Controlling Slaves
Directions: Read the following passage and complete the questions from section 20.6.
Slavery was a system of forced labor. To make this system work, slaveholders had to keep slaves firmly under control. Some slaveholders used harsh punishments—beating, whipping, branding, and other forms of torture—to maintain that control. But punishments often backfired on slaveholders. A slave who had been badly whipped might not be able to work for some time. Harsh punishments were also likely to make slaves feel more resentful and rebellious.
Slaveholders preferred to control their workforce by making slaves feel totally dependent on their masters. Owners encouraged such dependence by treating their slaves like grown-up children. They also kept their workers as ignorant as possible about the world beyond the plantation. Frederick Douglass’s master said that a slave “should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as it is told to do.”
Slaves who failed to learn this lesson were sometimes sent to slave-breakers. Such men were experts at turning independent, spirited African Americans into humble, obedient slaves. When he was 16, Douglass was sent to a slave breaker named Edward Covey.
Covey’s method consisted of equal parts violence, fear, and overwork. Soon after Douglass arrived on Covey’s farm, he received his first whipping. After that, he was beaten so often that “aching bones and a sore back were my constant companions.”
Covey’s ability to instill fear in his slaves was as effective as his whippings. Slaves never knew when he might be watching them. “He would creep and crawl in ditches and gullies,” Douglass recalled, to spy on his workers.
Finally, Covey worked his slaves beyond endurance. Wrote Douglass,
We worked in all weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it
could never rain, blow, hail, or snow too hard for us to work in
the field . . . The longest days were too short for him, and the
shortest nights too long for him. I was somewhat unmanageable
when I first got there, but a few months of this discipline tamed
me . . . I was broken in body, soul, and spirit . . . The dark night
of slavery closed in upon me.
Who is Frederick Douglass? Frederick Douglass
Why do you think Frederick Douglass was put in jail for trying to run away?
Why are people like Frederick Douglass important to American history?
What would have happened if Frederick Douglass was never born?
How can you impact the world?
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