Syl,
Far more tragic than the rags on their bodies is the deep anxiety on these little boys' faces.
I am always filled with disgust when I hear slavery dismissed with this: Well, but they were fed, clothed and sheltered--who did that for the poor whites?
For years I wondered what the clergy thought of this situation--what did they say to their church people?
It lead me to years of research and the reading of the slave narratives and interviews that are available. The WPA Ex-slave interviews you have to read between the lines sometimes--the old people in those days, the 1930's--had no reason to trust a white person with a pad and paper to do them any good. So the talk was scant but often very telling anyway.
Some years back I screwed up my courage and emptied my pocket to by a book by the 2nd Episcopal bishop of your great state ,Alabama. His name was Richard Wilmer and he was bishop during the Civil War. Oh, he was like a member of the JW Governing Body to explain away all your concerns about the abuse of black slaves. Smooth as butter. Rancid butter.
"The father has eaten sour grapes ; the children's teeth are set on edge." Jeremiah 31:29 mentions the old proverb to say that it will not be in force with God. He wasn't talking about slavery, but I think how reluctant this country was to allow fair, only FAIR, treatment for thre children of slaves. In fact, reading the hidden events and the open policies that continue to slyly overturn the lives of black people, that verse describes attitudes embedded in our culture in ways so insidious that only the love of God--not even politics--can overthrow.