efore I knew any thing about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerableextent, her soothing presence, her tender andwatchful care, I received the tidings of herdeath with much the same emotions I shouldhave probably felt at the death of a stranger" (20-1).For a mother to walk seven miles and have asleepless night to be with her son shows the mentalanguish that she was going through due to theseparation of her and her child. Douglass does notmention the separation of fathers and children, orany interest of fathers in their children's lives. There was no evidence that male slaves feltseparation anxiety. But both male and female slaveswere mentally abused. They were kept ignorant. Slaves were uneducated because they were forbidden toread or write by their masters. Douglass recountshis own experience of when he began to read. Hismistress was teaching him the alphabet, when hismaster found out he stated,"If you give a nigger an inch, he will takean ell. A nigger should know nothing but toobey his master-to do as he is told to do. Learning will spoil the best nigger in theworld. Now if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there wouldbe no keeping him. It would forever unfithim to be a slave. He would at once becomeunmanageable, and of no values to his master"(47).His mastered had the concept that if a slave wasknowledgeable he would become unmanageable. This aform of mental abuse because it denied the slaves theability to think for themselves, through denying themthe knowledge needed to make important decisions.The life of a female slave seems to be a littlemore trying then that of a male slaves. This is due tothe sexual abuse which the women must endure. Alsobrought forth was some trials of slavery which do notalways come to mind, such as separation anxiety,illiteracy, and sexual abuse. These acts of abuse werea large part of slavery during its existence. Thetypes of abuse were present in order to keep the...
