In the era, “spare the rod, spoil the child” was considered good advice. If that’s how even loved ones were treated … slaves treated well? Press X to doubt.
There’s actually a lot of scholarship about how Southern plantation owners developed their child rearing philosophy on a misunderstanding of the Roman patriarchy combined with their newfangled “scientific racism,” conflating the discipline expected for both children and slaves.
The US south treated their slaves well. Even in high school, I was like “mmmm you suuuure about that?”
In the era, “spare the rod, spoil the child” was considered good advice. If that’s how even loved ones were treated … slaves treated well? Press X to doubt.
Yeah, think about how many men already get drunk and beat the shit out of their wives. The person they supposedly love the most.
Now imagine if they had a slave to take it out on instead.
There’s actually a lot of scholarship about how Southern plantation owners developed their child rearing philosophy on a misunderstanding of the Roman patriarchy combined with their newfangled “scientific racism,” conflating the discipline expected for both children and slaves.
I was fed the line that NORTHERNERS treated their slaves well.
I have been reading through this book on the matter: The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14894629-the-half-has-never-been-told
The descriptions of violence toward slaves is heavily discussed and is quite eye-opening to me, since this is not the version I was taught in school!
Compared to how other slaves were treated around the world, this is relatively true.