Slave owners and their sympathizers described blacks in terms of negative stereotypes to justify treating them as property. These stereotypes provided the foundation for the idyllic mythology of the plantation. Slave owners liked to think of themselves as the paternalistic masters of a class of inferior, childlike people who could not survive without the kindly guidance of their white superiors. According to the masters' mythology, slaves sang out grateful praise for their bondage. From the great big house of the plantation owner all the way
             down to the fields where the slaves toiled, all was good and right in
             How did these carefully edited tales about slavery prevail in the face of the enormous evidence to the contrary? It all depends on who is telling the story. These myths were made by white slave owners, who brutally policed the speech of their slaves to crush narratives that challenged this "official" version. Any show of discontent incurred
             the masters' wrath and punishment.
             Because slaves were classified as inferior and not quite human,
             the legal system judged them less credible than their masters. In the courts, the testimony of a black witness was never equal to that of a
             white witness. The slave's law began and ended with his oppressor. No beating was unfair or too severe unless the master said so. No coerced sexual activity was rape unless the master said so. No killing was murder unless the master said so. Even if the master decided in the victim's favor, he treated such incidents as crimes against his property rather than
             Violations of the slave's rights.
             It was illegal to educate slaves. The enforced institution of illiteracy did the double service of robbing the victim of his voice and access to alternative ideas regarding his condition. The slave owner did
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