A slaveholder’s documented kindness toward elderly enslaved people clashes with his family separation decisions.

Evidence

Everything else in that document was so inhumane, this sudden moment of kindness stood out. How could he separate a child from her mother and father, but then ask his heirs to treat the elderly with kindness? I was puzzled by that. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 384

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why did Taylor include the ‘families be kept together’ and ‘old and infirm’ kindness clause in the same will that separated children from parents — legal window-dressing, genuine sentiment, or a recorded norm whose breach was the real practice?