Furious, but clever takedown of both colonialism and slave trade (and the way it's followed on through tourism, offshore banking...) and the corruption that inevitably followed in its footsteps after that was the only law anyone knew. Once you stop being a master, once you throw off the yoke of lordship, you're no longer trash, you're just a human with all it entails. That applies to slaves, too. Once they're free, they're no longer noble and elevated; they're just people.