Conditions being what they were I am sure that most slaves in the south knew no other lifestyle. Most had grown up as slaves as had their parents and grandparents for 250 years. So it was a way of live that they did not know any other. But that also meant that they were accepting of that way of life. A resignation to their lot in life which wasn't really much different from that of poor whites in the south except that the poor whites did not have anyone like their master who provided for their needs.