Re: It makes sense in context
OK, that honestly just makes it MORE incomprehensible to me.
'Slaveholder' is, if it would ever occur to me, the LAST possible meaning of master that would.
An apprentice's mentor, a schoolteacher, the owner of a tavern, the head of a household, a skilled practitioner of a craft or art.... These and more would all occur to me WELL before 'slaveholder'.
The first meaning that would even be related to a slave is 'master' and 'slave' drives in a computer.