When it became abundantly clear to them that the master cared more for the primary stock of his cash crop than the secondary stock of their lives, they had no choice. They had to cripple the system, undo by force the shackles on their lives. Consider the era of the plantation. There are records of slaves working for and buying their own manumission. There are records too of slave revolts, riots, the destruction of plantations. A violent bid for manumission—taken when it would not be given. The difference between manumission given and manumission taken is a legal one. Even then, in both instances, as a friend reminded me recently "A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect." (W.E.B. DuBois)
