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After reading chapter X I can say that Frederick Douglas’s statement: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” provided a new insight of the mental, physical and emotional torture and torment Douglass had faced as a slave and how it transformed him into the strong and determined man. One cold morning in January, Douglas had a task to guide a team of unbroken oxen. The oxen were difficult to tame, and Douglass barely escapes with his life. Upon learn that Douglass has failed his task, Covey orders him to take off his clothes and receive punishment (Gates, Smith 363).When Douglass does not answer, Covey hurries at him, tears his clothing off, and whips him over and over again. Covey continues to whip
In The book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass writes about how a slavemaster Mr.Covey attacks one of his slaves with a long rope catching him by his legs for no reason. This shows unpredictable his slave master is when he decided to try and punish him for whatever reason he think is a good one. Because of this, slaves were held back and lived in fear all the time. We see, though, that Douglass decides to take control of his life. Douglass want the reader to understand the control that fear had and admire the willingness of slaves to take chances for their freedom.
One of the amazing things about the story is the level of description and imagery that Douglass uses to describe the suffering around him. The excerpt spans a mere three days, but most of the text focuses on his abuse and battle with Mr. Covey. Douglass skips over the common parts of his life to further his case against slavery. By doing this, the Northerners rea...
This is what Douglass understood. He knew there was power and strength in numbers but firstly, they had to attack their masters from a mentally and then physically, if necessary. The greatest form of resistance is knowledge. With it you would know manipulation, deception and how to advance yourself in society. In this instance Covey was the knowledgeable one which meant he was the "law" that Douglass managed to challenge because of Jenkins: "This battle with Mr. Covey was a turning point in my career as a slave" (42). The word "career" indicated that slavery was not a choice of lifestyle but an obligation for every enslaved man." He can only understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom" (42) This is an ironic reference to the resurrection of Christ. He also went further to say he was freed mentally and was determined to be free in
The narrative of Douglass quotes "Mr. Covey gave me a very severe whipping, cutting my back causing blood to run, and raising ridges on my flesh as large as my little finger". This quote also shows how horrible the men were abused and beaten too. Although, they had more of a chance to fight back against their masters, which is proven in this quote "This gave me assurance, and I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers". The quote explains how Douglass finally fought back against his master, after being beaten several times by him. The mental abuse is shown in the quote from Douglass's narrative that states" Mr.Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit.". This shows that the masters would mentally break the men, so they would behave and listen to them better. Most masters would drain all the spirit out of the men to make the threat of the slaves fighting back very rare. Those were the horrible struggles the men had to deal with in
Douglass does not understand what slavery really is while he's a young boy until the day he saw his aunt get whipped by his master. Douglass really starts to suffer and see what slavery is when he starts to work for Covey. When Douglass says to die rather than let himself be whipped again, he gains the strength that he will need for his
Michaels, where Thomas Auld, Hugh Auld brother inherited Fredrick ad took charge of him. Thomas Auld later hired Edward Covey because he was provoked by the youth lack of respect towards him. Covey was a local farmer and a well-known slave breaker in the 18th century. He was a very cruel man and gave unstinting labor and repeated whipping. Douglass one day, decided to fight back. In his narrative, Fredrick Douglass explains this argument with Covey as “the turning point in my career as a slave (Pg.69)”. He stated in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick” that he felt a revived within him a sense of his man hood for fighting Covey back. This became a celebrated scene in all of African American
Covey's use of slaves like Caroline show the obscene nature of slavery and showcase dehumanization. Mr. Covey's use for Caroline is to impregnate her and make more slaves for himself. “After buying her, he hired a married man of Mr. Samuel Harrison, to live with him one year; and him he used to fasten up with her every night” (Douglass 103). This testimony is giving us a window into the true horror of Caroline's life. This kind of life strips Caroline completely of her dignity and shows us truly how badly slaves could be dehumanized. Other ways that Mr. Covey dehumanized his slaves are showcased through Douglass himself. “My awkwardness was almost always his excuse for whipping me” (Douglass 100). What is told to us here is that the reason that Douglass received weekly whippings from covey was purely due to a personality trait. This truly shows that to Mr. Covey his slaves are nothing but useless items that he can freely
The first step was mental, and it first manifested itself when he thought to himself, “there is a better day coming”. (Douglass 365) The first step becoming free is believing that there is hope, believing that there is a way out besides death. His next mental step towards ascending back towards manhood was his refusal to comply to Covey’s orders, “I made no effort to comply, having now made up my mind”. (Douglass 366) This refusal of Covey’s orders showed him that he no longer had broken Douglass and Douglass will no longer continue to be overcome by Mr. Covey’s violence and deception. In order to make a true transformation one’s mind has to be in the right state. By believing that there was more for him, Douglass freed his mind from the chains of slavery. The mental transformation of Douglass continued at Mr. Freeland’s plantation. Douglas decided that, “1835 should not pass without witnessing an attempt, on my part, to secure my liberty”. (Douglass 373) From that point on, Douglass prepared his mind for freedom, focusing on all ways he could attain
...in by Mr. Covey. He realized that any white man who wanted to succeed in whipping him would have to kill him. He may have been a slave physically, but in his heart he was free. He told me, If I would be happy, I must lay out no plans for the future. [Ch. 11, p. 96.] Again, a reoccurring point in the narrative about the happiness of the slave. Master Thomas claims that if Frederick wants to remain “happy”, he should forget about freedom and just realize he will always be a slave. Unfortunately for his master, it was too late for Frederick to go back. He had learned too much. He had seen the horrors of slavery and knew there was much more for him. I saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause for distrust. [Ch. 11, p. 99.] What else could Frederick feel after being a slave his entire life? No white man ever gave him a reason to have trust. There had been nothing but cruel, lying white men surrounding Frederick. As for his won race, he was still suspect. After being told on for trying to escape, he became wary of his fellow slaves. He may have been in a free land, but he had learned the ways of man and knew what he had to do to survive.
In this narrative, Douglass describes his life as a slave in ways that is brutalizing and dehumanizing. He wants his readers to understand that concept. By doing this, Douglass writes, “I was seized with a violent aching of the head, attended with extreme dizziness; I trembled in every limb” (416). Douglass uses diction such as seized, aching, extreme dizziness, and trembled to help create a picture of the pain he had felt during his experiences of being a slave for Mr. Covey. Another example is when he writes, “I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up I tried to do so, but fell back in the attempt. He gave me another kick, and again told me to rise. I again tried, and succeeded in gaining my feet; but stooping to get the tub with which I was feeding the fan, I again staggered and fell” (416-17). Words like scarce, savage, and staggered place imagery into the reader’s minds of what he went through as a slave. One other way that Douglass shows how his words emphasize the message is when he writes, “The blood was yet oozing from the wound on my head. For a time I thought I should bleed to death; and think now that I should have done so, but that the blood so matted my hair as to stop the w...
Within the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave” Douglass discusses the deplorable conditions in which he and his fellow slaves suffered from. While on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, slaves were given a “monthly allowance of eight pounds of pork and one bushel of corn” (Douglass 224). Their annual clothing rations weren’t any better; considering the type of field work they did, what little clothing they were given quickly deteriorated. The lack of food and clothing matched the terrible living conditions. After working on the field all day, with very little rest the night before, they must sleep on the hard uncomfortably cramped floor with only a single blanket as protection from the cold. Coupled with the overseer’s irresponsible and abusive use of power, it is astonishing how three to four hundred slaves did not rebel. Slave-owners recognized that in able to restrict and control slaves more than physical violence was needed. Therefore in able to mold slaves into the submissive and subservient property they desired, slave-owners manipulated them by twisting religion, instilling fear, breaking familial ties, making them dependent, providing them with an incorrect view of freedom, as well as refusing them education.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Throughout the chapter I went on a rollercoaster ride of emotions from excitement for Frederick Douglas, to sadness, and then followed by further excitement. At first I was excited because I believed that Frederick was truly getting a better life. For example, Frederick had exclaimed that his mistress had not liked traditional gestures of a slave showing that he/she was inferior. Furthermore, I had finally felt that things would become good for Frederick when he said that his mistress had started to teach him how to read and write the letters of the alphabet. However, my heart had shattered as everything seemed to change in a matter of a few lines of a few text. For instance, his master had told his mistress that a slave is forbidden from
Frederick Douglass life changed was when he fought covey because when he go transferred to Mr.Covey he got a very severe whip in his back and Mr.covey didn't really care to whatever he was going to do to him so one day they were feeding horses and doing work in the farm.So Mr.Covey got him from the legs trying to tie him but Frederick douglass had an idea of what he was going to do so Douglass started to struggle and then they started to fight and Covey was really weak and called hughes to help him but you know that Frederick Douglass is stronger than them so he kicked them.Then he got a really good kick so minutes after they stopped fighting Douglass saw Covey and didn't do anything so he Federick Douglass was surprised that he didn't get a whipping of his life so instead Covey gave this other 16 year old a whipping.So Douglass made a conclusion that says “such as it is, I will give it.
So, Covey tries to whip him again, Douglass, defends himself from the slave breaker. After a two-hour fight, Covey gives up. Douglass vows never to be whipped again, and as a result, it never happens again. After this, Douglass is passed from master to master. While being handed around, he is constantly on the lookout for a way to escape to freedom. He finally succeeds, after one failed attempt at escaping, and makes his way to New York, then finally back to Massachusetts. But even after he 's free, he quickly realizes that his journey isn 't