I was watching django and it got me thinking about slavery I am aware the films not based on facts it just got me thinking.
How common and brutal was slave punishment and is their a more perternal aspect to keeping slaves that was unleft in the movie?
Were there any free black people in america? If so did they own slaves?
What was the difference between black slaves in america and the carribean?
And what were slave owners attitude to educating slaves?
In the film it has black slaves and black children holding guns to defend a colony owner were slaves ever trusted in the states to have firearms?
Slave punishment in the United States was a common practice, as well as in the Caribbean. Punishments in both places were fairly similar, beatings, whippings, and such, though the living conditions in the Caribbean were much harsher.
There were free black people in the US and yes some did own slaves, but their motives were mainly to free family members from their masters. Andrew Drumford is an example of an African American slave owner, though technically he was mixed.
As simple of an answer as this is, slaves were slaves. The main difference of slaves in the Caribbean was that there were many indigenous slaves as well as imported Africans. The United States was primarily an African slave country.
Slave owners did not educate their slaves. It was actually heavily opposed and though some slaves did teach themselves how to read and write literacy among slaves was very uncommon, and in some states it was illegal to even teach slaves how to write. That link can give you a good idea of colonial slave codes as these were enacted after the Stono Rebellion in 1739.
And finally, as a general answer no, slaves were not allowed to have firearms or any weapon whatsoever. That's how revolts get started.
I'm going to copy and paste an answer I made sometime ago
How common and brutal was slave punishment
Check out Slavery and the Numbers Game. Brutal whippings occurred two to three times per plantation per week. A normal whippings was 39 lashes administred with the slave stretched on the ground or on their toes so that the skin was pulled taut, to increase pain.It should be noted that it was rare for it just to be a plain old whip administering the punishment. Clubs with screws sticking out were commonly used, "Cow hides" were very thick at the striking end and very thin at the swinging end resulting in the blows feeling like being hit by a sledge hammer. One of the worst employed whips was the cat-o-nine-tails: a small handle attached a large rope of may strands,one blow from the "cat" would open nine wounds. Frederick Law Olmsted described in brutal detail the effectiveness of the cat The overseer flogged her "with the rawhide, across her naked loins and thighs, she shrank anyway from him not rising, but writhing, groveling, and screaming. Oh dear god! Oh please stop, master! please sir! please sir! oh, that's enough master! Oh Lord! Oh master, master, of God, master, do stop! oh God, master, oh God, Master!" Ball and chains were used two or three times a month. The ultimate punishment (aside from death) was being sold "downriver" which rarely occurred more than two times a year per plantation. Being sold downriver meant leaving behind your family and friends, everything that you had ever known to stop into the unknown with only the knowledge that the further South you travel the worse your life will generally be. This abuse is psychological and is something that every slave has to endure on a daily basis. Before someone cites Time on the Cross, Fogel's lack of acknowledgement of the psychological torture of slavery is a major criticism of that work.