Slaves as well often regarded the farms and homes as theirs, in interest since not in possession. The white folk were ‘their people’. They could criticize their white folk, but you better not.
When I was in grade school our janitor asked us about some Civil War site we had visited. He was about 60, I suppose, and he proudly informed us that his mother as a young girl had been one of Mrs Robert E Lee’s house maids. He valued his connection to that family and to American history.
Find a copy of Weevils in the Wheat, interviews conducted in the 30s with elderly blacks who had lived as slaves in their youth. Most people would be surprised at what they had to say. Today’s south-haters wouldn’t like the book at all, there’s almost none of the vitriol they possess.
I know. History has been so misconstrued. But you would be called racist just for qouting those old black people in that book.