Download pdf Advances In Manufacturing Production Management And Process Control Proceedings Of The Ahfe 2019 International Conference On Human Aspects Of Advanced Manufacturing And The Ahfe International Confe ebook full chapter
Download pdf Advances In Manufacturing Production Management And Process Control Proceedings Of The Ahfe 2019 International Conference On Human Aspects Of Advanced Manufacturing And The Ahfe International Confe ebook full chapter
Download pdf Advances In Manufacturing Production Management And Process Control Proceedings Of The Ahfe 2019 International Conference On Human Aspects Of Advanced Manufacturing And The Ahfe International Confe ebook full chapter
Waldemar Karwowski
Stefan Trzcielinski
Beata Mrugalska Editors
Advances in Manufacturing,
Production Management
and Process Control
Proceedings of the AHFE 2019
International Conference on Human
Aspects of Advanced Manufacturing,
and the AHFE International Conference
on Advanced Production Management
and Process Control, July 24–28, 2019,
Washington D.C., USA
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
Volume 971
Series Editor
Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Warsaw, Poland
Advisory Editors
Nikhil R. Pal, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
Rafael Bello Perez, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computing,
Universidad Central de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba
Emilio S. Corchado, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Hani Hagras, School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering,
University of Essex, Colchester, UK
László T. Kóczy, Department of Automation, Széchenyi István University,
Gyor, Hungary
Vladik Kreinovich, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas
at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
Chin-Teng Lin, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chiao
Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Jie Lu, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology,
University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Patricia Melin, Graduate Program of Computer Science, Tijuana Institute
of Technology, Tijuana, Mexico
Nadia Nedjah, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ngoc Thanh Nguyen, Faculty of Computer Science and Management,
Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland
Jun Wang, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications
on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent
Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer
and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment,
healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern
intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft comput-
ing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion
of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuro-
science, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems,
Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and
adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric
computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics
including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning para-
digms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent
agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust
management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia.
The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are
primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They
cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and
applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short
publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad
dissemination of research results.
Editors
Advances in Manufacturing,
Production Management
and Process Control
Proceedings of the AHFE 2019 International
Conference on Human Aspects of Advanced
Manufacturing, and the AHFE International
Conference on Advanced Production
Management and Process Control,
July 24–28, 2019, Washington D.C., USA
123
Editors
Waldemar Karwowski Stefan Trzcielinski
Department of Industrial Engineering Poznan University of Technology
and Management System Poznan, Poland
University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL, USA
Beata Mrugalska
Poznan University of Technology
Poznan, Poland
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Advances in Human Factors
and Ergonomics 2019
10th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics and the
Affiliated Conferences
v
vi Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics 2019
(continued)
Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Software Tareq Ahram
and Systems Engineering
Advances in Human Factors in Architecture, Jerzy Charytonowicz and Christianne
Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure Falcão
Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human Ravindra S. Goonetilleke and Waldemar
Factors Karwowski
Advances in Interdisciplinary Practice in Industrial Cliff Sungsoo Shin
Design
Advances in Safety Management and Human Pedro M. Arezes
Factors
Advances in Social and Occupational Ergonomics Richard H. M. Goossens and Atsuo
Murata
Advances in Manufacturing, Production Waldemar Karwowski, Stefan
Management and Process Control Trzcielinski and Beata Mrugalska
Advances in Usability and User Experience Tareq Ahram and Christianne Falcão
Advances in Human Factors in Wearable Tareq Ahram
Technologies and Game Design
Advances in Human Factors in Communication Amic G. Ho
of Design
Advances in Additive Manufacturing, Modeling Massimo Di Nicolantonio, Emilio Rossi
Systems and 3D Prototyping and Thomas Alexander
Preface
vii
viii Preface
The contents of this book required the dedicated effort of many people. We
would like to thank the authors, whose research and development efforts are pub-
lished here. Finally, we also wish to thank the following editorial board members
for their diligence and expertise in selecting and reviewing the presented papers:
Advanced Manufacturing
Ergonomics in Manufacturing
Development of an Intelligent Robotic Additive Manufacturing
Cell for the Nuclear Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Richard French, Hector Marin-Reyes, Gabriel Kapellmann-Zafra,
and Samantha Abrego-Hernandez
Manageable and Scalable Manufacturing IT Through
an App Based Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Christian Knecht, Andreas Schuller, and Andrei Miclaus
Ergonomics Principles for the Design of an Assembly Workstation
for Left-Handed and Right-Handed Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Lucia Botti, Alice Caporale, Maddalena Coccagna, and Cristina Mora
Impact of Industry 4.0 on Occupational Health and Safety . . . . . . . . . . 40
Aleksandra Polak-Sopinska, Zbigniew Wisniewski,
Anna Walaszczyk, Anna Maczewska, and Piotr Sopinski
Lean Production Management Model for SME Waste
Reduction in the Processed Food Sector in Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
José Chávez, Fernando Osorio, Ernesto Altamirano, Carlos Raymundo,
and Francisco Dominguez
Qualitative Features of Human Capital in the Formation
of Enterprise Agility. Research Results in Polish Enterprises . . . . . . . . . 63
Hanna Wlodarkiewicz-Klimek
xi
xii Contents
Agile Manufacturing
Reflections on Production Working Environments
in Smart Factories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Sebastian Pimminger, Werner Kurschl, Mirjam Augstein,
Thomas Neumayr, Christine Ebner, Josef Altmann,
and Johann Heinzelreiter
The Relation of Proexploitation Attributes with Selected
Criterion of Agility of Public Transport Vehicles Manufacturing . . . . . 86
Joanna Kalkowska
Management System of Intelligent, Autonomous Environment
(IAEMS). The Methodological Approach to Designing
and Developing the Organizational Structure of IAEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Edmund Pawlowski and Krystian Pawlowski
Lean Manufacturing Model in a Make to Order Environment
in the Printing Sector in Peru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Adriana Becerra, Alessandro Villanueva, Víctor Núñez,
Carlos Raymundo, and Francisco Dominguez
The Influence of Macroenvironment Changes on Agility
of Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Stefan Trzcielinski
Agile Management Methods in an Enterprise Based
on Cloud Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Michal Trziszka
1 Introduction
whilst reducing security risks. Failure to adopt will affect the performance and future
capabilities of manufacturing companies [2]. Innovation in the nuclear manufacturing
industry is correctly mitigated by risk; therefore, the industry is slow to adopt new
technology capable of supporting the development of components used on-site for low
carbon power generation. Within the UK, investment is steadily ramping up to ensure
an augmented clean energy supply can fill the energy production void that fossil fuels
would otherwise occupy should deployment of renewable energy not meet the antic-
ipated power demand. By 2030 most existing (AGR) Advanced Gas Cooled reactors
within the UK will be retired [3] and subsequently decommissioned until 2097 [4].
Preparations to adapt and develop new technologies for deployment in the next gen-
eration of advanced reactors, which could potentially be operational by 2030, is
underway. However, who is actually going to make them? [5], Fig. 1.
as the weld form and layer build up. These manual welding procedures involve risks
such as heavy equipment handling, burns, toxic gas inhalation, ultraviolet and elec-
tromagnetic radiation which adversely affect the health of the human welders [7, 8].
Industrial accidents due to the risks mentioned above could represent costs related to
indemnification, medical cost, re-staffing and damage to the equipment [9]. Critical
human factors such as, the ageing workforce seeing retirement of these highly skilled
welders when combined with the length of recruitment and the long term learning
timescale required to produce new, skilled welding engineers within a declining
workforce must be taking into account as part of the reason for the development of
automated processes [10]. The ambition and vision of future high value manufacturing
industries, such as nuclear, involves the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies
which ensures short development periods, producing customisable components on
demand. In this case it requires adaptation to human needs, security, sustainability and
resource-efficiency [11]. To mimic and automate the welding and AM process, robotic
and computerised vision systems must be integrated to generate data and provide
feedback to control the welding or AM platform.
This project aims to produce a low-cost prototype that is capable of providing
welding and AM. The Smart Enabling Robotics driving Free Form Welding (SER-
FOW) concept is an automated welding cell which takes into account industrial
requirements and the human-centred approach design to eliminate risks and improve
the ergonomics of the process. This collaborative research project has been carried out
by i3D Robotics LTD (UK), the Shadow Robot Company Limited (UK) and The
University of Sheffield (UK) associating the nuclear industry demand with academic
knowledge and innovation. Development of new autonomous AM technologies, as
depicted here, adds flexibility with the rapid dynamic adaption of production tasks,
reducing the high financial penalties of more complex traditional systems.
2 Methodology
The work presented in this paper was focused on the development of automated
welding and AM cell designed from a technology-human perspective to improve
quality, efficiency, ergonomics, safety and security in the nuclear industry. This pro-
totype aims to mimic highly skilled fusion welding engineers by the integration of a 3D
vision system and a robotic manipulator, which can perform layer-by-layer AM by
means of automated fusion welding. The SERFOW cell is comprised of the following
components: the main structure, the robot arm and smart gripper, the welding power
source, 3D stereo vision and security system.
The main structure was made adaptable through the use of extruded aluminium
profile sections with T-slot channels to allow the flexible attachment of cameras,
sensors and other devices. Essential design points under consideration were to mini-
mum size, reduce floor space, providing flexibility for design adaptation in future use,
ergonomics and security. The Universal Robots UR-10 robot [12] arm and the Shadow
Robot Smart Grasping System SGS [13] were used to pick and place the work pieces
from the loading tray to the automated turn-table.
6 R. French et al.
The TIG welding system (wire feeder and torch) was automated by two linear
positioners in the X and Z axis. The safety system of the cell was designed according to
ISO 10218-2 required for industrial collaborative robots. It consisted of two start
buttons outside the welding and robot movements to ensure the security of the oper-
ators. Additionally, two of emergency or E-Stop buttons were installed.
Integration and assembly of the above-mentioned components with the innovative
3D stereo vision system developed by I3D robotics [14] is illustrated in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. SERFOW 3D CAD rendering: (1) aluminium structure, (2) robotic arm, (3) smart
grasper, (4) wire feeder, (5) torch, (6) turn-table, (7) “Z” and (8) “X” linear motor drives, (9) left-
hand, and (10) right-hand safety buttons.
The assembly, fusion welding, and AM layer build-up trials of this prototype were
performed in the Enabling Sciences for Intelligent Manufacturing Laboratory at the
University of Sheffield. The samples used for the welding and AM were made of 316L
Stainless Steel which represent elements found in the design of nuclear heat exchanger
manifolds, Fig. 3. A detailed explanation of the robotic, 3D stereo vision, welding and
security system are presented in the following sections of this paper.
Development of an Intelligent Robotic Additive 7
The six degrees-of-freedom UR10 robotic arm and the Shadow Robotics Smart
Grasper, SGS, were required to pick and place the representative work pieces from the
jig in the loading tray and deliver accurately to the automated rotary table.
The UR10 robotic arm is a collaborative robot that can withstand a payload mass of
10 kg; it can reach up to 1.3 m with a repeatable accuracy of 0.1 mm.
The Shadow Robotics Smart Grasper [15] system is a nine degrees-of-freedom
gripper that is modular, flexible, robust, cost-effective and can tolerate working in
radioactive environments [16, 17]. Its flexibility allows for the grasping of small and
large complex shapes and objects up to 2 kg weight. The modularity of the SGS system
offers a variety of configurations from two to three fingertips. In this development, a
two-fingertip configuration was used to grab the working piece with good dexterity as
Fig. 4 shows. The third fingertip was later used to stabilise the components during AM
operations. The UR10 robot arm and Shadow’s Smart Grasper are interfaced and
controlled by ROS-Industrial software [18]. The use of ROS-Industrial has allowed the
customisation of the inverse kinematics for manipulators. The coordinates acquired by
the I3D robotics 3D stereo vision system when scanning robot position, dictate the
location and movements meaning that manual programming was no longer needed.
Fig. 4. Shadow Robotics Smart Grasper system holding a work piece with three fingers.
Vision systems for industrial inspection and assembly are widely used in automated
manufacturing processes by identifying and processing images with a similar mecha-
nism as to what a human eye would use. The vision systems obtain the images and then
conduct both the processing and analysis of the image in order to provide accurate
feedback to the robotic system. This feedback will allow control over the required AM
and robotic path planning and trajectory parameters in order to improve the quality or
Development of an Intelligent Robotic Additive 9
security of the process. Additionally, the stereo vision obtains the 3D information from
the acquired images and matches the features between these images. Algorithms such
as [19] have been developed to overcome the commonly found “correspondence
problem” [20] by making a correlation between points in the image pairs.
Stereo images are usually rectified, such that corresponding features lie on the same
pixel line in each image [21]. Stereo vision utilises the fact that 3D points in space
project to distinct 2D pixel locations in images of the scene when acquired from two
different locations. The differences in pixel coordinates in the images allow recon-
struction of the 3D coordinates from the images. I3D Robotics (I3DR) proposed and
implemented an advanced 3D stereo vision camera system with auto-focus capabilities
to be used in this prototype. This system was focused on identification of the stainless
steel work-pieces for grasping, confirmation of grasp and part/torch location prior to
weld and welding feedback. This vision system was controlled by the Phobos and
PosCam systems [14].
Fig. 5. Image of blocks with different shapes, sizes and orientations obtained by the Phobos
camera, where the colour gradient indicates different height variations of the blocks.
10 R. French et al.
Fig. 6. (a) Phobos camera position within the SERFOW cell, (b) PosCam system comprised of
cameras A, B and C.
White form board walls enclose the component loading area and backlighting in
different angles was added to effectively control the highly reflective nature of the
metallic work-pieces or components.
Following the successful implementation of the lightbox for the loading area, the
Phobos system could reliably acquire the work-piece positional coordinate data.
A considerable amount of refinement to achieve the appropriate set-up and accurate
calibration was required.
Fig. 7. (a) 2D actual welding image, (b) 2D processed welding image and (c) 3D representation
of the welding image of the weld.
The integration and assembly of the subsystems described previously was successfully
performed. Welding trials on a 316L Stainless Steel samples were conducted as shown
in Fig. 8. This was to establish the correct fusion of additive filler with the work piece
and then later AM layering of material.
7 Conclusions
The welding process in high-value manufacturing industries such as those who produce
components for nuclear power plants, is largely dependent on human, manual welding
engineers because of the complexity of the components and design standardisation.
12 R. French et al.
Current barriers of adoption for automation are attributed to both the material cost, but
also the high labour cost of the human skilled workforce. The human–robot partici-
patory design approach to adopt technology capable of automation and minimising
human exposure to risks within the welding process has been fully accomplished in this
project.
During the build-up of weld filler layers or additive manufacturing, constant
monitoring by skilled welding engineers is needed to inspect the multiple arrays of
changing parameters during the AM and welding processes. The SERFOW design and
integration of the SGS end effector and six degrees of freedom collaborative robot with
the automatic welding and AM system, required the smart 3D stereo positional data to
function correctly. System performance evaluation and further analysis of the repli-
cation of highly skilled human welding engineers required a series of welding trials to
be conducted. The results of the welding trials have provided an accurate initial
assessment to demonstrate initial implementation and function of the SERFOW cell.
The data captured during the later trials have proved that the cell performed the
automatic welding and AM processes successfully, however subsequent improvement
of metallurgical performance in the added layers is required. The project has responded
partially to the desire for a lights out, Industry 4.0 factory of the future for high value
manufacturing, but has shown an easy to adopt methodology to include human input
without detriment to product output via collaborative automation and robotics.
Acknowledgments. The authors would like to thank Ben Crutchley from Industrial 3D
Robotics, Fotios Papadopoulos from Shadow Robotics company, Ben Kitchener, Kieren
Howarth and Samuel Edwards from the Enabling Sciences for Intelligent Manufacturing Lab-
oratory at the University of Sheffield for their help and their invaluable support.
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Manageable and Scalable Manufacturing IT
Through an App Based Approach
1 Introduction
THE morning of January 1, 1834, with its chilling wind and pinching
frost, quite in harmony with the winter in my own mind, found me,
with my little bundle of clothing on the end of a stick swung across
my shoulder, on the main road bending my way towards Covey’s,
whither I had been imperiously ordered by Master Thomas. He had
been as good as his word, and had committed me without reserve to
the mastery of that hard man. Eight or ten years had now passed
since I had been taken from my grandmother’s cabin in Tuckahoe;
and these years, for the most part, I had spent in Baltimore, where,
as the reader has already seen, I was treated with comparative
tenderness. I was now about to sound profounder depths in slave
life. My new master was notorious for his fierce and savage
disposition, and my only consolation in going to live with him was the
certainty of finding him precisely as represented by common fame.
There was neither joy in my heart nor elasticity in my frame as I
started for the tyrant’s home. Starvation made me glad to leave
Thomas Auld’s, and the cruel lash made me dread to go to Covey’s.
Escape, however, was impossible; so, heavy and sad, I paced the
seven miles which lay between his house and St. Michaels, thinking
much by the solitary way of my adverse condition. But thinking was
all I could do. Like a fish in a net, allowed to play for a time, I was
now drawn rapidly to the shore, secured at all points. “I am,” thought
I, “but the sport of a power which makes no account, either of my
welfare or my happiness. By a law which I can comprehend, but
cannot evade or resist, I am ruthlessly snatched from the hearth of a
fond grandmother and hurried away to the home of a mysterious old
master; again I am removed from there to a master in Baltimore;
thence am I snatched away to the eastern shore to be valued with
the beasts of the field, and with them divided and set apart for a
possessor; then I am sent back to Baltimore, and by the time I have
formed new attachments and have begun to hope that no more rude
shocks shall touch me, a difference arises between brothers and I
am again broken up and sent to St. Michaels; and now from the
latter place I am footing my way to the home of another master,
where I am given to understand that like a wild young working animal
I am to be broken to the yoke of a bitter and life-long bondage.” With
thoughts and reflections like these, I came in sight of a small wood-
colored building, about a mile from the main road, which, from the
description I had received at starting I easily recognized as my new
home. The Chesapeake bay, upon the jutting banks of which the little
wood-colored house was standing, white with foam raised by the
heavy northwest wind; Poplar Island, covered with a thick black pine
forest, standing out amid this half ocean; and Keat Point, stretching
its sandy, desert-like shores out into the foam-crested bay, were all in
sight, and served to deepen the wild and desolate scene.
The good clothes I had brought with me from Baltimore were
now worn thin, and had not been replaced; for Master Thomas was
as little careful to provide against cold as hunger. Met here by a
north wind, sweeping through an open space of forty miles, I was
glad to make any port, and, therefore, I speedily pressed on to the
wood-colored house. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Covey;
Mrs. Kemp (a broken-backed woman), sister to Mrs. Covey; William
Hughes, cousin to Mr. Covey; Caroline, the cook; Bill Smith, a hired
man, and myself. Bill Smith, Bill Hughes, and myself were the
working force of the farm, which comprised three or four hundred
acres. I was now for the first time in my life to be a field-hand; and in
my new employment I found myself even more awkward than a
green country boy may be supposed to be upon his first entrance
into the bewildering scenes of city life; and my awkwardness gave
me much trouble. Strange and unnatural as it may seem, I had been
in my new home but three days before Mr. Covey (my brother in the
Methodist church) gave me a bitter foretaste of what was in reserve
for me. I presume he thought that since he had but a single year in
which to complete his work, the sooner he begun, the better.
Perhaps he thought by coming to blows at once we should mutually
understand better our relations to each other. But to whatever
motive, direct or indirect, the cause may be referred, I had not been
in his possession three whole days before he subjected me to a
most brutal chastisement. Under his heavy blows blood flowed
freely, and wales were left on my back as large as my little finger.
The sores from this flogging continued for weeks, for they were kept
open by the rough and coarse cloth which I wore for shirting. The
occasion and details of this first chapter of my experience as a field-
hand, must be told, that the reader may see how unreasonable, as
well as how cruel, my new Master Covey was. The whole thing I
found to be characteristic of the man, and I was probably treated no
worse by him than scores of lads who had previously been
committed to him, for reasons similar to those which induced my
master to place me with him. But here are the facts connected with
the affair, precisely as they occurred.
On one of the coldest mornings of the whole month of January,
1834, I was ordered at daybreak to get a load of wood, from a forest
about two miles from the house. In order to perform this work, Mr.
Covey gave me a pair of unbroken oxen, for it seemed that his
breaking abilities had not been turned in that direction. In due form,
and with all proper ceremony, I was introduced to this huge yoke of
unbroken oxen, and was carefully made to understand which was
“Buck,” and which was “Darby,”—which was the “in hand,” and which
was the “off hand” ox. The master of this important ceremony was no
less a person than Mr. Covey himself; and the introduction was the
first of the kind I had ever had.
My life, hitherto, had been quite away from horned cattle, and I
had no knowledge of the art of managing them. What was meant by
the “in ox,” as against the “off ox,” when both were equally fastened
to one cart, and under one yoke, I could not very easily divine; and
the difference implied by the names, and the peculiar duties of each,
were alike Greek to me. Why was not the “off ox” called the “in ox?”
Where and what is the reason for this distinction in names, when
there is none in the things themselves? After initiating me into the
use of the “whoa,” “back,” “gee,” “hither,”—the entire language
spoken between oxen and driver,—Mr. Covey took a rope about ten
feet long and one inch thick, and placed one end of it around the
horns of the “in hand ox,” and gave the other end to me, telling me
that if the oxen started to run away (as the scamp knew they would),
I must hold on to the rope and stop them. I need not tell any one who
is acquainted with either the strength or the disposition of an
untamed ox, that this order was about as unreasonable as a
command to shoulder a mad bull. I had never driven oxen before,
and I was as awkward, as a driver, as it is possible to conceive. I
could not plead my ignorance to Mr. Covey; there was that in his
manner which forbade any reply. Cold, distant, morose, with a face
wearing all the marks of captious pride and malicious sternness, he
repelled all advances. He was not a large man—not more than five
feet ten inches in height, I should think; short-necked, round-
shouldered, of quick and wiry motion, of thin and wolfish visage, with
a pair of small, greenish-gray eyes, set well back under a forehead
without dignity, and which were constantly in motion, expressing his
passions rather than his thoughts, in sight but denying them
utterance in words. The creature presented an appearance
altogether ferocious and sinister, disagreeable and forbidding, in the
extreme. When he spoke, it was from the corner of his mouth, and in
a sort of light growl, like a dog, when an attempt is made to take a
bone from him. I already believed him a worse fellow than he had
been represented to be. With his directions, and without stopping to
question, I started for the woods, quite anxious to perform my first
exploit in driving in a creditable manner. The distance from the house
to the wood’s gate—a full mile, I should think—was passed over with
little difficulty: for, although the animals ran, I was fleet enough in the
open field to keep pace with them, especially as they pulled me
along at the end of the rope; but on reaching the woods, I was
speedily thrown into a distressing plight. The animals took fright, and
started off ferociously into the woods, carrying the cart full tilt against
trees, over stumps, and dashing from side to side in a manner
altogether frightful. As I held the rope I expected every moment to be
crushed between the cart and the huge trees, among which they
were so furiously dashing. After running thus for several minutes, my
oxen were finally brought to a stand by a tree, against which they
dashed themselves with great violence, upsetting the cart, and
entangling themselves among sundry young saplings. By the shock
the body of the cart was flung in one direction and the wheels and
tongue in another, and all in the greatest confusion. There I was, all
alone in a thick wood to which I was a stranger; my cart upset and
shattered, my oxen entangled, wild, and enraged, and I, poor soul,
but a green hand to set all this disorder right. I knew no more of oxen
than the ox-driver is supposed to know of wisdom.
After standing a few minutes, surveying the damage, and not
without a presentiment that this trouble would draw after it others,
even more distressing, I took one end of the cart body and, by an
extra outlay of strength, I lifted it toward the axle-tree, from which it
had been violently flung; and after much pulling and straining, I
succeeded in getting the body of the cart in its place. This was an
important step out of the difficulty, and its performance increased my
courage for the work which remained to be done. The cart was
provided with an ax, a tool with which I had become pretty well
acquainted in the ship-yard at Baltimore. With this I cut down the
saplings by which my oxen were entangled, and again pursued my
journey, with my heart in my mouth, lest the oxen should again take
it into their senseless heads to cut up a caper. But their spree was
over for the present, and the rascals now moved off as soberly as
though their behavior had been natural and exemplary. On reaching
the part of the forest where I had been the day before chopping
wood, I filled the cart with a heavy load, as a security against another
runaway. But the neck of an ox is equal in strength to iron. It defies
ordinary burdens. Tame and docile to a proverb, when well trained,
the ox is the most sullen and intractable of animals when but half
broken to the yoke. I saw in my own situation several points of
similarity with that of the oxen. They were property; so was I. Covey
was to break me—I was to break them. Break and be broken was
the order.
Half of the day was already gone and I had not yet turned my
face homeward. It required only two days’ experience and
observation to teach me that no such apparent waste of time would
be lightly overlooked by Covey. I therefore hurried toward home; but
in reaching the lane gate I met the crowning disaster of the day. This
gate was a fair specimen of southern handicraft. There were two
huge posts eighteen inches in diameter, rough hewed and square,
and the heavy gate was so hung on one of these that it opened only
about half the proper distance. On arriving here it was necessary for
me to let go the end of the rope on the horns of the “in hand ox;” and
now as soon as the gate was open and I let go of it to get the rope
again, off went my oxen, making nothing of their load, full tilt; and in
so doing they caught the huge gate between the wheel and the cart
body, literally crushing it to splinters, and coming only within a few
inches of subjecting me to a similar crushing, for I was just in
advance of the wheel when it struck the left gate post. With these
two hair-breadth escapes I thought I could successfully explain to Mr.
Covey the delay and avert punishment—I was not without a faint
hope of being commended for the stern resolution which I had
displayed in accomplishing the difficult task—a task which I
afterwards learned even Covey himself would not have undertaken
without first driving the oxen for some time in the open field,
preparatory to their going to the woods. But in this hope I was
disappointed. On coming to him his countenance assumed an
aspect of rigid displeasure, and as I gave him a history of the
casualties of my trip, his wolfish face, with his greenish eyes,
became intensely ferocious. “Go back to the woods again,” he said,
muttering something else about wasting time. I hastily obeyed, but I
had not gone far on my way when I saw him coming after me. My
oxen now behaved themselves with singular propriety, contrasting
their present conduct to my representation of their former antics. I
almost wished, now that Covey was coming, they would do
something in keeping with the character I had given them; but no,
they had already had their spree, and they could afford now to be
extra good, readily obeying orders, and seeming to understand them
quite as well as I did myself. On reaching the woods my tormentor,
who seemed all the time to be remarking to himself upon the good
behavior of the oxen, came up to me and ordered me to stop the
cart, accompanying the same with the threat that he would now
teach me how to break gates and idle away my time when he sent
me to the woods. Suiting the action to the words, Covey paced off, in
his own wiry fashion, to a large black gum tree, the young shoots of
which are generally used for ox goads, they being exceedingly
tough. Three of these goads, from four to six feet long, he cut off and
trimmed up with his large jack-knife. This done, he ordered me to
take off my clothes. To this unreasonable order I made no reply, but
in my apparent unconsciousness and inattention to this command I
indicated very plainly a stern determination to do no such thing. “If
you will beat me,” thought I, “you shall do so over my clothes.” After
many threats, which made no impression upon me, he rushed at me
with something of the savage fierceness of a wolf, tore off the few
and thinly worn clothes I had on, and proceeded to wear out on my
back the heavy goads which he had cut from the gum tree. This
flogging was the first of a series of floggings, and though very
severe, it was less so than many which came after it, and these for
offences far lighter than the gate-breaking.
I remained with Mr. Covey one year (I cannot say I lived with
him), and during the first six months that I was there I was whipped,
either with sticks or cow-skins, every week. Aching bones and a sore
back were my constant companions. Frequent as the lash was used,
Mr. Covey thought less of it as a means of breaking down my spirit
than that of hard and continued labor. He worked me steadily up to
the point of my powers of endurance. From the dawn of day in the
morning till the darkness was complete in the evening I was kept at
hard work in the field or the woods. At certain seasons of the year
we were all kept in the field till eleven and twelve o’clock at night. At
these times Covey would attend us in the field and urge us on with
words or blows, as it seemed best to him. He had, in his life, been an
overseer, and he well understood the business of slave-driving.
There was no deceiving him. He knew just what a man or boy could
do, and he held both to strict account. When he pleased he would
work himself like a very Turk, making everything fly before him. It
was, however, scarcely necessary for Mr. Covey to be really present
in the field to have his work go on industriously. He had the faculty of
making us feel that he was always present. By a series of adroitly
managed surprises which he practiced, I was prepared to expect him
at any moment. His plan was never to approach the spot where his
hands were at work in an open, manly, and direct manner. No thief
was ever more artful in his devices than this man Covey. He would
creep and crawl in ditches and gullies, hide behind stumps and
bushes, and practice so much of the cunning of the serpent, that Bill
Smith and I, between ourselves, never called him by any other name
than “the snake.” We fancied that in his eyes and his gait we could
see a snakish resemblance. One half of his proficiency in the art of
negro-breaking consisted, I should think, in this species of cunning.
We were never secure. He could see or hear us nearly all the time.
He was to us behind every stump, tree, bush, and fence on the
plantation. He carried this kind of trickery so far that he would
sometimes mount his horse and make believe he was going to St.
Michaels, and in thirty minutes afterwards you might find his horse
tied in the woods, and the snake-like Covey lying flat in the ditch with
his head lifted above its edge, or in a fence-corner, watching every
movement of the slaves. I have known him walk up to us and give us
special orders as to our work in advance, as if he were leaving home
with a view to being absent several days, and before he got half way
to the house he would avail himself of our inattention to his
movements to turn short on his heel, conceal himself behind a fence
corner or a tree, and watch us until the going down of the sun. Mean
and contemptible as is all this, it is in keeping with the character
which the life of a slaveholder was calculated to produce. There was
no earthly inducement in the slave’s condition to incite him to labor
faithfully. The fear of punishment was the sole motive of any sort of
industry with him. Knowing this fact as the slaveholder did, and
judging the slave by himself, he naturally concluded that the slave
would be idle whenever the cause for this fear was absent. Hence all
sorts of petty deceptions were practiced to inspire fear.
But with Mr. Covey trickery was natural. Everything in the shape
of learning or religion which he possessed was made to conform to
this semi-lying propensity. He did not seem conscious that the
practice had anything unmanly, base, or contemptible about it. It was
a part of an important system with him, essential to the relation of
master and slave. I thought I saw, in his very religious devotions, this
controlling element of his character. A long prayer at night made up
for a short prayer in the morning, and few men could seem more
devotional than he when he had nothing else to do.
Mr. Covey was not content with the cold style of family worship
adopted in the cold latitudes, which begin and end with a simple
prayer. No! the voice of praise as well as of prayer must be heard in
his house night and morning. At first I was called upon to bear some
part in these exercises; but the repeated floggings given me turned
the whole thing into mockery. He was a poor singer, and mainly
relied on me for raising the hymn for the family, and when I failed to
do so he was thrown into much confusion. I do not think he ever
abused me on account of these vexations. His religion was a thing
altogether apart from his worldly concerns. He knew nothing of it as
a holy principle directing and controlling his daily life, making the
latter conform to the requirements of the gospel. One or two facts will
illustrate his character better than a volume of generalities.
I have already implied that Mr. Edward Covey was a poor man.
He was, in fact, just commencing to lay the foundation of his fortune,
as fortune was regarded in a slave state. The first condition of wealth
and respectability there being the ownership of human property,
every nerve was strained by the poor man to obtain it, with little
regard sometimes as to the means. In pursuit of this object, pious as
Mr. Covey was, he proved himself as unscrupulous and base as the
worst of his neighbors. In the beginning he was only able—as he
said—“to buy one slave;” and scandalous and shocking as is the
fact, he boasted that he bought her simply “as a breeder.” But the
worst of this is not told in this naked statement. This young woman
(Caroline was her name) was virtually compelled by Covey to
abandon herself to the object for which he had purchased her; and
the result was the birth of twins at the end of the year. At this addition
to his human stock Covey and his wife were ecstatic with joy. No one
dreamed of reproaching the woman or of finding fault with the hired