How did Southerners think about slaves?

Piedone

Sergeant
Joined
Oct 8, 2020
Having learned a lot from this forum and having read more than once about those atrocious acts that happened quite often on plantations left me indeed shocked. On the other hand I read also 19th century books or letters written by Southerners which sometimes left a impression on me that the authors must have been literate, sensible and intelligent persons.

Now how to make heads and tails out of that?
It seems quite out of the question that ALL Southerners should have acclaimed ALL of those atrocious acts that could happen in a slavery system.
But it would seem also unreasonable to believe that they never heard about whippings and floggings and the breaking up of families etc.
And it should be regarded that with an increasing aggressive atmosphere it must have been difficult to express doubt or criticism on slavery in the South (even if people would have felt that way).

Hence I´d like to ask:

Can we detect how Southerners then thought about slaves / the life of slaves
- beyond a mere propagandistic debate they pursued to vindicate the system to Northerners?

I presume there should have been different milieus (Louisiana, Upper South, cities, areas with a high plantation density....)?
I presume it should have made a difference if they talked about servants or about workers on plantations?
 
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