In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, how was his life with Mr. Covey? How did Douglass' life change by living with Mr. Covey?

This section of Douglass' narrative deals with his year
with Edward Covey, a "slavebreaker".  This man was too poor to own slaves himself, so he
made his reputation on training rebellious slaves to "mind their masters". Douglass was
one such slave.

His life with the slavebreaker was harsh
and unforgiving.  He was beaten horribly on several occasions for minor offenses, the
first being that, being a city slave, he did not know how to handle oxen, and he broke a
cart and a gate when gathering wood for Mr. Covey.  The beating was so severe that welts
on his back were sore and bleeding for weeks afterwards. He said of the
beating:

I
lived with Mr. Covey one year. During the first six months, of that year, scarce a week
passed without his whipping me. I was seldom free from a sore back. My awkwardness was
almost always his excuse for whipping
me.

Most importantly though,
is Douglass' tragic admission of how Covey succeeded in breaking his spirit, and the
reader is reminded of how absolutely crushing the weight of slavery must have been, to
take away the spirit of a man with such great intellect and potential.  Admitted
Douglass:

If
at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of
slavery, that time was during the first six months of my stay with Mr. Covey... I was
somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed
me. Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. 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!