Slaves had no real autonomy. 'Autonomy' is the right of self-governance and self-determination, which can never really be granted to someone who is regarded as property.
That said, some slaves did have more freedoms than others. This was especially true in states, such as Kentucky and Virginia (before Nat Turner's 1831 rebellion) where conditions for slaves were less harsh than in the Deep South. Turner provides a good example of the relative freedom that some...
Slaves had no real autonomy. 'Autonomy' is the right of self-governance and self-determination, which can never really be granted to someone who is regarded as property.
That said, some slaves did have more freedoms than others. This was especially true in states, such as Kentucky and Virginia (before Nat Turner's 1831 rebellion) where conditions for slaves were less harsh than in the Deep South. Turner provides a good example of the relative freedom that some slaves had. Turner was unique, due to his reputation as a slave preacher. Therefore, he was allowed to go to other plantations to proselytize. He was also allowed to take walks off of the plantation by himself. Some slaves were allowed to do this, though doing so required a written pass from one's owner to present to slave patrollers.
Slaves were sometimes also allowed small plots of land to garden. Some were taught to read and given permission to read, despite the fact that this was illegal and largely frowned upon by neighboring slave owners. They feared the dissemination of information to their own slaves.
Free blacks in the South were granted their freedom by their former owners. The slave system was one in which whites entirely determined the parameters of black people's lives -- how much "freedom" they could have as slaves and whether or not they could be truly free at all. There is no real autonomy in such a system.
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