And, not least of all, an inscrutable Providence had vouchsafed to Ham one great compensation that whatever his fortune or station he should usually be cheerful.

The negro has not that "sad lucidity of mind" that curses his white cousin and leads to general mental wretchedness and suicide.
Some of the Mount Vernon slaves were of course more favored than were others.

The domestic and personal servants lived lives of culture and inglorious ease compared with those of the field hands.

They formed the aristocracy of colored Mount Vernon society and gave themselves airs accordingly.
Nominally our Farmer's slaves were probably all Christians, though I have found no mention in his papers of their spiritual state.

But tradition says that some of them at Dogue Run at least were Voudoo or "conjuring" negroes.
Washington owned slaves and lived his life under the institution of slavery, but he loved it not.