Notice that I said "almost".
And just for the record to those unfamiliar with Brookline...it's a nearby suburb of Boston that is an absolute cesspool of ultra rich Maoists....a cellpool that would give San Francisco,Berkeley,Madison or the Upper East Side of Manhattan a run for its money in terms of the putrid stench it emits.
The Tank Commander (Mike Dukakis) was once the Chairman of Brookline's Town Council.
it's not difficult to believe that some slave "owners" treated their "property" better than others.
I read in a footnote once about a slave owner who tried to follow Mosaic law in dealing with his slaves. Meaning he gave slaves the right to earn their own money and thus to work their way to freedom, and when he released them, he gave them a stake to start up new lives. He freed slaves who were permanently injured in the same way (meaning, obviously, that he would not resort to the mutilation some slaveowners used to inspire fear or to trap people). He wouldn't separate slaves who were married, and if the husband had worked his way to freedom, he wouldn't sell the wife to anyone by her husband. And so on.
His neighbors could never figure out why his slaves were so happy and worked so hard.
Then there's Phillis Wheatley, who is shamefully neglected because, while she certainly opposed slavery, she also wrote poems praising God for her salvation through the despised practice -- "Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land." Phyllis had no problem in seeing her situation as being like that of Israel's son Joseph, who pointed out to his brothers that God can use the evil acts of man to do good. Her position is only murky or confusing for people who are convinced that good people only do good things, or that no one can recover from evil that has been done to them.
Demonizing slave owners just encourages kids to buy into the whole "we are superior to our ancestors and don't make mistakes like that" idea, when it's actually a strong lesson that even generally good people can buy into the cruelties of their own culture. The Stanford Prison Experiment and related studies make it pretty clear that we are all vulnerable to being blinded by authoritarian systems into doing things we never imagined ourselves capable of, and that being aware of that possibility is the best defense against falling into it.