Hunger Games

From today's reading two aspects stood out for me: the first was greed, the second hunger. Greed was represented by Master Thomas Auld a man who came from a humble background but through good connections was able to achieve a higher status in society per se. He became a slave holder as inheritance through his wife "He had been a poor man, master only of a Bay craft. He came into possession of all his slaves by marriage; and of all men, adopted slave holders are the worst. (p.62)"This was a man who wanted a taste of power but as soon as he got it he wasn't able to manage it. He even didn't get the full respect of his slaves "We seldom called him "master;" we generally called him "Captain Auld," this is a sign of a weak man someone who's greed made him much worse than what he was. While reading for me it was like seeing a spoiled boy who got the toy he always wanted but never knew how to use it. So he started by using fear through force, constantly whipping his slaves even Frederick various times thinking that this would make him more like Mr.Covey who had the reputation of getting slaves and in one year making them better at what they did, in other words more suitable and prepared for serfdom. It was a cheap imitation of how other slaveholders acted, this is what I believe made him act how he did ( in a very changing way) constantly changing his methods. 

I believe that the source of Frederick's hunger period was because his master had never dealt with slaves. "The rule is, no matter how coarse the food, only let there be enough of it. This theory; and in the part of Maryland from which I came, it is the general practice. (p.62)" In this quote I agree with Frederick just that he left out or maybe never thought that this was a general practice for people who were already slaveowners. It probably didn't apply as general knowledge for new coming slaveholders so that may be a reason why Master Thomas never took much interest in his slaves food. As he was poor before he might of applied how he lived in those years towards the slaves. This is my main point a person with a poor background has his mindset on this standard of living but as soon as he has more power he might have more resources but he will govern under the standard of living he had before. So his slaves wont have what they need but less as the owner is not aware of this. A person with rich background who has had an excess of everything in his life will govern this way and maybe will give his slaves what they need without a problem. My theory doesn't apply to all cases but it might be a way to see why Master Thomas is the way he is. 

While reading I got to see under Frederick's point of view that maybe worse than a cruel slaveholder is one who makes his slaves grow hungry. Hunger is a state which makes the human being work under pure instinct to get what they need, it makes them do whatever they have to. This is a cause for violence and many other problems currently but in that time it must of been much more difficult for a black slave to get food under their conditions. I don't know why but I kept remembering the book series Hunger Games while reading in the sense of what you would have to do to get what you want. Douglas had to recur to letting his master's horse go so that he could then chase it to his Master's  father in laws' farm to get some food. Although it was very clever it was also desperate and dangerous. From all this we can see a pattern on how someone's greed for power can affect others well being.