How did the whipping of Aunt Hester influence Douglass' view on slavery?

Captain Anthony occasionally delighted in viciously beating his slaves. No amount of tears or supplication or streaming blood would cause him to cease his whipping.

Douglass recalls how his own aunt was often prey to these whippings. The first time he witnessed this outrage, it "struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it."