Selections: How A Slave Became A Man

We werc oncestruck with a remark made in conversation by a distingnished membor of Congress, who has given rnuch ittention to the subject of slavery. He aid it was essenlinl to ihe nature ofthat system to 'deprive the slaves of the natural rigbt of self-defencc; for it" ihey were allowed ihis right, they could not ba kept as slaves. This remark was brougbt to mind by a passage in the nieresting and instructivo book, the Autobiograhy of Frederick Pouglass. He jives an account of his experience durit.g the worst part of his life in slavery, ivhen he was hired out to one Covey for he express ptirpose of having liis will ;ubdued by Covey, who wns famous as a ;lave-trainer. Hesays, "Mr. Covey suc;eeded in breaking me; I was broken in jody, soul and spirit; my natural elastici:y was crushed, my intellect languished, ;he disposition to read departed; the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died, ihe dark night of sia'very closed in upon me; - behold a man transformed into a brute." - page 63. This powerful delíneation isdrawn out hrough several pages. We envy not the man who can read it and not feel himself moved for the overthrow of the system.At length he ran away to his mast er, i lo complain, but was mefely ordered back i fo his On his way back, he met another slave, who gave him a certain root, which he was to keep always on his right side, and no white man could whip him. Such was the superstition of a slave. He returned to Covey's on a Sunday morning. The next dny, while he was in the stable lot't to feed the horsos, Covey ca me upon him unawares, and attempted to tie liim. We now let him teil his own story. No man could so describe it Who had not exp?rienced it. "Assoon as I found vhat he was upto, I gave a sudden spring, and as I did so, hy holding to my legs, I was hrought sprawling on the stable floor. Mr. Covey seemed now to (hink he had me, and could do what he pleased; but at this moment - f rom whence carne the spirit I don't know - I resolved to fight; and, uiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey by the throat; and as f did so, 1 rose. He held on to me, and I to him. - My resistance was so entirely unexpect ed, that Covey seemed taken all aback.- Me trembled likea leaf. This gave me assurance, and I held him uneasy,ing the blood to run vvhere I tonched him with the ends of my fingers. Mr. Covey soon cal led out to Hughes for help. - Hughes carne, and, while Covey held me, attempted to iie rny right hand. While he wns in the act of doing so, I watched my chance, and gave him a heavy kick close under the rite. This kick fairly sickened Hughes, so that he left me in the hnnds of Mr. Covey. This kick had the effect of notonly wenkening Hughes, Dut Covey also. When he saw Hughes bending over with pain, his courage quailed. .He asked me if I meant to persist in my resistance. Ptoldhiirsl did, come wliat migbt; that he had used me like a brute lor six monihs, and that I wnsdetermined lo be used so no longer. With that, he strove ío drag me lo a stick that was lying just out of the stable door. He meant lo knock me down. But jlist as he wns leaning over to get the stick, I seized him wilh both hands by his collar, and brought hiin by n sudden snatch to the ground. - By this time, Bill Carne. Covey called upon him for assistance. Bill wanted to know what he could do. Covey said, 'Take hold of hinr, take höld of him!' - Bill said his master hired him out to work, and not to help to whip me; so he left Covey and mvself to fight our own battle outi We V.'ere at it for nearly t ivo hours.Covey at lenglh let me go, puffing and blowing at ;i gteat rate; saying" that if f had not resisted he would not havo whipped me half sö rnuch. The Iruth was, that he had not whipped me at all. I considered him as getting' the worst" end of the bargain; for he had drawn no blood f rom roe, bu t I had fromhim. The whole six months afterwards that I spent with Mr. Covey, he never laid ihc weight öf his finger upon mo in angcr. He would occnsionnlly say, he didn'l want to gei i held of ino ng.-iin. 'No,' ilionglit 1, 'you neod not; for you vül come off liinn you did uefore.' "This baltic with ?.lr. Covoy was tho turning point in my career ns a slave. - ft rckindled the few e.xpiring' enibers of freedom, and revived within me a séftffl of my own manhood. It recalled the de[ai-led self-confidence, nnd inspired me ngain witli n detfrmination to be free. - The gratificaron affbrded by the triumph was a full compensRtion for Whntever else might follow, even death ifself. Heonly can unáersthnd thedëepsaiisfaction whieh operenced, who has himselí repelledy forcé the bloody arm o? slavery. 1 elt as I never feit beforc it was a g]oious res;ierrection, frntn ihe tomb of lavory,1o the lieaven of freedom. Mv ong-crushcd spirit rose.cowardice Bèparld, bold defiance took its place; and 1 nuw psolved thnt, however long I tnight j naiti a sla ve in form, the dav hud passed I orever when I could be a slave in fact. i did not hesitate to lot it be known o!" me, that the white man who expected to ucceed in whipping, must nlso succeed n killing me. From thistime I wasnevr again what might be called fairlv whipped, though I remained a slave four ears afterwards. I had severa! fights, ut was never wbipped.; Pp. 71-73.-