Perversion the Social Relation

i86 Michael P. Biblerbecause, as his role as the judge in Nat's trial proves, he doesn't believe they deserveany special compensation to rectify or excuse their slave status. While his resentmentof the material and social effects of the plantation's hierarchies shows that he doesnot regard slaves as inhuman inferiors who deserve their misery, his refusal to careshows that he is not willing to reassert their differences by treating them as a specialclass of people who do not deserve their misery. Thus, Nat decides to spare Cobbfor basically the same reasons that he decides to spare Brantley, even though Cobbis a widower instead of a sodomite. Nat bases his decision to spare him on the profoundlyanti-hierarchical sentiment that leads Cobb to disregard all others througha mask of uncaring and that consequently sets him apart as a kind of outlaw withinhis own hierarchical community.