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Darrien Wheeler
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
November 8, 2016
What effects did the institution of slavery have on childhood for those born into it?
What do you picture in your head when asked to think about the institution of slavery in
America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Maybe it is a slave working in a cotton
field, maybe it is a prominent figure like Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman, or maybe it is a
plantation in the Southern United States. What many do not consider is the idea of the children
that were born into slavery and that had to face all of the atrocity that the institution entailed. In
order to further understand the effects that slavery had on entire generations, it is important to
first understand and explore what effects that it had on the children that were born into the
institution of slavery.
Of the many challenges children born into the institution of slavery faced, one of the most
prominent ones was the separation of families. According to several slave narratives, including
those of Frederick Douglass and Lewis Clarke, there was no one reason that masters chose to do
this: in some cases, masters used it as a method of deterring slaves from acting out, some used it
as punishment, and some separated families without the conscious intention of doing so. During
this time period, slave marriages were not legally recognized by the state so when masters
bought and sold slaves, there was no care given to slaves relationships with one another as
husbands, wives, children, and siblings. However, one of the most common reasons for the
separation of families was due to the death of a master, (Simkin). If the previous master did not
have a will and leave his property (including his slaves) to be inherited, it was auctioned off. In

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one such case, as shared by Harriet Jacobs, a mother, ...knew that some of [her children] would
be taken from her; but they took all. The children were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother
was bought by a man in her own town...She begged the trader to tell her where he intended to
take them; this he refused to do. How could he, when he knew he would sell them, one by one,
wherever he could command the highest price? (Simkin). These kinds of devastating
separations of children from their parents and their siblings were awful enough, but this quote
also shows the way that slave traders systematically sold slaves and separated families just to
make the most possible profit for themselves.
The children undergoing this traumatic experience had absolutely no control over their
circumstances and were only left to suffer the consequences. Due to the fact that this is an issue
that affected people, there is obviously significant variation on how much this separation
impacted each child experiencing it, and depending on how old they were when it happened.
Nevertheless, for many slaves it was common, to part children from their mothers at a very
early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it,
and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, (Douglass). According to modern
psychological studies conducted by researcher Kimberly Howard at Columbia University, as
well as her colleagues from Columbia and Duke University, this is one of the most detrimental
times that any child could be taken from its mother. In their opinion, the first three to five years
of a childs life are the most important when it comes to interacting with family and loved ones
to enforce strong emotional development. Being separated at an early age from their families
leads children to suffer from significant socioemotional development problems, emotional
distress, lower cognitive functioning, emotional attachment problems, and other mental health

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issues, (Howard). While there are programs and psychologists in place today to help children
undergoing these experiences cope in a healthy way, children growing up in slavery did not have
that luxury. Their childhoods were spent trying to overcome the damage that had been done.
While some slave children had friends or elders with which to share their feelings, often times
these slave children were emotionally distant from others and kept to themselves, internally
compressing their emotions and only making it worse, (Douglass).
As these slave children began to grow up, being separated from their families not only
affected them psychologically, it affected the ways they functioned socially. According to Child
Socialization, Primary socialization in sociology is the acceptance and learning of a set of
norms and values established through the process of socialization, and is typically the
responsibility of parents to instill into their children, (Boundless). This is when children learn
what the expectations of the community are, and how to fit into their community. Typically
parents are the ones that guide children through learning all of this, but children born into slavery
were not afforded this opportunity. Instead, they had to learn how to fit into their new
community from elder slaves, and by following the example set forth by those around them. For
the most part, children born into slavery had to learn the expectations for life on the plantation
the hard way, or through experience. While the masters children, for example, were scolded if
they broke their parents rules or displayed poor behavior, slave children faced harsh physical
punishment or were refused meals if they failed to comply with the masters rules. If a slave
was convicted of any misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or evinced a determination to run
away, he was brought immediately here, severely whipped, put on board the sloop...and sold...as
a warning to the slaves remaining, (Douglass). This instilled into slaves, especially children

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growing up in this toxic and terrifying environment a great deal of fear, mistrust, and resentment
toward their masters.
The brutal physical punishment that slave children experienced, which went far beyond
punishment for breaking rules, had significant effects on them as they grew up. Slaves were at
the mercy of masters, who could have them beaten at any time of day and for any reason, if any
at all. Worse still, children were often forced to listen to and even watch their friends and family
members be beaten. According to Frederick Douglasss autobiography,
I have often been awakened at the dawn of day[to] shrieks of an own aunt of
mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was
literally covered with blood...The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and
where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her
scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he
cease to swing the blood- clotted cowskin.
The effects of such extreme physical and emotional abuse was exceedingly harmful to children
growing up in this environment. Modern studies show that children suffering from physical
abuse display aggressive behavior, hostility, are more withdrawn and avoidant toward others,
show signs of hypervigilance, and are more prone to stress related disorders such as
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD as it is more commonly known, (Salzinger).
Additionally, suffering from abuse as a child is especially detrimental because it is often much
harder to overcome, especially if it is enforced on a consistent basis, as it was for children
growing up in slavery. Therefore, these children often faced these psychological issues for the

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remainder of their lives. For many slaves, the issues instilled into them from such a young age
drove them to seek out suicide as their only escape (Simkin).
Another aspect to the psychical abuse forced upon slave children was the sexual abuse
that many young girls had to endure. Many slave narratives tell the same story as that of
Hilliard Yellerday, who recounted that, A slave girl was expected to have children as soon as
she became a woman. Some of them had children at the age of twelve and thirteen years old.
Often times, the relations that caused these pregnancies were a result of the young girls being
forced into bed with either their master, or another young man in order to produce a child that
could then be sold. Some of the effects include severe PTSD, especially as these children
transition into adolescence and adulthood, along with significant amounts of depression, anxiety.
Adult survivors of childhood abuse [also] report poor social adjustment, feelings of isolation,
fear and distrust of others, and difficulty in forming and sustaining intimate relationships, (John
Briere). What made these situations worse for the slaves experiencing it was the fact that they
were still forced to interact with their abusers, or for some women, experience forced relations
with other slaves repeatedly in order to produce more children for their masters.
Though their stories were not recorded in slave narratives, though they were disregarded
in their society, and though they arguably faced harsher conditions than anyone else within the
institution of slavery, understanding what children that underwent slavery experienced is a key to
understanding the effects of slavery as a whole. From the separation of families, to the
psychological effects of repeated physical and sexual abuse, to the sociological effects of the
environment in which slaves lived, all plays a part in the slave culture that was created, and to
American history as a whole.

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Works Cited
Birere, John, and Marsha Runtz. "The Long-term Effects of Sexual Abuse: A Review and
Synthesis." N.p., 10 Mar. 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
Boundless. "Child Socialization." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2016.
Douglass, Frederick, and Benjamin Quarles. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An
American Slave. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1960. Print.
Howard, Kimberly, Anne Martin, Lisa J. Berlin, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. "Early Mother-Child
Separation, Parenting, and Child Well-Being in Early Head Start Families." Attachment
& Human Development. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Nov.
2016.
National Archives of the UK. "What Was It Like to Be a Child Slave in America in the
Nineteenth Century?" (n.d.): 1-7. Nationalarchives.co.uk. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
National Humanities Center. "On Slaveholders Sexual Abuse of Slaves Selections from 19th- &
20th-century Slave Narratives." National Humanities Center 1 (n.d.): n. pag. National
Humanities Center Resource Toolbox. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
Salzinger, Suzanne. "The Effects of Physical Abuse on Children's Social Relationships." J Stor
1st ser. 64 (1993): 169-87. JStor.org. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.
Simkin, John. "Spartacus Educational." Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational, Aug.
2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2016.

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Darrien,
I rather enjoy your topic- its quite interesting. At the beginning of your proposal I was slightly
confused on what time period of slavery you were focusing on, as there are countries that have
child labor in todays world. I think you can go very far with this topic, but I wouldnt spend a
majority of time explain what a childhood is. While I think it will be a great asset to your paper, I
think the focus should be largely on the psychological and sociological effect of slavery on
children. I would also provide information about your sources to show that they are credible.
Again- its a bomb topic. Your paper will be great and I really want to read the finished product.
-Regan