The United States abolished slavery without compensation to slaveholders or reparations to freedmen. African American slaves were allowed more freedom than their counterparts enslaved by white slaveholders. Baptists and Methodists in the South preached to slaveholders and slaves alike. Many individual acts by slaveholders freed thousands of slaves. It argued in favor of the immediate emancipation of the slaves without compensation to slaveholders. They believed the slaveholders were compensated too little upon emancipation. It is unclear if some Native American slaveholders sympathized with African-American slaves along racial lines. The language is not about Blacks and Whites, but about slaves and slaveholders. The ignorance of the slaves was considered necessary to the security of the evil slaveholders. Other Southern statesmen were also major slaveholders. In addition, individual slaveholders, particularly in the upper South, freed slaves, sometimes in their wills. As is the case of many relationships between slaveholders and slaves, documentary evidence is slight. Opposition came from conservative elements, especially Whigs, southern slaveholders, orthodox Calvinists, and Catholics. They argued instead for an improved paternalism under Christianity by white slaveholders. The largest slaveholders, generally owners of large plantations, represented the top stratum of Southern society.