Frederick Douglas's slave narrative is of detrimental importance to what we know about the violence that existed in the U.S. slave system. His narrative, as well as Emerson's Nature, uses a metaphor referring to the eyes of slaves to describe how the enslaved African Americans felt about witnessing the grave crimes and being barred from voicing them. Emerson is quoted saying "I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all". His physical body felt like nothing, and what he witnessed was not existent without vocalization. The theme of Emerson's Nature was the separation of "soul" and "nature". Many slaves felt as if they were not in control of their body, but could still retain ownership of their souls. The bodies of African Americans were thought of to be property of their owner's, making them the subjects of extreme violence. Douglas refers to receiving a "powerful kick in the left eye" from a White male. This is symbolic to the violence of everyday slave life, and being forced to appear blind to what is happening around them. Douglas first learned of the silence that is expected of slaves from watching the beating of his Aunt Hester. This signaled the distant relationship between what is seen and what is said in slavery. The physical stress and embodied pain that witnessing such cruelties took overwhelmed young slaves, who were not able to vent their experiences without being at risk for the same treatment. As the North remained ignorant to the actual happenings of the violence toward slaves because of the silence being forced upon the numerous witnesses, the few freed northern African Americans took up the opportunity to speak about the cruelties. Many of them turned to literature to get their stories out.  Douglas's details create a powerful image of a suffering black body lying scared and naked. Emerson and Douglas's texts took away many white northerners’ ignorance to the true lives of the enslaved African Americans because they were finally given the oppurtunity to voice their experiences.

In today’s day and age, many of us cannot fathom the mindset that pre-civil war slave owner’s had when justifying their ownership of another human being.  Not only owning, but physically torturing and beating a fellow man. This article looks into the world of Christian slave owners, who somehow found it glorifying to god to maintain control over their slaves with physical harm.  Many authors of slave narratives agree that Christian slave owners were in fact the cruelest of all masters, including Jacobs, Douglas and Equiano.  Douglas refers to these men as the “meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others”. This article enlightened me on many of the justifications that the slave owners believed in this time period. Extreme priests and slaveholders seek out Jesus-like sufferers to use in the crucifixion for their sins.  For the Christian slave owner, this comes in the form of the enslaved African American whom they can beat to a pulp as a sign of devotion to the Lord. This is in metaphor to the crucifixion that God put his son through to forgive humans for their slaves. The irony of this argument, beating a fellow human out of a need for forgiveness for other sins, is appalling. These White men were wrongly using another human’s body in the name of God, contradicting the fellowship and missionary elements of Christianity. No slave that has been cruelly beaten because of the Christian faith will ever pursue salvation himself.  In the narratives of Equiano and Douglass, many slave owners are depicted quoting the bible as they impale blows onto the African American’s back. They only say these divine quotes at the end of the torture, when salvation is ensured through the sacrifice.  

On the other hand some of the White Christian masters are not seeking to devote these beatings to God, but to attain a more divine state for themselves.  They view the slaves who they own as their followers, as Christians are to Christ, and that they should be eternally grateful for all that the master gives to them. This is a disgrace to God, who is the only divine being that should be recognized. Christian slave owners are not the “makers” of humankind, and their bondsmen do not have any incentive to follow their orders other than to avoid physical harm.  To say that these men were ignorant to their actions is a pathetic attempt to excuse their offensive behavior. In any true evaluation of the Bible, no man can honestly believe that is in God’s plan that they physically harm another human’s body out of devotion to him. This extreme violence against African Americans in the name of God is one of the most appalling traits of the American slave system.