Planters felt the uprising as betrayal because trusted slaves revolted too.

Evidence

Stories about insurgent slaves saving white masters powerfully highlighted the drama of a world turned upside down, and raised the question of how the contorted human relationships developed in slavery would be transformed in a new context. Having long justified slavery as a relatively benign system, and taken comfort in the relations of kindness and charity they imagined they had with certain privileged slaves, many planters were shocked by the sudden transformation of these men and women into dangerous enemies. What made the “horrors” of the insurrection even worse was the betrayal of especially trusted slaves such as drivers and domestics. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 384

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the reader’s earlier work on the moral panics around status inversion in ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ — same underlying shock at those expected to serve suddenly claiming agency.