The master-slave relationship began and ended in the context of control and value. As property, enslaved people were valued according to their physical and psychological health in the market. As Nathan Huggins describes, value accounted for everything regarding enslaved people. He noted, "Boys of a certain age went for so much, able-bodied, mature man for another amount. Acquire skills added to price; marks from the last took a value always. Strong body women could fell trees and plow command at one price; frail or sickly one brought less. A comely young woman and the flush of youth might send prices beyond reasonable bounds. Did a woman have children? Would she have more? There was money in that. Did a man have the marks of smallpox? That was value to the discerning eye." According to the market, value lay at the heart of the game of control between the slaveholders and the enslaved. 

The value of the enslaved was always liquid money and served as ready labor. Slaveholders viewed enslaved people as the most remarkable property. Enslaved people had constant and instant value, and they could serve as a substitute for a slaveholder's responsibility in running a plantation or completing public duties, such as constructing public roads.

The concept of treating humans as property and a tool was important and understood to be vital to the economy of the South. Enslaved persons as property were labor and wealth for one generation; they could be passed down and help to secure wealth for the next generation. "A master who wanted to set his children up on their own normally did so with a gift from among his own slaves, often breaking black kinship ties." 

A good way to understand the value of enslaved property is to read race and slavery petitions to divide property among heirs. Theodore Hearn and Martha Sutton requested a division of 16 slaves to which they were entitled through their grandfather's will and testament. See petition HERE

It is because of the value enslaved people held that the enslaved had to be captured and controlled. Enslaved people's labor, body, mind, and capabilities had to be controlled and managed. To lose an enslaved person without gaining back their value was a heavy blow to most slaveholders. 

The enslaved realized early in life that their value mattered a lot. Enslaved people knew that slaveholding families, because enslaved people could be bought and sold, held direct power to influence their lives, particularly if a sale decision made a lot of cents.

Slavery as an institution was founded on a strict reward and punishment system or, as Norrece T Jones, jr said, on a punishment and punishment system. This is because "rewards were punishments not realized." For instance, slaveholders provided land for the enslaved to grow their own garden, sometimes as a reward. To grow their plants effectively, enslaved people sometimes worked hard in the fields to complete tasks early to work their gardens. This reward also served a dual purpose. First, it would appease the slave to have something of their own. Second, the slave's hard work indirectly merged their interests with their masters' aims momentarily. 

Moreover, if the slaveholder wanted the enslaved to work harder or punish the enslaved, they would take away the garden or keep them working throughout the day, thereby taking away a privilege. Thus, the more expansive the privileges, gifts, and regards shown, the greater range of enforceable punishments and penalties. 

For another example, enslaved people had come to expect a week or a few days off for Christmas (where they would take this time to enjoy each other, travel to meet family members, and so on). A planter's threats to take this time away would often get the enslaved to work without much murmuring. 

To gain the best control over the slaves, the slaveholder had to focus on the mind of the slave. If the slaveholder could make the enslaved feel less than whites, get the enslaved to believe the power of whites to be absolute, and that they needed whites to survive, then the slaveholder could have immense control over individual slaves or the slave community. 

The goal of the slaveholder was to get the enslaved to embrace and make the slaveholders' interests their own. It should be noted that nearly all slaves had to make the slaveholders' interests their own, but each of them had slightly different purposes for doing so. For instance, failure to grow a crop could mean the sale of a family member or friend.

But beyond the necessary and common interests, the interests and motivations of the enslaved conflicted with the interests and motivations of slaveholders. The advantage was with the slaveholder, as he had power on his side, and slaveholders' who desired to obtain control only had to use their power to force submission; however, the delicacy was needed to accomplish this goal. Enslaved people knew their value and had ways to use that to their advantage. 

The master-slave control game was, at times, based on care and sympathy. But more often than not, the relationship was one of conflict of interests and distrust. It was based on obedience and forced respect on one end and freedom to live as one saw fit and the end of slavery on the other hand. Consequently, "the planter could demand obedience, he cannot always obtain the slave's respect."

Both sides, master and slave, had to be on constant guard to protect their interests. Although the master would have the advantage of the power and forced obedience, they had to continually work to take more from the enslaved, whereas the enslaved had to work hard to lessen the slaveholders' advantage to nurture their interests and make sure the slaveholder took less.

To illustrate this point, one should note that enslaved people practiced and perfected another set of strategies to limit the slaveholders' advantage and give space to enslaved persons to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves, such as not working when they were hired out, running away, breaking tools, feigning sickness, or goldbricking. For example, it was common for enslaved people as a community to determine the optimal work performance and ensure "they did not work any harder" than they felt necessary. This strategy is called goldbricking. 

Enslaved people also employed many different creative ways to ensure they were only pushed and rested whenever they could. Allen Parker discussed how those who were enslaved used animals to help minimize their work. Read the excerpt below: 

"The slaves not only believed that the owl was their friend, and that his language was intended entirely for them, but also believed that this language was not understood by the white folks. For example, suppose a master having no overseers should send a number of slaves into the field to hoe corn, they might work well for a time, but as the day grew warm they would get tired, and perhaps stop to rest in the woods that skirted the cornfield. The owl who might happen to be near, having become accustomed to their presence, would pay no attention to them, but if a white man entered the woods he would be likely to make a different noise from that of the slaves, and the owl would at once become aware that something had happened a little different from what had been going on, and would begin to cry, "Hoo, hoo, hoo," and the slaves would at once take this as a warning that somebody was near, and go to work again. If the owl cried "Hoo, hoo, hoo, ha, ha, ha," they would know that somebody was very near, and would work with all their might, until very likely their master would come in sight, and seeing them doing their best, would have no fault to find. Consequently, the slave believed that he did not know that the owl had told them of his coming."

He also provided an example of how enslaved people used mules to decrease their labor activity: 

"The slaves, like some other laborers, would work only when obliged to, and when the horn blew for dinner or supper, they were always ready to leave their work. The mules that were used to plow and cultivate, and other kinds of farm work soon learned to know the sound of the horn as well as the slaves, and would want to stop when they heard it; so that if the master came into the field and asked the slaves why they did not finish a certain piece of work before they went to dinner, or why they had left the plow in the middle of the furrow instead of going to the end, the slaves would reply that the mule heard the dinner horn and would not work anymore until he had had his dinner."

Disobedience among the enslaved was almost constant and general. However, when it came to worship, the confining enslaved to the plantation was difficult. William H. Robinson recounted how it was customary to sneak off to go worship: 

 "The slaves would have to devise many schemes in order to serve God. Of course they had church once or twice a month, but some white man would do the preaching, and his text would always be, "Servants obey your masters," But this was not what our people wanted to hear, so they would congregate after the white people had retired, when you would see them with their cooking utensils, pots and kettles, go into a swamp and put the pots and kettles on the fence, with the mouths turned toward the worshipers. They would sing and pray, the kettles catching the sound. In this way they were not detected. I did not learn until just before the war why they carried the vessels with them to worship."