Defense counsel framed slaveholding as benevolent rescue of the enslaved

Evidence

Shawarbi Pasha’s lawyer exploited the sensitivity of this issue when he asked, in his summary argument before the court, “What guilt is there for the man who takes the kidnapped from misery to happiness, from hunger to ease of life, replacing their ragged clothes with beautiful robes, supporting them with money, treating them with the kindness that both his religion and his sense of humanity dictate to him? He does not buy them for trade, or for profit.” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 711

Categorization

• XREF: Recalls the paternalistic rescue framing also used by British imperialists—opposing sides of the slavery debate shared a rescue rhetoric. — connects to: Biblical master-slave duties were framed as protective guardianship — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 240