Men and women, old and young, married and single, were classified with horses, sheep and pigs. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all occupying the same rank in the scale of beings and all subject to the same close scrutiny. The silver age and the lively youth, servants and matrons, had to undergo the same indelicate inspection. In that moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery on slaves and their owners. » In the story, Douglass continually disapproves of the principled structure of slave owners. It explains the terrible reality of being equal to animals and treated as such. In some cases, such as on Colonel Lloyd's lands, beasts may even be considered more valuable than human beings. Lloyd undoubtedly abused his slaves but never his horses; Douglass states that any comparable belief system that honors creatures above humans is wicked. Most rational northerners would agree. It is clear that Frederick Douglass is checking with all his skeptics the obvious nature of his former slavery and, as can be seen throughout The Account of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he made a conscious effort to show the catastrophic effects that slavery on Africans. -Americans to inform and persuade white American citizens to join the abolitionist movement.