Exit 10/12

The master, as the head of the system, has a right to the obedience and labor of the slave, but the slave has also his mutual rights in the master; the right of protection, the right of counsel and guidance, the right of subsistence [enough to live on], the right of care and attention in sickness and old age.

—E.N. Elliot, Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments, 1860

The view expressed in the excerpt is based on a belief in which of the following?