One passage that had a strong impression on me was Chapter ten especially when Douglas talks about how Mr. Covey broke him in. “I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed upon me; and behold I transformed into a brute.” This quote stuck out to me because I feel like Douglas isn’t even describing a human being. It almost feels like he is being tamed as an animal and now he must only listen to Mr. Covey. I felt sickened reading this part of the passage of because how he isn’t being treated as a human being anymore. I’m sure that many slaves in the South during this time had similar experiences to Douglas and I feel more aware reading this about the way they were treated. Douglas’s diction and syntax here I feel is extremely powerful especially when he says ‘I was broken in body, soul and spirit’. I feel like Mr. Covey had crushed Douglas physically and mentally with these words and Douglas doesn’t even feel himself anymore. One question I would have is Why did this people think that this was ok? Many of these men in the South were Christian, why don’t they feel any decency towards African Americans?
Matthew, As I said in class, Douglass identifies his experience with Mr. Covey as one of the turning points in his life story. You are right to note the dehumanizing effects of Covey’s treatment on Douglass. As he describes it, being treated like an animal has the effect of actually dulling his natural intelligence and curiosity and turning him into a “brute.” However, fighting back against Mr. Covey, as we discussed, restores his humanity and masculinity to him.
As for Southern Christianity, Douglass makes clear that he considers the southern church to be complicit in the evils of slavery. One possible explanation that he mentions is the idea that Black people were believed to be the descendants of Ham, a minor character in the Book of Genesis. Ham is cursed for his treatment of his father, Noah, as are his descendants. Legend later had it that Ham was dark skinned. This provided some Christians with a “cover” for slavery with the idea that the Bible had ordained that dark skinned people were cursed. Of course, this is a completely racist notion.