While slavery is obviously wrong it was never in the best interests of a master to treat a slave badly. Sure there were incidents of mistreatment but it was by no means standard practice.
In some ways, slavery was a form of bondage for the owners as well. They were very valuable collateral at a time when men could go to debtor’s prison for failing to pay their debts.
James Armistead (Lafayette) was a slave who was a patriot spy under Lafayette who spied on Benedict Arnold after Arnold joined the British and he also fed false info to Cornwallis. After the war when slaves who had served were freed, Armistead was not freed because the law didn’t include spies. His owner William Armistead couldn’t free him because he would be jailed and James would become the property of someone else.
It wasn’t until the Marquis de Lafayette returned to America in 1824 that he found James Armistead still a slave. Lafayette (with the support of William Armistead who was a delegate) wrote a letter to the house of delegates asking for the release of James Armistead. Armistead took the name Lafayette to honor the Marquis.
It is interesting to note that the British enticed slaves to escape their masters and fight for the British, promising them freedom in return. (Dunmore’s Proclamation)
Then, they completely reneged on that promise after they used them, badly, as cannon fodder and such, and used loopholes to get them enslaved again, sending them to plantations in the Caribbean, etc.
This is not to diminish the actions of England in helping to stamp out slavery, who led the way in the West.
I have come round to the opinion that a very large percentage of the population is perfectly okay with slavery, just so long as you don't call it slavery and hide the ugly parts of it from them.
This business of taxes, for example. Most Democrats and Most Fed Gov employees (but I repeat myself) believe they are perfectly entitled to take the fruits of labor of another man against his will, and spend it on whatever they think is best, especially when it is themselves.
No, slavery is alive and well, it just goes by a different name, and is kinder and gentler, but the idea of forcing others to work so that you may reap the benefit of their efforts, well, that Idea is very popular in Modern America.
“Sure there were incidents of mistreatment but it was by no means standard practice”
Very true. It may sound harsh, but would a farmer today take a sledge hammer to a brand new tractor if it malfunctioned? A slave was much more expensive, comparatively speaking.