happy that Covey gave him enough to eat, compared to Master Thomas. However, Covey often lashed Douglass, because of his “awkwardness”, or his inability to keep up with the others. On one occasion, Douglass was sent to collect firewood in the nearby woods with a cart pulled by two oxen. The oxen were difficult to manage, and on the way back, they ran the cart into the gate. After explaining what happened to Covey, he took Douglass to back to the woods and cut switches off a tree, telling Douglass to undress. When Douglass gave no response, Covey charged at him, stripped him, and lashed until he was out of switches (Douglass 62). Covey was also keenly observant and deceptive. He often watched the slaves work, sometimes crawling on all fours …show more content…
As time went by, Douglass’s friends were let go, until only he remained. Finally, Captain Thomas Auld came and took him back to Hugh Auld in Baltimore. He told Douglass that he was to learn a trade. He was hired to Mr. William Gardner, who worked as a ship-builder, and would teach Douglass how to caulk. In the shipyard, White men and Black free men worked together, but after a time, the white workers grew tired of working together. After an altercation, Douglass is sent to a different shipyard. Douglass earned wages from six to nine dollars a week. He had to give the money to Hugh Auld, but began contracting out his work, saving up, and still planned for …show more content…
He wanted people to know just how cruel the people were that worked in it and allowed it to perpetuate in all of its cruelty. Douglass had sincere love for his “brethren in bonds” and used his narrative to spread that knowledge in the hopes that a wider audience would go on to vie for the freedom of those still in the inhumane system. He may have also wished to keep a narrative so that people would never forget how truly terrible it was to be an enslaved human