in a time when many sons were expected to follow in their father’s footsteps, it would have been unheard of for a young man to reject his expected way of life. In his autobiographical book, My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass comments on a family he was given to in Baltimore. “...though there was no legal form or arrangement entered into, I have no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Auld felt that, in due time, I should be the legal property of their bright-eyed and beloved boy, Tommy” (138). For those families who did own slaves, where would the cycle end? Who would be the one man to say that the slaveholding lifestyle was wrong? It was not very likely that any man would do such a thing, and with these strong family ties behind them, slaveholders continued their reign. Communities of slave owning people had the advantage of strength in numbers. As with any assembly, group narcissism can increase the drive of a group, no matter its goal. The inhumanities of slaveholding were warranted, and the neighbors “strengthened each other in their iron rule” (Douglass 63). According to the Black Code of Georgia, U.S.A, from 1749, “Proprietors of Negroes shall not be permitted to exercise an unlimited power over them” (68). Although codes and laws were written to provide at least a little protection to slaves who lacked most, if not all, human rights, slave owning communities were set apart from the rest of the country. Law rarely, if ever, could come between the tight-knit slave system and its upholders. If, with deep rooted prejudice, generations of reason, and community support behind them, slaveholders were justified in keeping their slaves, must they have beaten, neglected, and starved these people who’s lives were devoted to them and their financial betterment? One can only imagine the task in front of a slaveholder to keep his slaves complacent and subdued. Here is a man, born int...
