or who allowed their slaves too much freedom.59 Finally, legislators did not impose legal constraints upon slave owners’ powers to abuse, punish, and kill their slaves out of concern for enslaved people’s well-being. They did so in order to preserve the interests of relatives who would inherit their estates and would suffer if the property was squandered. If abuse and destruction did not threaten to deprive heirs of their rightful inheritances, courts might acquit a slave owner who killed.60
Dang
