Douglass's narrative describes a great deal of human suffering, but a particular motif is Black women's suffering under the conditions of enslavement. The most striking example of this motif occurs in Chapter 1, when Captain Anthony attacks Aunt Hester in retaliation for catching her with another man:
Aunt Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in going out, but had been found in company with Lloyd’s Ned; which circumstance, I found, from what he said while whipping her, was the chief offence.
The scene that follows is remarkable for its horror, as a young Douglass witnesses his aunt being physically abused and worries that he is next. Furthermore, as an adult narrator, Douglass notes a particular sexual dynamic to the abuse. Hester's "chief offence" in Captain Anthony's eyes is that she was with another man when he "desired her presence." Captain Anthony feels entitled to Hester's body. First he expects her to satisfy his sexual desire, and then he forces her to bear the brunt of his anger when he finds that her body is not his for the taking.
It is important to note that it is not just any man with whom he finds Hester. He finds her with "Lloyd's Ned," an enslaved Black man who has previously shown interest in Hester. Douglass is not abundantly clear about the extent to which Hester reciprocates this desire. Captain Anthony's rage when he finds Hester with Ned demonstrates how enslaved Black women's bodies serve as a battleground on which men on the plantation work out their relationships to one another. Captain Anthony seems to find it especially humiliating that an enslaved Black man has "stolen" Hester's body away from him, and he works out that humiliation and rage on her body.
Douglass's grandmother is another figure representing Black women's suffering. In Chapter 8, Douglass describes how she is turned out to the woods in her old age:
[M]y poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim embers. She stands — she sits — she staggers — she falls — she groans — she dies — and there are none of her children or grandchildren present, to wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death, or to place beneath the sod her fallen remains. Will not a righteous God visit for these things?
Unable to physically defy her enslavers the way Douglass can, his grandmother spends her life as a martyr instead of as a defiant hero. She represents the long-lasting effects of the sexual abuse enslaved women were frequently forced to endure at the hands of white enslavers. His grandmother bears 12 children, and it seems likely that many of her pregnancies were not her choice. She devotes her entire life to caring for them, and then she is cast out to die alone.
While Douglass is right to draw attention to the way enslaved women endured particular kinds of abuse, his portrayal of them as suffering damsels has been criticized as a somewhat limited picture. There are many accounts elsewhere of enslaved Black women acting just as heroic and self-possessed as Douglass. The limitation is important to recognize: Douglass's narrative is rightly lauded as important, but it should not be taken as the definitive account of enslavement.
The dehumanizing effects of slavery run throughout the narrative as a motif. For instance, when Captain Anthony dies in Chapter 8, it becomes clearer than ever that Douglass and the other people Captain Anthony has enslaved are, legally speaking, property rather than people:
We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination. Silvery-headed age and sprightly youth, maids and matrons, had to undergo the same indelicate inspection. At this moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder.
Douglass emphasizes that the enslaved people are tallied up alongside the livestock as part of the estate. The "valuation" of the estate strips them of their humanity and tallies up their worth according to how useful they can be as laborers. The "indelicate inspection" helps Douglass see "more clearly than ever" that the "brutalizing effects of slavery" are affecting not only the enslaved people but also the enslavers who are treating fellow humans like animals. This whole process makes all humans into "brutes," or animals.
Douglass distinguishes between the inexpressible anguish of being enslaved and the experience of enslaving people. Being treated as an animal is more dis-empowering than treating someone as an animal. It is enslaved people who are "subjected" to this dehumanizing ritual, and it is enslavers who perpetuate it. Still, neither position allows humanity to flourish. The enslavers are treating the enslaved people like animals because the institution of slavery has normalized this behavior. They are acting as agents of slavery, rather than as agents of humanity.
This motif comes up again in the transformation of Sophia when her husband tells her that she ought to exert more power over Douglass and withhold literacy from him. Sophia first recognizes Douglass as a fellow human child who needs and deserves her care and education. Once her husband reminds her that she is supposed to be working for the institution of slavery (rather than humanity), she reassesses their relationship and no longer treats Douglass as a deserving child. The institution of slavery thus damages not only Douglass's chances to be cared for and educated, but also Sophia's ability to connect with a fellow human and pass on what Douglass considers one of the greatest gifts of humankind—literacy.
More obvious scenes of violence, such as the scene where Aunt Hester is horrifically abused, likewise often emphasize not only the extreme pain enslaved people endure, but also the dehumanizing effects the abuse has on the abuser. Douglass is convinced that the institution of slavery has a detrimental effect on everyone, and he is devoted to showing white readers that abolition is about the intertwined fates of every American. Only by ending the practice of enslavement, his narrative argues, will white Americans be able to reclaim the parts of their humanity that have been lost to this brutal institution.
Douglass's narrative describes a great deal of human suffering, but a particular motif is Black women's suffering under the conditions of enslavement. The most striking example of this motif occurs in Chapter 1, when Captain Anthony attacks Aunt Hester in retaliation for catching her with another man:
Aunt Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in going out, but had been found in company with Lloyd’s Ned; which circumstance, I found, from what he said while whipping her, was the chief offence.
The scene that follows is remarkable for its horror, as a young Douglass witnesses his aunt being physically abused and worries that he is next. Furthermore, as an adult narrator, Douglass notes a particular sexual dynamic to the abuse. Hester's "chief offence" in Captain Anthony's eyes is that she was with another man when he "desired her presence." Captain Anthony feels entitled to Hester's body. First he expects her to satisfy his sexual desire, and then he forces her to bear the brunt of his anger when he finds that her body is not his for the taking.
It is important to note that it is not just any man with whom he finds Hester. He finds her with "Lloyd's Ned," an enslaved Black man who has previously shown interest in Hester. Douglass is not abundantly clear about the extent to which Hester reciprocates this desire. Captain Anthony's rage when he finds Hester with Ned demonstrates how enslaved Black women's bodies serve as a battleground on which men on the plantation work out their relationships to one another. Captain Anthony seems to find it especially humiliating that an enslaved Black man has "stolen" Hester's body away from him, and he works out that humiliation and rage on her body.
Douglass's grandmother is another figure representing Black women's suffering. In Chapter 8, Douglass describes how she is turned out to the woods in her old age:
[M]y poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of twelve children, is left all alone, in yonder little hut, before a few dim embers. She stands — she sits — she staggers — she falls — she groans — she dies — and there are none of her children or grandchildren present, to wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death, or to place beneath the sod her fallen remains. Will not a righteous God visit for these things?
Unable to physically defy her enslavers the way Douglass can, his grandmother spends her life as a martyr instead of as a defiant hero. She represents the long-lasting effects of the sexual abuse enslaved women were frequently forced to endure at the hands of white enslavers. His grandmother bears 12 children, and it seems likely that many of her pregnancies were not her choice. She devotes her entire life to caring for them, and then she is cast out to die alone.
While Douglass is right to draw attention to the way enslaved women endured particular kinds of abuse, his portrayal of them as suffering damsels has been criticized as a somewhat limited picture. There are many accounts elsewhere of enslaved Black women acting just as heroic and self-possessed as Douglass. The limitation is important to recognize: Douglass's narrative is rightly lauded as important, but it should not be taken as the definitive account of enslavement.
