Many characters in the novel Kindred can be see as enslaved by the times they live in. Their actions would be different if the cultural norms of the times they lived in were not in place. This is seen in many characters, but especially in Rufus.
From what we gather from when he was a child, Rufus doesn't seem like an inherently evil person. He is friends with Alice and treats Dana with respect, so we see that he isn't born with prejudice. For example, in his youth, Rufus would come to Dana for advice, and not his step-mother. Dana is a very maternal figure to him. Rufus also yearns to live in the future so he and can have a relationship with Alice similar to Dana’s and Kevin’s; but because of the time he lives in, he is not afforded the opportunity to have a “normal” relationship with Alice.
All of the bad things Rufus eventually does are seen as normal in his time period, but he knows that they are immoral because Dana calls him out on them. For example, when Rufus sells Tess, one of his slaves, he tells Dana that it was already arranged by his father. This is an excuse that Rufus makes up just to please Dana. Rufus remains childlike throughout the book because he looks to Dana as a mother-figure, but she is not in his life enough to have a lasting impression, so Rufus’s character is naturally shaped by the time he lives in. He is spoiled by the amount of power that a white plantation owner in the Antebellum South was given.
And as much as Rufus's "excuse" might not carry much water for *us* as readers--who would condemn that selling of another person under any circumstances--it is a plausible excuse within his social context. Rufus is a businessman who must run this plantation to be profitable. He inherits debts from his father. He will be a "better" (more fiscally efficient) slave-holder if he *doesn't* let his emotions get in the way of his business decisions. We can condemn the whole system, the game whose rules allow for such decisions to be made, but it's more difficult to condemn the man as an individual. He's making a reasonable move in the context of a wholly unreasonable game.
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