"Why do you think slave families were separated? How did this benefit the masters and how did it affect the slaves?"
In the "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass", Douglass says he was separated from his mother when he was an infant. He also says that children are often taken from their mothers and separated before the child reaches "it's twelfth month". I think this is done to keep the child from having emotional ties to his or her parents. A mother would likely be very protective of their child, and it could cause issues considering the way slave owners treated their slaves. Slave owners also likely didn't need or want an entire family and probably were looking for a specific gender or age. An entire family of slaves could also team together and fight against their master. Separating families probably caused a great deal of emotional harm to the family and it likely left them feeling alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment