Should Slaves Be Allowed To Secure Their Freedom?

Slaves had no right to kill in to secure their freedom simply because trying to do so was often a futile prospect that led to nothing but the implementation of tighter restrictions and more punishment for all slaves, propelling them even further away from the goal of freedom; in other words, there was just no reason to kill. A slave’s life was often supervised under heavy scrutiny, which meant that even a single suspicious action could merit severe punishment. Moreover, under slave codes, slaves had no access to any form of weapons. These two factors combined gave slaves little chance to incite any sort of viable rebellion. Without the ability to communicate with other slaves or the access to strong weaponry, it was incredibly difficult to, first of all, even organize a rebellion - much less form one which could effectively combat against …show more content…
As such, what exactly is the point of killing or rebelling when, not only would they inevitably fail to achieve anything, but there would also be terrible consequences for not just the initiators but other slaves as well? Perhaps there would be a justifiable reason for killing and rebellion if there was truly reason to believe that doing so would somehow be a viable method to securing freedom; but as emphasized numerous times before, slave revolts were never organized or powerful enough for them to make any sort of distinct impact; there was essentially zero reward for attempting to kill yet all the risk involved in trying. In the end, it isn’t really a matter of whether it is morally right for individual slaves to kill; what matters is whether there is any reason - any point - to do so; and there certainly was none. It is wrong for slaves to be so embroiled in their own anger that they kill out of spite and not reason, because is there really anything to gain from doing