“We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep, and swine. There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination. Silvery-headed age and sprightly youth, maids and matrons, had to undergo the same             indelicate inspection. At this moment, I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder.” (pg 54)

I think this passage really hits home on how people consider their slaves as just another piece of property and not as human beings.  I think Douglass included this as a call for help and a plea for some humanity from slave owners and white people by showing them in their plain english that colored people were also people and not just pieces of property.  The way he also says that he "saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder" also suggests that the slaveowner is affected negatively by the slavery.  He suggests that slaveowners simply lose part of their humanity by owning other people and treating them as non-human.  He almost makes that seem worse than being a slave.