The Truth Is Never Pretty, but Would We Act Any Differently?

"To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. These songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds." (page 28)

Humans are barbaric. That is the first thought that came to my mind once I finished reading the first two chapters of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. How can these overseers be so inhumane? I cannot even say they treat the african american slaves like animals because animals are treated way better. The savages in this memoir are the overseers, not the slaves. How can people who are supposedly catholic be so cruel? It doesn't make since.

All those questions and ideas popped into my mind once I sat down to write about the first two chapters.  However, I did not stop and think of how I would have reacted had I been living during that time.  Would I have treated people the same way? It's easy to judge when you're not living the actual story.  As an audience member to the story, it's easy to see who is right and who is wrong.  However, we all go along with society no matter what happens to be going on.  The same situation happened in The Holocaust.  Regardless, how can these people see slavery as normal? Doesn't the cracking of the whips onto the slaves' backs hurt them on the inside? These are questions that can never be answered because the only people who know the answers are dead. How unfortunate.

These first two chapters and my observations reminded me of Suzanne Collins' novel Mocking Jay. It is the third novel in the series The Hunger Games. Each district is forced to fight to the death and the people in the capital find it entertaining.  Only the people of the districts realize how wrong it is! Eventually, they realize that they should do something about it. Isn't this exactly what is going on in the memoir? The only difference is that Mocking Jay is fictional while Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is not. The reader tends to side with the correct side.  This side would be the one receiving the pain and trying to change it. However, the reader usually never thinks of how the other side must be feeling.  We do not know what is going on in their heads.  Additionally, that's how the other side was probably raised.  They don't know any better.  That is what frightens me the most.  Humans are so barbaric and self-centered that we do not realize what is right from wrong. We go along with what is normal to us as well as what society dictates.  THAT IS THE PROBLEM! The truth is never pretty which is why we usually cringe and hide from it.  So, I think we should all reflect on one question. Before judging the white men, would we act any differently had we been raised in that society?