Religion and Class in Slavery

The fight between Frederick and Mr. Covey was one of the most compelling scenes in the second half of the book. Mr Covey seems to overcompensating so much for his social class. I think people forget that not every white person in the south was a wealthy plantation owner with several slaves. As scene in Incidents I think the poorer whites would act more aggressively towards blacks in order to assert the dominance over the people at the bottom of the totem pole. It was interesting to see how else Americans divided themselves outside the physically obvious methods of race. Douglass mentions that although Mr Covey was poor he was respected by members of his community for his reputation as a "nigger-breaker".

The complaints of the white workers that the free black men were taking their jobs, reminded of the arguments against illegal immigrants today. Some argue that illegal immigrants take jobs away from hardworking Americans who need the work. I believe that argument back then had a lot more to do with race than it does now, because the working class whites, although they had to toil on their own to earn their living were at least superior to black slaves.

The role that religion plays in slavery is such an interesting one. Slave owners obviously used religion and the Bible to justify the institution of slavery and display to the illiterate, uneducated slaves that they were obligated to serve their masters and be content with their condition. I found his argument that the more "religious" masters were often the cruelest interesting. I think the most overzealous religious people can, but not always be the most hypocritical.