busiveness of their back breaking labor, but abuses both physical and sexual by their Christian masters. Which left them in somewhat of a precarious position. Their masters ruled with an iron fist, claiming to be doing what was best for the wretched souls, while tearing apart families and starving (or working) their slaves to death. Slaves could not help but see and, moreover, feel the hypocrisy in their masters babbling. A slave was then faced with only one option: to follow the path most likely to lead to survival.For the most part, a slaves only mission was simply to live another day with the hope and prayer that they would see the light of freedom before they succumbed to the horrors of slave life. Therefore, when faced with a decision, they weighed each not on their merits, but on the chance that it would bring them closer to freedom without bringing them closer to death. For example, many slaves had opportunities to escape their masters, but chose not to for fear they would be caught and put to torture or even death. However, for some the hope of life as a freeman outweighed all the possibilities of capturewhat could they possibly endure that would be worse than their current conditions. Death was a reasonable price to pay for the chance at freedom for many slaves. Unfortunately for countless numbers, the chance at freedom was stopped short when captured and returned to a brutal master for punishment. A slave had to play whatever angle he could in hopes of achieving freedom. However, most found themselves only pons in a political game that cared nothing about their lives, but merely profit and political power.As the revolutionary war crept into the minds and the agendas of the Americas, so too did the notions of using the slaves as political pawns. Slaves were leverage for the British to use against the revolutionaries; they threatened to not only emancipate slaves, but to arm them as well. This meant sure economic fa...
