Slaves drew a distinction between loyalty to master and to master’s manager

Evidence

Slaves sometimes protested, as did Philipeau, and one group of slaves on a sugar plantation in the south declared in creole to an official: “We know we have to work for our master on his plantation, but we don’t have to work on our manager’s plantation.” But it took courage to complain, for masters were all too likely to take the word of a manager over that of a slave, and a manager who discovered such complaints had little to restrain him from inflicting brutal punishment. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 136

Categorization

• QUESTION: This creole declaration reveals slaves asserting a kind of moral-legal claim against managers — worth tracing how such distinctions later fed revolutionary demands for rights.