Hey everybody, if this is your first time tuning in to one of these video installments that is designed to break down the reading of Frederick Douglass' My Bondage, My Freedom, welcome. It's great to have you. If you're returning from the previous installment where we collectively read some of the passages of Frederick Douglass and we saw how he believes that slavery was a system that victimized the slaves.
Not necessarily simply by brutalizing them or forcing them to work for no money, but actually dehumanizing them. Okay, so I hope that that installment was helpful and feel free. There's no particular order that you have to watch these things in. So feel free, if you haven't seen that first one, go back and look at that first one. It's got plenty of food for thought and I hope to give you a lot more food for thought here this time around.
I think what we're going to talk about here today. The victimization of slave owners might be Douglass' biggest, most ambitious claim that his book is going to make. He is going to claim that slavery is actually bad for the people that actually profit from it.
I want you to slow things down for just a second and ask yourself how could that be, okay? Now, like I said the last time around, if we had this session in class, I would oftentimes ask you to do an exercise that kind of gets your brain warmed up and moving in the right direction as far as what we're going to read from Frederick Douglass. And what I generally ask my students to do is to think about a system.
First of all, just name any system. It can be anything you want. It can be a school system. It could be your car's engine.
It could be your air conditioning unit. At home, it doesn't really matter. Any kind of system that you can name. it generally has one thing in common. It's got numerous, several different moving parts.
And if any one of those parts kind of slows down, let alone breaks, then it crashes the whole system. I always like to tell this story in class because it really helps people understand what I mean when I say a system. When I very first got my start in higher education, one of the...
the memories that really stands out in my mind is a time that we had to cancel class. And it had nothing to do with inclement weather. It had nothing to do with the electricity going out.
It was nothing like that. Of all the things that forced us to cancel class, it was the fact that the toilets would not flush. We didn't have public working restrooms.
And because we were a public institution, we had no other alternative but to send everybody home. I mean, everybody with all of our fancy degrees from fancy universities, and we just straight up did not have a good answer for this. So something as seemingly as trivial as the toilet's not working, it threw the entire system out of whack.
And so that's where I want to begin our conversation here today when it comes to the system of slavery. And make no mistake about it, slavery is a system. It's a system that not only has numerous different working parts, but just like my restroom example from a second ago, if any one of these parts slows down or breaks down, it's going to destroy the entire slave system along with it. So here's the thing, everybody.
At this point, you should know how to get a hold of Frederick Douglass in Canvas. Go ahead and fetch that for me if you haven't done so already. And even if you're using an old-fashioned paper book, what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to open it up to chapter five. We're going to meet a guy that owns the Tuckahoe Plantation in Maryland, a guy by the name of Captain Anthony. And one of the first things that you're going to realize when it comes to Captain Anthony is that if you didn't know any better, if you just sort of saw this guy out doing his thing, you would assume that he's a kind, gentle, old man.
As Douglas puts it, even fatherly. So. everybody, open up to chapter 5. It's going to be the beginning of chapter 5 that I'm going to take you.
And if you're using the digital copy that I gave you in Canvas, the example that I'm going to point to, it's there on the top right corner of 52. Okay? If you're not using that version, it's near the beginning of that chapter, but it's a sentence. It's not the beginning of a paragraph, but it's a sentence that starts out, Captain Anthony could be kind.
Find that. It's not the easiest thing to find, but Captain Anthony could be kind. kind.
You see it? Captain Anthony could be kind, and at times he even showed an affectionate disposition. Could the reader have seen him gently leading me by the hand, as he sometimes did, patting me on the head, speaking to me in soft, caressing tones, and calling me his little Indian boy, he would have deemed him a kind old man, and really almost fatherly. But the pleasant moods of a slaveholder are remarkably brittle, they are easily snapped, they neither come often, nor remain. long.
Now, ask yourself why that is. Why is it that this guy could be the kindest, sweetest guy that you'd ever want to meet? And then at a moment's notice, at the snap of a finger, he can fly into a fit of rage. Ask yourself what causes people like Captain Anthony to act like this.
Now, what I want you to do is go, this is going to be a lot easier for you to find. It's a paragraph. It's further down in your reading.
It's a paragraph that starts out. One of the first circumstances. If you're using the one from Canvas, it's on the top right corner of page 53. See it?
One of the first circumstances that opened my eyes to the cruelty and wickedness of slavery and the heartlessness of my old master was the refusal of the latter to interpose his authority to protect and shield a young woman who had been most cruelly abused and beaten by his overseer in Tuckahoe. The overseer... A Mr. Plummer was a man like most of his class, little better than a human brute.
And in addition to his general profrigacy and repulsive coarseness, the creature was a miserable drunkard. He was probably employed by my old master less on account of the excellence of his services than for the cheap rate at which they could be obtained. He was not fit to have the management of a drove of mules.
In a fit of drunken madness, he committed the outrage which brought the young woman in question down to my old master for protection. This young woman was the daughter of Millie, an old aunt of mine. The poor girl, on arriving at our house, presented a pitiable appearance.
She had left in haste, and without preparation, and probably without the knowledge of Mr. Plummer. She had traveled twelve miles, barefooted, barenecked, and bareheaded. Her neck and shoulders were covered with scars newly made, and not content with marring her neck and shoulders with the cowhide, the cowardly brute had dealt her a blow on the head with the hickory club, which cut a horrible gash and left her face literally covered with blood. In this condition, the poor young woman came down to implore protection at the hands of my old master. I expected him to see him.
boil over with rage at the revolting deed, and to hear him fill the air with curses upon the brutal plumber. But I was disappointed. He sternly told her, in an angry tone, he believed she deserved every bit of it, and if she did not go home instantly, he would himself take the remaining skin from her neck and back.
Thus was the poor girl compelled to return without redress, and perhaps to receive an additional flogging for daring to appeal to old master. against the overseer. So do you see the common thread?
Do you see the through line? It's slavery. Captain Anthony, like it or not, he's a part of the slave system, and he's got a role to play within that slave system, and that role is cruelty.
Douglas points this out. I'm at the bottom of page 54 now, if you're using the canvas version. If you're not, it's a paragraph that starts out, Old Master Seemed Furious. You see that?
Old master seemed furious at the thought of being troubled by such complaints. I did not at the time understand the philosophy of his treatment of my cousin. It was stern, unnatural, violent. Had the man no bowels of compassion? Was he dead to all sense of humanity?
No. I think I understand it. This treatment is a part of the system rather than a part of the man.
Were slaveholders to listen to complaints of this sort against overseers, the luxury of owning large numbers of slaves would be impossible. It would do away with the office of overseer entirely, or, in other words, it would convert the master himself into an overseer. It would occasion great loss of time and labor, leaving the overseer and fetters and without the necessary power to secure obedience to his orders.
So... It's not exactly Captain Anthony that's doing the beating, that's doing the abusing, but it's ultimately his authority that's allowing Mr. Plummer to get away with all of this. What would happen if he would have taken Plummer to task, if he would have fired him or worse? Well, the slave system would break down. Douglas points this out very vividly.
I told you the last time, I'm not much of a quotes guy. Keep in mind, you only have about three pages to tell me what's important to you and why I should listen. But if you're looking to really get some mileage out of a nice short quote, go to that part where it says, this treatment was a part of the system rather than a part of the man. In other words, what came natural to Anthony is what we were talking about a minute ago. A kind, gentle-hearted old man that seemed like Douglas' father.
Why is he acting like a maniac? Why is he acting so cruel? It's slavery.
In other words, and this is where Douglass is on this, slavery is actually bad for the slaveholders because it turns them into terrible people. It does not do anything for their development of character. It takes good people, people that are naturally good, and it turns them into really terrible people. Now, if you are looking for another example because You know, this one goes a long, long way, but there's actually another example. And if you think critically about it, you might be able to couple this with some other bits of information in our class, both readings as well as lectures.
Go to Chapter 10. Scroll down or open it up to Chapter 10. And in Chapter 10, you're going to meet a lady from Baltimore by the name of Sophia Auld. Now, in Chapter 10, you come to the realization that Captain Anthony had family in Baltimore. And he hired, I don't know about hire, but let's say he loaned Frederick Douglass out to the Aulds, Mr. and Mrs. Auld.
And Sophia Auld, as a city dweller, keep in mind, most slave owners are there in the countryside. As a city dweller, she didn't have any experience in how to treat slaves. Douglass is a kid.
He's literally a youth when he arrives at their home. Again, this is at the beginning of Chapter 5. But If you flip down on the canvas version 94, 95 of this book, you'll see what I'm talking about. In any case, when he arrives at her doorstep, Mrs. Auld opens up the door, and what she sees looking back at her is a child.
And she treats him like a child. She acted very motherly toward him. Let me give you a case in point.
Douglas, very smart guys, we're finding out. expressed a lot of interest in learning how to read. He fiddled with books. He always was fascinated when he saw her reading. And what kicked into gear there was her natural inclinations to teach him, right?
When a child expresses some interest in learning, be it math or reading or what have you, our natural instincts as human beings is to nurture, is to nurture that interest, is to foster education in that child. And she's successful. She teaches him to read using the Bible. Of all things, she's using the Bible.
Now, what happens in the intermediary time is her husband, Hugh, finds out about this. And if you look on page 95, or if you continue to read through chapter 10, you'll find this part. He gives her an absolute verbal dressing down. He explains that what she was doing was completely illegal and he needed her to stop it right now.
But he made her feel. like two inches tall, made her feel very, very terrible about what she was doing. And in the process, she becomes a really awful person. She starts out sweet and nice, and Douglas says this under no certain circumstances, that she was a wonderful, wonderful lady.
What made her terrible was slavery. Nobody had ever explained to her this is the way that you're supposed to treat slaves. You're not supposed to treat them as children. You're not supposed to treat them as human beings.
You're supposed to make them know only the will of their master. That's the way that Hugh Auld puts it. Only the will of their master. Well, what happens to Sophia Auld is she becomes a terrible person in the aftermath. Every time that she sees Douglas reading a newspaper, because her lessons were effective, he's a good reader now.
Every time that she catches him with his nose in a book, she knocks the book out of his hands or she rips up the newspaper. She's this... bitter, fretful, miserable old person.
And again, the through line is slavery. That's, I think, what Frederick Douglass is trying to get across here. That's what he's trying to get us to understand, that slavery turns naturally good people into bad people. And the reason being is, on the one hand, if you're someone like Captain Anthony, you can't indulge in kindness.
it would destroy the system of slavery. Cruelty is very much a part of that system. And if you're someone like Sophia Auld, somebody needs to teach you how to be an effective slave owner, and then we need to go back to Captain Anthony. To be an effective slave holder, you have to be cruel. So, once again, I hope that this segment has helped you break down very important parts of Frederick Douglass.
I want you to think critically about the material that we're reading, the material that we're listening to in lecture, and I hope that you have a great day. and couple it with some of these things that we've talked about here today.