“accepted societal mores of the day.”
BS most people in the even 1800s knew the property argument was BS, ratioalization of convenience.
BS yourself. The "1800's" were a period of transition. But from the first time "Ug" clonked "Og" over the head and took him home to scrape mammoth skin until the 1800's, slaves WERE considered property, a period of tens of thousands of years. In the 1800's the tide began to turn against slavery, but to say "most people" were against it is simply to ignore facts.