Proposal to arm the slaves by Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, CSA

My guess is that lots of slave owners would have met an early death had their slaves been armed. We will never know, we can only speculate. I am more sure that lots of overseers and patty rollers would have met an early death.

 

Why would it be?

Brutality is brutality, whether a hands-on master in the fields brutalizes you himself, or hires an overseer to do so.

 

You're presenting a false dichotomy: brutal masters and 'masters that worked in the fields with his [sic] slaves'.

 

I'm saying you're presenting a false dichotomy: brutal masters and 'masters that worked in the fields with his [sic] slaves'.

Were you intending to contrast brutal masters and non-brutal masters?

 

For sake of clarity let's say brutal versus non-brutal. There is probably some truth in your statement. We will never know for sure.

I am not sure what behavior would be recognized as non-brutal. The slave holders who were rich enough to have overseers might have been in danger even if they were not brutal as often, at least from my readings, the overseers were the really bad guys.

For those who owned one or two slaves, they had to work alongside their slaves. I expect they were not brutal as they had so much of their resources invested in the one or two slaves it was in their, the owners, best interest to treat them well and keep them healthy.

I wonder if anyone has conducted a Ph.D. study on the treatment of slaves by various sized farms and plantations?

Regardless, IMHO, slavery was a completely indefensible institution in our history.