I never understood the slave defending or excusing or deflecting on Free Republic.
You are ignoring history.
It is a fact, and relevant, that American slavery was some of the most humane in that period of history.
It is a fact that most people who became slaves would have been killed if they were not made slaves, as they were captured in warfare.
The alternative, in the period being discussed, was not slavery v. no slavery. It was slavery where the slaves were treated well enough to reproduce, v. slavery where they were worked to death, as they tended to be in Brazil or under Muslim slavery, where black Africans left very few descendants. It was slavery or death for the people enslaved in the African tribal wars.
These facts are relevant to the discussion of the history of American slavery, because they put the "peculiar institution" in context.
The Left would have us believe slavery was created by Americans.
It wasn't. It was Americans who were part of the near elimination of slavery in the second half of the 19th century, though it is now staging a comeback in Islamic lands and in Africa.
My son had to write an “argumentative” paper back in High School. He figured the most challenging one would be about why slavery in America was good.
I thought he was nuts.
The paper was VERY interesting. Not that slavery was “good”, but he emphasized on how in America it was so much better than anywhere else. IIRC, in the the early 1800’s we passed a law that prevented the importation of new slaves. So the owners had to take good care of their existing slaves.
In the Caribbean the average life-span was a year or two.
He also made some really good arguments on how the Civil War (and the South’s loss) was bad for the slaves. It was on the decline and would have been better for the slaves if slavery had just died a “natural” death rather than the war. I forget now what those arguments were - but it made sense at the time.
He ended up getting an “A” on the paper.