Douglas's humiliating anecdotes about slavery create sympathy for those held in slavery. Slaves were punished by being whipped, hung, branded, beaten or burned. Punishment was most often meted out in response to perceived disobedience or error. Since the government allowed it, slaves suffered dramatic physical abuse during and outside of work. One of the most common instruments used against a slave was the whip. Slaves were punished for several reasons: breaking a rule, working too carelessly, or leaving the plantation without permission. Most states did not allow slaves to conduct religious activities, for fear that such meetings would facilitate communication and later lead to rebellion. Frederick Douglass (1995) states: “Our food was boiled coarse cornmeal, called porridge. It was placed in a large wooden tray or trough and placed on the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs, they came to devour the porridge; some with oyster shells, others with pieces of shingles, some with bare hands and none with spoons. The one who ate the fastest had the most; whoever was the strongest got the best place; and few left satisfied” (chapter 5, page 1). This clearly indicates how children were treated like animals and their inability to act in the presence of a normally educated child. Douglass states: “I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was broken, my intellect languished, the disposition to read disappeared, and the joyous spark which persisted around my eyes was extinguished; the dark night of slavery has closed over me; and here is a man transformed into a brute!" (Chapter 10) Douglass clearly explains that slavery weakens a man and makes him abandon his virility. Accor...... middle of paper ......ue to his son talents as an orator and writer. All this overwhelming attention put him in danger. Douglass went to England where he continued to fight for the cause because he was afraid his former master would take him back and destroy him. eventually returned him to slavery. allowed to return to the United States because a fellow abolitionist bought his freedom. He began writing an anti-slavery newspaper known as the North Star, because whenever slaves. escaped, they followed the North Star, which they knew if they followed it would lead them to freedom Douglass served as an example to all who doubted the ability of African Americans to function in. as free citizens. Frederick Douglass describes the brutality of slavery through the description he tells to admonish the barbarity of the North and South. continue the abolitionist operation.