Even benevolent-slavery reform ideas threatened enslavers who feared baptized slaves suing

Evidence

Baxter naïvely believed there existed in bulk in the slave trade what he called a “voluntary-slave.” He tried to will into existence a world where loving masters bought voluntary slaves to save their souls. Baxter’s world remained a heavenly dream crafted long ago by Gomes Eanes de Zurara. But even that dream world was seen as a threat by enslavers. American enslavers were still afraid to baptize Africans, because Christian slaves, like Elizabeth Key, could sue for their freedom. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 115

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘voluntary-slave’ concept and the legal fear of baptism point to a test case for Kendi’s scheme: here an idea (Christianization) does seem to precede or threaten policy (slavery), complicating the strict policy-before-ideas inversion.