Discuss the main themes in Chapter 10 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass when Douglass wages battle with Mr. Covey.

Chapter 10 is a difficult chapter.  It is difficult to
fully absorb in terms of the grasping the brutality of slavery.  As an experience,
Douglass shows it to be difficult.  Yet, with the introduction of Covey, Douglass
reveals how it is an exercise of power.   In demystifying it and reducing it to this
light, Douglass is able to present it as a dynamic that can and should be
rectified.

Covey is a sadistic human being.  The manner in
which he takes joy in trapping and beating the slaves that have the unfortunate
experience of encountering him helps to solidify this impression.  Douglass details how
his nickname of "the Negro breaker" suits him.  In incident after incident, Covey is
shown to enjoy the power that accompanies being a slave master. Whipping and beating
slaves for the smallest transgression, using slaves to substantiate his own paltry
economic state, as well as forcing slaves to breed in order to produce twins to double
his profit are but a few of the many examples of his cruelty, a theme that is vital to
Douglass' work.

Douglass endures what he can and takes the
abuse the Covey hurls and physically inflicts upon him.  Yet, there comes a point where
Douglass can no longer stand for the abuse and he fights with Covey for an excrutiating
two hours.  Filling out the idea that "a slave was made a man," Douglass removes the
power that Covey has by beating him at his own game.  The physical condition that Covey
used for so long to subjugate slaves and ensure his own power is one that Douglass is
able to wrestle away from Covey and demonstrate his own equality to the slaveowner.  In
this exchange, slavery is shown to be a construct of power.  Like all disproportionate
uses of power, once an individual is able to crack through this code of entitlement, the
aura is gone and a new threshold has been reached.  It is here where Covey no longer
abuses Douglass and maintains his distance.  This exchange between both men helps to
demonstrate another one of Douglass' main themes that slavery is a construction of
power.  Douglass understands enough of American History to understand that it is part of
the nation's historical DNA to recognize that disproportionate uses of power have to be
remedied at some point.  With regards to slavery and his own autobiography, Douglass
believes that point to be soon, something brought out through his life and
work.