I would like to know how many were actually abused. One of my best friends was beaten by her father...and we’re talking a little white girl from a good family in the days when whipping /spanking was still tolerated. I’m talking the 1950s. Our country wasn’t always rich...and whitey did more than their fair share.
Some years back I tried to find out the answer to this question. Whenever the topic comes up, people always drag out this one picture of a slave with a whipped back. I tried to find more such pictures.
Turns out to be rather difficult. I think I found at least one other, but not many more.
So later I found out that this guy was picked just to be used for propaganda at the time. An anti-slavery group distributed copies of this same guy all over the country in an effort to build up opposition to slavery.
But was this typical? The evidence seems to say "no." This was an aberration. Slaves were valuable, and no one would make a point to whip them anymore than they would whip a horse. Those who did were as sadistic as someone who would whip a horse. Abnormal.
The importation of slaves was banned in 1808. The owners needed to take care of their slaves as they were only getting new ones in the children the slaves bore.
Meanwhile, in the Caribbean Islands, the slaves died by the millions, lasting maybe a year before they were literally worked to death. Shiploads of fresh slaves to replace them were still coming.