On the record
As if it were less cruel to reduce a human being to the condition of a thing, than to give him a severe flagellation, or to deprive him of necessary food and clothing!
Said by
Frederick Douglass
Source
gutenberg.orgAs if it were less cruel to reduce a human being to the condition of a thing, than to give him a severe flagellation, or to deprive him of necessary food and clothing!
He compares the cruelty of reducing a human to a mere object with the physical punishments inflicted upon them, emphasizing the inhumanity of slavery.
Share
More from Frederick Douglass
Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in its veins coursed one drop of African blood.
It had no interest in recognizing or preserving any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.
Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.” I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.