Harsh Punishments for minor offenses in "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas."

     In his book, especially in the first few chapters, Frederick Douglas talks about various slave owners and overseers, major and minor offenses, and the punishments for the offenses. Most of the offenses were punished by whipping, and both major and minor offenses were punished with the amount of lashes that the overseer saw as fit, which was usually a lot, and in some cases, till the overseer got tired. 

     Slaves were harshly punished for even minor crimes like stealing fruit from the garden. I think that the overseers and slave owners punished the slaves very harshly for these minor offenses for three reasons. The first reason, to keep other slaves from committing the same offense, is pretty simple. If a slave is punished very harshly for something small, for example stealing fruit from a garden, other slaves will be much less inclined to commit the same offense for fear of the extremely harsh punishment. The second reason is to teach the slaves to be obedient. I think that, in the same way that you would teach a young child not to do something by reprimanding them with a sometimes harsh punishment, the slave owners might have believed that if they punish a slave very harshly for doing something small, it will probably keep the slave from doing that thing, any small thing, and almost definitely any big thing again. The third reason is that many of the slave owners or overseers, for example Mr. Severe, and many people in general, just enjoy hurting other people, which is awful, but true.