Such a long reaction to a mild suggestion that it might not be wise to extrapolate, from white (not black) stories passed down through generations, that most slaves felt great affection for their masters. I cited the obvious that field slaves on large plantations might never have any personal contact or opportunity to “love” their owner. If we, for the sake of argument, jettison the generally accepted statistics on slave distribution for those you prefer done with 4th grade math, then most slaves lived on small farms (not plantations) and knew their owners (whole family) very well, giving much greater opportunity for mutual love and affection. Thousands, however, ran to Union lines anytime a Union army came anywhere near (to the annoyance of Union commanders) and 100,000 of them were willing to join the Union Army and shoot at their former owners. My statistics are kinder to slave owners.

As to the other topics you introduced: I agree, it is unusual to find articles opposing slavery. Censorship in the South worked pretty well. I’m sorry you have experienced such poor schools. (I was taught about Lincoln’s racism and about northern views on slavery and race in schools both in the North and South.) Perhaps you also have a different method of doing math percentages. That the average number of slaves per slave holding household in Alabama was five (even if correct) would not usually mean that “half the people who owned slaves in that state had one to five slaves.” As to the TN Civil War Questionnaires, the majority of those veterans who responded 50+ years after the war ended were from non-slave holding families, as would be expected, since three fourths southerners did not own slaves. Some slave owners do say they worked along side their slaves. Other respondents say that the ones that owned slaves did not work. Guess there were some Tarlton twins in Tennessee after all. Peace.