Southern plantation owners hunted, captured, and enslaved African Americans to perform a wide variety of plantation work. Even though these slaves were regularly whipped for arbitrary reasons, owners and masters believed that it was in the slaves' best interest to be slaves. A slave master's wife began teaching a slave named Fredrick Douglass to read because she thought he wouldn't have had the chance to learn if he hadn't been slave. Slave owners also knew that slaves led better lives because they had food to eat. They claimed that if slaves had not been captured or born to a slave family, they would not have had enough food to survive. Douglass refutes that humanitarian views on slavery are wrong by giving his perspective on how he was dehumanized by slavery in the following ways: his ability to learn basic skills, how to care for himself and have a voice for himself and, finally, the gift of happiness. The living conditions of Douglass and his fellow slaves were not the first priority of slave owners and masters. Slaves slept each night on what is described as cold, damp ground and had no separate quarters (Douglass 23). Douglass remembers having huge cracks on his feet from the freezing winter temperatures and having nowhere to escape the elements. Not only did they have to sleep in the cold, but they also had to train in the field in clothing similar to what they wore during the summer months. The masters allocated their slaves a limited quantity of food per week to share among them all. This small amount of food did not support the nutrition a hard-working slave needed. To add to the fact, slaves worked in the h...... middle of paper ...... they would not expand. the “natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 16). That being said, children raised in slavery did not experience the feeling of unconditional love and it would also be difficult for them to love others. After reading the account that Fredrick Douglass wrote about his life in slavery, his escape, and ultimately his life in freedom, I believe that slave owners could have treated slaves better, while still getting the same amount of labor from the share of slaves. If the slaves had had enough food and clothing and not been whipped, they would have accomplished more work. If slaves had been treated like this, I believe that the word “slave” would not have the same meaning but rather that of a human employed in work. The abolition of slavery gave humans the ability to freely choose how they live and spend their daily lives..