When Mr. Auld becomes unhappy with Douglass, he rents him out to Mr. Covey. Mr. Covey is a particularly bad man who "treats" problematic slaves. Douglass tells us that during this time, he became deadened by work. He was exhausted, depressed and hopeless. He also lost his instinct to learn and his cheerfulness. He tells us that he became like a "brute" in a famous quote:
"<em>The dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!"</em>
