How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

by Clint Smith

“Number one question [we get from white visitors]: ‘I know slavery was bad…I don’t mean it this way, but…were there any good slave owners?’” Yvonne took another deep breath, the frustration from thinking about the persistence of the question visible in her face—the look of someone professionally committed to patience but personally exhausted by the emotional toll it has taken on her. “I really give a short but nuanced answer to that,” she said. “Regardless of how these individuals fed the people that they owned, regardless of how they clothed them, regardless of if they never laid a hand on them, they were still sanctioning the system…You can’t say, ‘Hey, this person kidnapped your child, but they fed them well. They were a good person.’ How absurd does that sound?”