asleep while in the room with her during her watch over the baby. Mr. Gore was easy to kill a slave without remorse, to set an example for the others.
Well I will return to this blog after the next class discussion to further my illustrations of irony and role-switching as employed by Douglass.
Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteThe irony of slavery seems blantenly obvious to us but how could they have not seen it? I thought that your example of the 15 year old slave being beaten by her master for falling asleep watching her daughter can show more than just the irony of remorse but also the irony that they let their slaves watch over thier children. If slaves were seen as stupid and a lesser being, why should they have the huge reponsibility of taking care of a child?
I also like your reference to Lloyed at the beggining. I thought that it was interesting in the novel that he had so much to punish the slaves for, but never punished them himself. It was ironic the amount of power he had, yet he didnt know everything that the slave were being punished for, he didnt know everything that was going on in the plantation.
I also like the background you put in on slavery, it supports your point of irony very well!
I definitely agree that there are many ironies in this novel that make us question our actions and thinking of life. Yes the slave holders do see their slaves as lower than dirt as they treat them like animals, as if they have no feelings. But not only are the people surrounding them against their race, but the law as well. The use of laws today is to protect the people with their values and beliefs, and that if anyone should harm others then they should be punished. But the laws were unjustly passed back then allowing for slave states, which are defeating the whole purpose for laws in a society. Slaves could not be protected by the society or its laws, they were on their own. I think that the slaveholders cannot be seen as humans because they are corrupted into beings with no feelings, with no empathy, as you have mentioned. The slaveholders were too power hungry, and therefore became too greedy and self-centered which caused them to do unjustly things. Douglass’s narrative reveals the life of a slave so well as it makes one think whether a human being could possibly be so corrupted…
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