[Sparticle]

I don't doubt that small slaveowning families MAY have been "kinder and gentler" just as some Roman slaves (in the days when household needs were manufactured right at home) were far better off than many of their peasant neighbors. But the death rates on the sugar colonies are horrifying to anyone, and were certainly not a result of daily face-to-face interactions with slaves. Surely the larger the plantation, the greater the degradation.

[PJeffQ]

You apparently are putting words in my mouth... or attributing thoughts to me that I have not had...