Question: I'm currently working on a novel, in which one of the POV characters is a slave. He was born to a slave (so he was born a slave) of a rich merchant family and was treated well most of his life. One day he travels with his master to a foreign country where slavery had been abolished. The interaction with the foreign "free" people makes him doubt his position.

Might be relevant that he is of a different race than his masters, and the population of the foreign country he travels to belongs to his race.

Initially I want him to not see the injustice in his state and to love his master (they have a close relationship since they grew up together), yet I (born into a *mostly* slave-free world) have no idea how to portray him. Almost anything I try to write about him feels contrived. 

How could I better identify with him? 

or 

Any reference to a novel (historical fiction preferred, could be any period in history) with a slave POV character (third-person preferred) will do.

Answer: 
Sounds like from the description, you are writing a "slave narrative." This was a popular literary genre in the US around the Civil War. It can either be fiction or non-fiction. One of the most famous examples and my personal suggestion is the *Life of Fredrick Douglas*. He was born a slave and later became a leader in the American Abolition Movement.

What I learned from his book is that freedom isn't inherently obvious. Before Douglas was taught to read by his master, he was very happy as a slave. His realization that he was a free-born person came slowly over time and then he was compelled to run away as slavery became an unbearable condition. The problem was not that his master was cruel, but the knowledge about the alternative. That seems to a theme in your book, so that's why I suggest it as a starting place for your research.

The WPA's Federal Writer's Project did 2300 interviews ex-slaves during the Great Depression. That research is available [here.](http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html) That seems like a great resource to understand what the average slave thought about slavery.
Although not a slave in the sense you're describing, I would recommend reading Nelson Mandela's first volume of his auto biography, Long Walk To Freedom.

What is quite interesting in this book is that he starts off not really seeing the injustice of his situation, or that of his people, primarily because of where he is raised, how he is raised, the education he receives, and the benefits that he gets from his situation (for example, access to education that is done to make him and other black South Africans be more like a British concept of a 'gentleman'). While he was among a small minority that could get education, the general populace were left to live as they always had, and given the "freedom" to do so.

There is one particular moment I recall in the book where Mandela is undergoing his right of passage to becoming a man in Xhosa culture, and a local chief who was the guest speaker (I forget who, apologies) gives a speech about how the Xhosa people are not free, and Mandela gets angry thinking this man is being so ungrateful for what they have.

True, Mandela was not directly a slave, or owned by someone, but the same principles apply: you grow up in a world where you don't know any better, and you're often purposefully left uneducated so you don't ask awkward questions, but given enough to improve your lot that you are grateful.

Even during slavery in America, slaves often stayed with their masters not just because of the threat of violence or intimidation, but were content with their lot, often because many didn't know anything different, were uneducated, and only knew how to perform manual labour. They had somewhere to live, food, and some were given autonomy to practise various manual skills and even hire out their skills for a wage. Their friends and family were around them, and they lived in places that they considered their homes.

I know in South Africa, religion was often a powerful tool to keep people in line too, where it was adapted to show the inferiority of other races to the white man, and I suspect something similar occurred during slavery as well.

The prison of the mind is far more effective in controlling people than the stick, so if your character loves his master, it's likely because he's grateful for his position in relation to a situation where no-one knows any different. For example, his master may allow some leniency that others don't: perhaps teaching him carpentry, brick laying or other skills. Maybe his master welcomes him into his home regularly, gives him a good place to live while many others may not be so fortunate etc. Maybe his master saved his life once when he was being attacked by those who were racist or xenophobic, or even helped deliver his slave's son.

People are complex, and while things like slavery are often portrayed in binary terms, it's never so neat as we make out when we're dealing with real people.