I uncovered a will from my 5th great uncle, a DeCuir ancestor who owned 125 slaves who worked on his sugar plantation in Louisiana. Genealogists who try to uncover information about their slave ancestors often have a very difficult time finding anything other than census records.  Because slaves were not really viewed as important enough to merit much detail, the census records usually record only the gender and age of each individual.  However, because I was able to find a will, there was more information about each person including family connections, illnesses, etc.  What struck me about the will was the straightforward and unemotional tone used to describe each person: on the one hand the writer of the will clearly knew these people, but on the other hand, there is a disturbing lack of feeling in the dispassionate way each one is described.