Interesting account of one former slave’s personal experience. Educated with the master’s family, went to church with the master and even stolen and taken to another plantation only to run away and return to the original master.
http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/html/pagecc75.html?ID=13935
Obviously all accounts weren’t so benign.
http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/html/mss/gr7999.html
My family on my mother’s side owned slaves. My great, great grandfather freed his the day of the emancipation. Most chose to stay. They had been a part of the family and its what they had known.
I take this from The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A Nation (her autobiography).
Interesting stuff.