Imagine you are the oldest son of a large plantation owner in South Carolina, 1840. Thousands of acres of land, lots of livestock, and, say, a hundred slaves ("enslaved people"). They send you to Harvard for a "top notch" education, and you become convinced that Slavery is morally unacceptable. Completing your education, you go back home and start your life, learning to run the plantation from your father and others. You are appalled by the way the slaves are treated, especially by your white employed overseers, but you don't want to make major waves, so you go along to get along.
You lack the power and influence to impact the treatment of your human chattels, but in 1850, your father dies, and you are the sole heir. How do you deal with the moral dilemma? Imagine that you believe that ultimately, in your lifetime, slavery will be abolished, either by a war or by Constitutional Amendment, or otherwise. It is inevitable.
Consider the following:
I don't think it would be possible to do anything significant without the support of a relatively educated Negro, probably from one of the non-slave states. It is likely that a search for such a person would end up with a clergyman of one kind or another.
Thoughts?
You lack the power and influence to impact the treatment of your human chattels, but in 1850, your father dies, and you are the sole heir. How do you deal with the moral dilemma? Imagine that you believe that ultimately, in your lifetime, slavery will be abolished, either by a war or by Constitutional Amendment, or otherwise. It is inevitable.
Consider the following:
- If you do anything overtly to improve the lot of your slaves, you will become a pariah, and could even be subjected to verbal and other forms of harassment.
- Whatever scorn you earn for yourself will also be heaped upon your living relatives who live on the plantation.
- The slaves are all illiterate and have no ability to do even basic arithmetic. To teach them formally would be a crime.
- At the time, the slaves are worth, say, a couple thousand dollars each (on average); when emancipated they are worth nothing.
- The slaves may not own real estate or other significant assets, including livestock.
- If you emancipate the slaves they will all likely leave, leaving you with a plantation and no one to keep it running.
- The plantation probably does not generate enough cash income to convert the slaves into wage-earning workers, and replacing slaves with "white" workers, even Irishmen, would not be feasible.
- None of the slaves have legal surnames, which you think is essential to their future.
I don't think it would be possible to do anything significant without the support of a relatively educated Negro, probably from one of the non-slave states. It is likely that a search for such a person would end up with a clergyman of one kind or another.
Thoughts?