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Re-Colonial American Slavery

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The question on how slaves were actually treated by re- revolutionary English colony masters brings some turmoil into play. Slavery gained importance in the English colonies when there was an increasing need for labor but unluckily for some slaves, certain masters were a bit gentler than others. When we first think about slavery, our reaction is always negative. And, although that is probably the best reaction to have overall, we have to realize not all slaves were treated poorly. Just like there is good and bad people in the world now, it was the same back then. We do have evidence of savage slave owners, but we also have evidence of slaves sticking up for their masters. Seems weird, right? The kind of work slaves did varied from house …show more content…

When the Stono Rebellion started in South Carolina, slaves were not messing around when they got the chance to kill a slave owner. However, some of the slaves actions shows us some sympathy towards the lives of certain masters. Once the slaves headed out, they passed Mr. Wallaces Tavern but said, “They would not hurt him, for he was a good man and kind to his slaves.” (Anonymous, description of the Stono Rebellion, pg. 69, left column.) It seems weird to me in any case that when a slave got the chance to kill a slave owner, that he would pass it up since the master was “kind to his slaves.” Who cares! Right? Not exactly. The slaves knew at this point slavery is what is it and there is not much they could do about it other than rebel. But, with that being said, they did notice when masters were kind to them or their acquaintances considering it did not happen often. An even stranger occurrence of this was when a slave actually stopped the other slaves from killing his master; “they marched on towards Mr. Rose’s resolving to kill him; but he was saved by a Negro, who having hid him and went out and pacified the others.” (Anonymous, description of the Stono Rebellion, pg. 69, left column.) All of the slaves rebelling did not find Mr. Rose deserving of his life and planned on killing him, so why was his own slave the one to save his life? This shows us the type of positive relationship that is sometimes hidden when talking about

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