Frederick Douglass and Howard Zinn illustrate the horrific violence that occurs towards slaves and African Americans in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass and Drawing the Color Line by Howard Zinn. There is so much inherent evil happening in these stories that it is hard to understand how such a cruel and horrible thing can happen in the not too distant past In Narrative of the Life readers get a glimpse into the horror that came along with living on plantations as a slave. In Drawing the Color Line Zinn describes the history of American racism and how America took the cruelty of slavery to the next level. The relentless racial violence towards African Americans and slaves in the pre-civil war period is exemplified through the emotional and physical violence on the plantations, the unpunished murders, and the general diabolical racial violence towards African Americans. The violence on the plantations is some of the best-exemplified violence throughout Narrative of the Life.
All of Douglass’s encounters with Covey, a notorious slave “breaker”, shows just how much violence, both emotional and physical, these slaves had to abjure on a daily basis. Covey’s specialty was slave “breaking” meaning that when slaves were being disorderly they were sent to Covey to be punished and broken down emotionally This was the slave owners solution to slaves acting out whether it was through attempted escape or trying to learn, Douglass was strong and persistent but even the strongest slaves were broken down by Covey’s constant whippings and beatings, Douglass describes how “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!”. Douglass had lost all that made him the man he was.
He no longer felt the need to learn or to escape, All he had to time to do was work, sleep, and recover from his injuries. This shows how awful these slave owners were. They had no conscious еhey ruined people’s lives without a pause for thought or regret. This violence only continues once Douglass is moved to Baltimore to work on William Gardner’s ship. It starts when all of the white carpenters on the ship strike for the free black carpenters to be fired. Gardner listens and fires them yet since Douglass is not freed he is forced to stay and work on the ship. The white carpenters gang up on Douglass and constantly beat him. There was one time when he was trying to defend himself against multiple carpenters and “.,. the one behind ran up with the hand-spike, and struck me a heavy blow upon the head“ he fell and tried to gather enough strength to get back up only to receive “…a powerful kick in the left eye. My eyeball seemed to have burst”.
The violence was brutal and non stop, The white carpenters had no mercy, only hatred. The violence that was on the plantations, both Covey’s and the shipyard, was constant and relentless. The slaves had to make a decision, to try to escape or live with the crippling daily fear of violence. While the violence on the plantations were powerful examples of the emotional and physical abuse slaves such as Douglass had to endure the unpunished murders were some of the worst forms of violence shown throughout the narrative. One of the first unpunished murders in this novel is the murder of Demby. Demby was one of Colonel Lloyd’s slaves that was brutally shot after refusing Mr. Gore’s orders. Just because Demby was a slave everyone seemed to just ignore the fact that Mr. Gore murdered a relatively innocent man. Douglass learned through this experience “..,that killing a slave, or any colored person, in [Mr. Gore’s town], is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community”ю
Mr. Gore was able to continue his job and go on with his life as an innocent man. He was feared by all the slaves but he was treated by all the white people in his community with honor even after he ruthlessly murdered a man. This same instance happened when the wife of Mr. Giles Hicks murdered Douglass‘s wife’s cousin without much reason and no punishment, Mr, Giles Hick‘s wife murdered her nanny after she accidentally fell asleep causing the baby to wake up and cry. This caused her to beat the defenseless nanny to death. I will not say that this most horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It did produce sensation, but not enough to bring the murderess to punishment, There was little to no real response from the community and courts. It may have sparked a small burst of sensation but that sensation quickly faded and yet another person went unpunished for their horrific actions. In Zinn’s Drawing the Color Line he describes the beginning of slavery and how american slavery became the cruelest form of slavery. With all the violence and beatings it was much worse than African slavery.
The African Americans ended up being the easiest targets and easiest to take advantage of. “The blacks had been torn from their land and culture, forced into a situation where the heritage of language, dress, custom, family relations, was bit by bit obliterated except for the remnants that blacks could hold on to by sheer, extraordinary persistence”. These people were disregarded and treated with utter disgrace. They were torn from everything they knew and the white americans definitely took advantage of this fact through acts of horrible violence. These two novels show the savage violence committed upon slaves and African Americans in the pre-civil war period. The fact that these events were not too far in the past is unbelievable. The fact that someone would be treated with such disregard and hatred seems unreal. The cold-blooded racial Violence towards African Americans and slaves in the pre»civil war period is displayed through the general diabolical racial Violence towards African Americans whether that is the beatings and emotional abuse on the plantations or the multiple unpunished murders.
