William K. Scarborough

University of Southern Mississippi professor William K. Scarborough is the author of The Overseer: Plantation Management in the Old South and Masters of the Big House: The Elite Slaveholders of the Mid–Nineteenth Century South. In the following viewpoint, first published in 1976, Scarborough contends that some historians have depicted slave life in too harsh a manner. Scarborough agrees that slavery was deplorable and dehumanizing, but also notes that slave owners of the Old South had lived with the institution all their lives and did not see it as an evil. He cites evidence from the historical record to show that many masters treated their slaves with kindness and were mindful of slaves’ health and well-being. For example, Scarborough notes that slaves were granted regular holidays, and on some plantations they received medical...