"will you stay or will you go?" Topic

I do not see anything racist in the game, unless you think that the die roll to determine what the slave might do when offered freedom is not in the realm of possibilities? IMO each one is a real possibility.

I could see an interesting scenario if one did this in a similar Spartacus raid on a Roman Villa.

Bill is pretty tolerant of discussion of forbidden topics like religion and politics as long as decorum is maintained. Nobody here has said "McBride is a racist" though perhaps some do think that. The discussion is focused on specific gaming topics, all involving slaves who may or may not eagerly embrace liberators.

I'm supposing that THAT is the sticking point? But nobody has challenged the example of Harriet Tubman, who found it necessary to protect herself from interference by the slaves she was trying to liberate. Again, that is a UNIVERSAL human pattern of behavior.

And particularly so in a situation in which the "liberators" may intend to sell you into a new slavery in what would be objectively worse conditions (tropical versus temperate) and away from the only home you have ever known.

These things can and should be debatable -- which I am perfectly willing to do. The best book, still, on slavery in the US is probably Genovese's ROLL, JORDAN, ROLL: The WORLD THE SLAVES MADE. Fifty years old now, it has stood the test of time. Genovese argued that slaves mostly accepted the FACT of slavery, but had strong views as to what their CONDTIONS should be, enforced through methods such as psychological pressure (particularly via the black women who raised almost every white planter child) and work slowdowns at harvest time. It was a feudal culture, and in such the upper class acknowledges mutual obligations and duties, lord and vassal.

By no means all plantations operated that way; some were run as businesses, and some were horrible Simon-Legree prisons. But slaves, in spite of illiteracy and provincialism, could be very sophisticated in judging where their own best interests lay. And it was generally NOT in sugar planations in the Caribbean.

Rev Zoom: "A subject such as yours cannot help but inflame the passions of others."

So is that the standard? Don't play a game that might inflame the passions of others?

Sorry, but I will not be, and I think most of us would not wish to be, ruled by what other people FEEL. No matter how passionately they feel it. I feel pretty passionate about THAT! Surely MY feelings are as valid as yours or theirs?

But in fact this is why we do not go by feelings. Cool rational debate is what is required. And what I am asking/hoping for. If you can.

Okay, from the Robert Smalls wiki:

It states that Smalls informed the rest of the crew of his plan, except one man whom he did not trust.

On the evening of May 12, the Planter was docked as usual at the wharf below General Ripley's headquarters.[2] Its three white officers disembarked to spend the night ashore, leaving Smalls and the crew on board, "as was their custom."[10] (Afterward, the three Confederate officers were court-martialed and two convicted, but the verdicts were later overturned.[2]) Before the officers departed, Smalls asked Captain Relyea if the crews' families could visit, which was occasionally allowed, and he approved on condition that they depart before curfew. When the families arrived, the men revealed the plan to them.

This was the first the women and children had heard of it, although Smalls recently had told [his wife] Hannah. She had known that Smalls longed to escape but hadn't realized that he was formulating a plan and intended to execute it. She was taken aback but quickly regained her composure and told him, "It is a risk, dear, but you and I, and our little ones must be free. I will go, for where you die, I will die.[11]: 11 The other women were less steadfast. They cried and screamed when they learned what they had stumbled into, and the men struggled to quiet them…. Later, once the shock had worn off, those women admitted that they were glad for a chance at freedom..

So 10% untrustworthy (the crewman) and MANY of the women intially resistant when first informed? My reaction table (the OP) looks pretty realistic, I would say.

SO, Old Contemptable and others, would a game of Smalls' escape be "racist"? What does that word even MEAN in a case like this?

And imagine, if you will, if Smalls had foolishly told the families of the plan BEFORE getting them on the boat! The odds against success would have multiplied. But that would be the situation when raiders from a ship urge slaves in their quarters to come along and escape.