Absolute Power Corrupts

Throughout this narrative, the reader sees that the slave has no power and the slaveholder has no humanity. Page after page of the narrative illustrates the slave losing his or her family members. They are sold. The same white slaveholder who sits in church every Sunday and prays over meals and supposedly cares for the family has no compunction when it comes to selling children to another plantation. If the slave makes a mistake or displeases the owner, the owner beats the slave viciously. No one does anything about the mistreatment of the slaves. The mistress of a household can be as deadly as the master. Women beat the slaves and may kill them as well as the men. The example is offered in the narrative of the mistress killing and then going on with life as if nothing had happened. Things such as living conditions...