My Bondage and My Freedom

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses racism and enslavement.

Douglass describes the cowskin as “a kind of whip seldom seen in the northern states […] made entirely of untanned, but dried, ox hide” and “about as hard as a piece of well-seasoned live oak” (111). The cowskin, though a literal instrument of abuse, is also a symbol of enslavers’ complete power over those whom they enslaved. It is a metonym of both the subjugation and systemic oppression that upheld the plantation system. Douglass illustrates instances in which both his first enslaver, Captain Anthony, the overseers, and Edward Covey used the cowskin whip to assert power. Though the overseers didn’t personally enslave the enslaved people, they existed alongside the enslavers under a social contract that determined that white men had unfettered and, in many instances, extralegal authority to exact violence against the enslaved. They also shared the right, if they deemed it necessary, to take a Black person’s life.

The ash cake was a mixture of coarse bran, meal, and water, placed between oak leaves and set carefully in the ashes of a dwindled fire. Ashes covered the surface of this bread as well. The ashes, along with the bran, ensured that the bread was never tasty, though the enslaved people appreciated it, due to knowing little else.