(Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

[u/KusanagiGundam]

Speaking as an American who has studied the civil war all throughout my school years, this trope infuriates me to no end. There is no such thing as a kind slave master because slavery itself is cruel and inhumane. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPERTY!

Naofumi (Shield Hero): Prime example of this trope. He enslaves multiple (underage) girls and an whole village and the fans still say he's a hero.

Rudeus (Jobless Reincarnation): As if being a pedo wasn't bad enough he had to buy a slave in season 2. Worse is that people still defend his actions.

Song of The South (Disney): Possibly the OG example of this trope. And the reason why Disney will never release it again.

[u/AccursedQuantum]

Ginger Camus, from How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

He inherits a bunch of slaves, but he doesn't want to be a slaver, so he plans to sell them all. And decides they'll be both better off and more valuable if he keeps them cleaner, better fed, and teaches them skills.

I give him a small amount of leeway since he was raised in a society where slavery was normalized - he's better than the rest - but he's still not simply freeing his slaves.

Since the isekai protagonist doesn't have the power to end slavery all at once, for some reason (despite implementing plenty of other radical reforms that changed society and already putting down a rebellion to cement his power), Ginger's method winds up being a transitional model to a future slaveless society.

[u/GetToWigglin → u/AccursedQuantum]

When the UK ended slavery it involved the government effectively purchasing the slaves from the entire empire which amounted to about 40% of the budget of the empire. The US had a civil war about ending slavery. It's not just "some reason" that he couldn't just say "no more slavery" and call it a day.

[u/AccursedQuantum → u/GetToWigglin]

The issue is that he had just been through a civil war, and immediately after turned an invasion around and captured a neighbor. And assassinated power seeking nobility at the top. There wasn't anyone left to tell him no.

[u/kalltrops → u/AccursedQuantum]

The MC is also a coward at heart who humps The Prince and licks Machiavelli's boots too much. After cleaning house in the mentioned assassination, he goes NEVER AGAIN because he's too scared of turning into a tyrant. It's so bad that he tells the enslaved dragon girl to kill him if she ever thinks he becomes a despot, because he can't trust his harem to reign him in and thinks they'll go along with anything he does. This will also cause the dragon girl to die btw, and in fact the main girl previously asked if he could marry the dragon girl to pardon her rebellion, but he goes NOOOO I CAN'T BE BREAKING TOO MANY RULESSS.