Realism. The Battle with Mr. Covey

The story of the Battle With Mr. Covey is about Fredrick Douglas as a slave when he was a yound man. The story takes place on a plantation were the slaves never get any break but on Sundays. "it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow too hard for us to work in the field." So on this plantation one of the over-seeers named Mr. Covey just has it out for young Fredrick. While working on the wheat fan Fredrick starts having what sounded like a heat stroke and when Mr. Covey came to assist he kicked and told him to get up and keep working, once on his feet Mr. Covey hit him in the head with a hickory slat busting open his head making him bleed everywhere. Fredrick then starts running to the masters house to seek protection from the master, but the master basically gives him no help because Mr. Covey is a white man. The next day when Fredrick returns for Mr. Covey starts running at him with a whip and Fredrick hides in a corn field. Then Fredrick goes into the woods where he meets one of his fellow slaves going to his wifes home a few miles away. This fellow slave named Sandy is kind've like the old wise man. He advises Fredrick to pick this root and carry it in his right pocket and all times and he can prevent ever being whipped. Not really believing it but wanting to satisfy the old man Fredrick goes and picks the root. When returning to the plantation he saw Mr. Covey and he did nothing, but it was Sunday. On Monday morning they asked Fredrick to clean the stables out when doing so Mr. Covey came into the stables grabbed Fredricks legs and tried to tie him up Fredrick immediatley sprang up and begam fighting with Mr. Covey another white man tried to break it up but then he kicked him right in the ribs, and when Mr. Covey called for help no one answered. The Master let it happen because Mr. Covey had it coming and deserved it. So after that day Fredrick never got whipped anymore, but got in a bunch of fights.

Throughout the entire story Fredrick talks about how Mr. Covey was a slave-breaker. And how slavery kills the spirit inside you. "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 in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! " This quote is a good example of how Fredrick describes the feeling of slavery.

The social issue that Fredrick Douglas is trying to solve in this story obviously is slavery. Slavery is a horrible system that breaks every natural law that man deserves. In Fredricks Douglas's story he really gets across the horrible image that is slavery.