Kindness and Slavery

These primary sources shows details of kindness and compassion from the master to his slaves. This is shown through comment the master makes when talking about how he perceives them as men and they live under the same roof. This means that some men valued their slaves, and saw them as someone who was doing hard work, and therefore should be looked after and treated well. Most slaves in the city were treated better as they were owned by the rich, and used as teachers and physicians. While the slaves in the country and mines were treated badly, as they were owned by the poorer and worked very hard laborious hours. The second source backs up the first source as they both are describing a good master / slave relationship. However, this was the minority of slaves, and this does not represent all roman slave masters attitudes towards slaves. This is even shown in the first text when the master is replying back to other slave masters opinions. The reliability of these sources are evident as they are both primary sources, and I have used corroboration to show two examples of a relationship that involves kindness and trust.
This primary source is a monument set up by Rufus and Anthus, freed slaves of Antistius and Antistia. This source shows a good master / slave relationship as the slaves were freed, and in order for slaves to be freed, a good and trustworthy relationship would usually have to be in place. Slaves were often freed when they could either pay back the master for what they had been brought for, or the master granted their freedom in gratitude for the slaves diligent and faithful work. Slaves that worked privately or for the wealthy, could usually help with the business, and were often paid a small amount of the profit for their faithful work. The likely reason that Rufus and Anthus were freed was that they paid back there master since they had enough money to buy the expensive monument, they most likely would of had enough money to buy their freedom.