"Weary Clyburn was best friends with his master’s son, Frank. When Frank left the plantation to fight in the Civil War, Clyburn followed him."
"He fought alongside Frank and even saved his life on two occasions."
Typical yankee response. You guys have one version of antebellum South and that is of beatings, rape, inhumane labor, lynchings, etc.
It just doesn't fit your narrow minded views that blacks and whites were actually getting along just fine.
Answer this; once Weary was on the front lines, why didn't he run over to the yankees to be 'saved' from the terrible bondage and beatings that he must have been getting on a daily basis?
Did I say he was beaten? I said he had no free choice. That's what slavery is, by definition. The removal of free choice from a human.
Perhaps the "good master" is kind and asks the slave what he would prefer to do. If so, the asking of opinion and the granting or not of the slave's wish is still the master's choice. It can be revoked at his whim with no recourse to the slave.
Even when the slave loves his master, which many down through history indisputably have, there can be no argument that their free will, the indispensable characteristic of a fully human person, has been stolen from them.
"Weary Clyburn was best friends with his master’s son, Frank.
Quite possibly a true statement, although it would have been a rare southerner who would have publicly claimed a slave or any black man as his best friend. The southern obsession with keeping them in their place was with regard to intimations of social equality, not physical contact.
When Frank left the plantation to fight in the Civil War, Clyburn followed him.
Was Weary a true volunteer? Was it possible for Weary to be a true volunteer? If Frank told him to go to war, could he decide to stay on the plantation? If Frank told him to stay home, could he decide to follow Frank anyway? Was it possible for Weary to make a free choice about anything in his life?