Final answer:
Edward Covey played a significant role in the slave community as a slave driver and negro-breaker known for his harsh and oppressive methods. Covey's actions, underpinned by his reputation and professed religiosity, exemplified the cruelty and hypocrisy within the institution of American slavery.
Step-by-step explanation:
Edward Covey was known among the slave community as a notorious negro-breaker and slave driver. His role was essentially to break the spirits and resistance of young slaves, enforcing strict discipline and a sense of subservience. He employed severe methods, including deception and surprise attacks to keep slaves constantly on guard and fearful, thereby maintaining control. Covey's reputation for being able to 'break' slaves was such that slave owners would send their slaves to him for this specific purpose. Despite being a professor of religion and a class-leader in the Methodist church, his brutal methods stood in stark contrast to the principles of the religion he professed to follow, highlighting the hypocrisy of religious slaveholders during this period.
It is important to note that Covey's practices were not uncommon during the era of American slavery, and his actions and the system he was a part of contributed to the perpetuation of the cycle of abuse and oppression that the slave community had to endure. His role in the slave community was one of fear and brutality, an enforcer of the slave system that sought to strip enslaved people of their dignity and humanity.