Social and Legal Definitions of Slavery Narrative of the Life of Freder

Mr. Covey seemed now to think he had me, and could do what he pleased but at this moment -- from whence came the spirit I dont know -- I resolved to fight and, suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat and as I did so, I rose. (Douglass 112, chapt. 10)In Chapter 10 of Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of... an American Slave, Douglass describes an important happening in which he forces backward the standard master-slave hierarchy of beating privileges against his jury-rigged master, Mr. Covey. The victory proves for Douglass a remarkable source of renewed yearning for exemption and of self-confidence as he rose physically, standing up to fight, he rose in spirit. Covey did not have Douglass in the wiz of either fighting or ownership, and could not do what he pleased. The verbal description of the internal and external results of the fight displays a clear degree of import in order to convey to the reader the highly face-to-face nature of t he triumph--signifying being described by Roger D. Abrahams as a technique of verifying argument or persuasion and a language of implication (Gates 54). Douglass explains, He only can understand the deep satisfaction which I experienced, who has himself repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery (113, chapt. 10). The overt statement describes a unique feeling arisen from relatively unique circumstances but the implication tacked on to the statement might be phrased as Such a one is most probably not you, the reader. What is the use of constructing this implied distance mingled with the narrator and the reader? The fact that Douglass has taken up writing as an articulate method of communication seems in many ways to fate an adoption of the... ...had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact (113, chapt. 10).This victory, combined with the achievement of literacy and other factors, such as the lead to escape and attempt to teach others, point to a smell out of inner, rea l license which develops while Douglass is still a slave according to the law of nature and in the public eye. Just as the Narrative is a personal story set within a framework of social relevance, the form for freedom is personal before it is physical and external. In spirit and sense of self Douglass becomes free while still a slave, even if that freedom makes his more tangible bonds all the more painful. Because he fought for this freedom hanker before being ranked among free Northerners, Douglass maintains, in his narrative for the vacuous abolitionist movement, an inner independence of social and legal definitions of slavery and freedom.