The theory of rigid coercion and complete exploitation was as strange to the bulk of the planters as the doctrine and practice of moderation was to those who viewed the regime from afar and with the mind’s eye.  A planter in explaining his mildness might well have said it was due to his being neither a knave nor a fool He refrained from the use of fetters not so much because they would have hampered the slaves in their work as because the general use of them never crossed his mind.  And since chains and bolts were out of the question, the whole system of control must be moderate; slaves must be impelled as little as possible by fear, and as much as might be by loyalty, pride and the prospect of reward.

Here and there a planter applied this policy in an exceptional degree.  A certain Z. Kingsley followed it with marked success even when his whole force was of fresh Africans.  In a pamphlet of the late eighteen-twenties he told of his method as follows:  “About twenty-five years ago I settled a plantation on St. John’s River in Florida with about fifty new negroes, many of whom I brought from the Coast myself.  They were mostly fine young men and women, and nearly in equal numbers.  I never interfered in their connubial concerns nor domestic affairs, but let them regulate these after their own manner.  I taught them nothing but what was useful, and what I thought would add to their physical and moral happiness.  I encouraged as much as possible dancing, merriment and dress, for which Saturday afternoon and night and Sunday morning were dedicated. [Part of their leisure] was usually employed in hoeing their corn and getting a supply of fish for the week.  Both men and women were very industrious.  Many of them made twenty bushels of corn to sell, and they vied with each other in dress and dancing....  They were perfectly honest and obedient, and appeared perfectly happy, having no fear but that of offending me; and I hardly ever had to apply other correction than shaming them.  If I exceeded this, the punishment was quite light, for they hardly ever failed in doing their work well.  My object was to excite their ambition and attachment by kindness, not to depress their spirits by fear and punishment....  Perfect confidence, friendship and good understanding reigned between us.”  During the War of 1812 most of these negroes were killed or carried off in a Seminole raid.  When peace returned and Kingsley attempted to restore his Eden with a mixture of African and American negroes, a serpent entered in the guise of a negro preacher who taught the sinfulness of dancing, fishing on Sunday and eating the catfish which had no scales.  In consequence the slaves “became poor, ragged, hungry and disconsolate.  To steal from me was only to do justice—­to take what belonged to them, because I kept them in unjust bondage.”  They came to believe “that all pastime or pleasure in this iniquitous world was sinful; that this was only a place of sorrow and repentance, and the sooner