[PJeffQ]

I know it was real...

and I know that liberals who are moral relativists on every other issue under the sun always point out the wrongness of slavery universally (where are they on the other issues they insist on considering the context)?

You didn't answer whether "negros" is a term you use in conversation... or whether you lifted that paragraph from an older document on the web?

[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.