Sure, it is important to recognize that slave owners were humans with the same faults and emotions as us. One of the more popular examples would be the movement in the Antebellum era, particularly by evangelicals, to push states to ban the splitting up of slave families. Some slave owners did their best not to split families, some fed their slaves well some fed their slaves poorly. Some had a change of heart and manumitted their slaves, either in death or during their lifetime, legally or illegally. Have you read Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a slave? He experiences quite the wide array of masters during his time as a slave.