Breaker Essay, Research Paper

A major character within The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass is Covey, a well-known slave-breaker. Frederick Douglass has merely become Covey & # 8217 ; s most recent challenge. As a slave-breaker, it is Coveys responsibility to utilize whatever agencies available to & # 8220 ; interrupt & # 8221 ; Douglass and do him into a hard-working, docile animal. Covey uses assorted methods all incorporating defects, such as physical maltreatment, mental maltreatment, and psychological panic to carry through this undertaking. None of Covey & # 8217 ; s tactics, nevertheless, proved one hundred per centum successful in interrupting Douglass.The attack Covey uses in his efforts to interrupt Douglass contain legion defects. The first of which is physical maltreatment. Covey, believing the best manner to interrupt a slave is physical maltreatment, begins his first meeting with Douglass by fiercely crushing him. He continues bring downing barbarous whippings and is ever speedy with the cilium for any rebelliousness by Douglass. Covey even goes so far as to put Douglass up for failure by publishing him undertakings in which Douglass was doomed to neglect at. Douglass recalls a whipping he received for interrupting a gate with unbroken cattle ; a undertaking even Covey would ne’er try. & # 8220 ; This whipping was the first of a series of whippings, and though really terrible, it was less so than many which came after it, and these for discourtesies far lighter than the gate-breaking & # 8221 ; ( 756. ) Douglass suffered physical maltreatment non merely in the signifier of whippings, but of malnutrition and exhaustion every bit good. Douglass recalls that they were frequently kept in the Fieldss until eleven or twelve o & # 8217 ; clock at dark. Covey pushed Douglass to his outermost bounds, cognizing merely what Douglass was capable of. Physical maltreatment is non the lone defect in Covey & # 8217 ; s attack to break one’s back breakage ; he besides adds mental maltreatment to Douglass & # 8217 ; s anguish. Covey & # 8217 ; s changeless whippings were continual reminders of Douglass & # 8217 ; s province as a lowly slave. Covey ne’er passed up an chance to reenforce himself as maestro and Douglass as slave. One such incident occurred when Douglass was ordered to take his apparels in order to have a terrible whipping. Regardless of the badness of the whipping, it was dehumanising for Douglass to be beat without vesture. Covey mentally abused all his slaves. Douglass s

ites an incident affecting a slave Covey purchased to utilize as a breeder, “No better illustration of the unchaste, demoralizing, and corrupting character of bondage can be found” claims Douglass with disgust ( 757 ) .

The 3rd most outstanding defect in Covey & # 8217 ; s break one’s back interrupting attack is his relentless usage of assorted signifiers of psychological panic. The slaves on Covey & # 8217 ; s farm were in changeless fright of Covey and his cilium. Covey was ever mousing about, concealing behind some shrub, or lying level in a ditch ready to strike at any slave who became idle in his work. Douglass recalls yet another 1 of Covey & # 8217 ; s efforts at hocus-pocus in which Covey would give the slaves their orders in progress as if he was traveling off for several yearss and so hide himself behind the house in order to watch his slaves & # 8217 ; every move. Douglass described Covey as a sly serpent, & # 8220 ; He would crawl and creep in ditches and gullies, fell behind stumps and shrubs, and pattern so much of the craft of the snake & # 8221 ; ( 756 ) . Consequently every slave in Covey & # 8217 ; s attention remained dying and fearful Covey. These defects, nevertheless inhumane and unfair, were nonetheless portion of Covey & # 8217 ; s success in slave-breaking. Covey did, to a grade, interruption Frederick Douglass. Douglass admits to being broken in organic structure, psyche, and spirit, claiming & # 8220 ; My natural snap was crushed ; my mind languished ; the temperament to read departed, the cheerful flicker that lingered about my oculus died out ; the dark dark of bondage closed in upon me & # 8221 ; ( 757 ) . Although beaten and broken, Frederick Douglass regains his humanity. After a barbarous confrontation with Covey in the barn, Douglass came to a turning-point in his life as a slave. The confrontation had renewed his spirit and given back his sense of manhood. As a slave Frederick Douglass endured all types of torture by Covey. Although flawed with physical maltreatment, mental maltreatment, and psychological panic, Covey & # 8217 ; s attack proved successful. Covey had broken Douglass & # 8217 ; s spirit, but this success was ephemeral. Through a conflict of strength and will with Covey, Douglass rekindled his spirit, and awoke his desire for freedom, therefore turn outing Covey & # 8217 ; s attack at slave-breaking unsuccessful, and puting Frederick Douglass free, if merely in spirit.