There
is a long-standing debate in many fields – particularly law – as to whether it
is more important that a guilty man go free than that a hundred innocent men be
imprisoned. Essentially, the crux of this debate is how to weigh wrong. This debate
cuts to the center of individual, societal and systemic cores. What has gone
somewhat less discussed is how to weigh right. The depths of this debate are
poignantly demonstrated in Freedom Cry,
the epilogue session of the video game Assassin’sCreed: Black Flag discussed in a recent Jurisculture posting.
Freedom Cry is set in the 1700s, 20 years after the
main game story. The main game story follows the exploits of Edward Kenway, the
pirate captain. Throughout the main game story, Kenway’s driving force is the
pursuit of monetary gain, although he does captain his ship with a fair code.
This fairness includes taking on Adéwalé (Adé), an escaped
slave, as his quartermaster. While Kenway is briefly imprisoned, Adé joins the Brotherhood of the Assassins, a society
adhering to a strict moral code and righting the wrongs of the world as a form
of protection.
The
main game story ends with Kenway returning home and Adé
captaining his own ship in service of the Assassins. Freedom Cry opens with Adé performing a mission for the Assassins that
results in his gaining access to written intelligence that he intends to carry
to a contact in Port-au-Prince in modern day Haiti.
As
with many cities in the Caribbean at the time, Port-au-Prince is heavily involved
in the slave trade and slavery-reliant activities. Once in Port-au-Prince, Adé makes contact with Bastienne Josephe, the African
proprietor of a prominent brothel in the city that is frequented by the
political and social elite. At first glance, she seems complicit in the culture
of slavery and its spoils and content to cater to her clientele. Under the
surface, however, she has far greater depths and is in fact supporting
anti-slavery factions by providing them with information gathered from her
clients. As Adé begins to work with her to
gather information and assist the anti-slavery factions, he gains greater
respect for Bastienne and her use of long-range planning as a method of
bringing an end to the ruling regime in a methodical way.
Despite
his admiration for her dedication, Adé argues
with Bastienne when they receive information regarding incoming slave ships.
Bastienne notes that Ade has done a great deal to damage plantations’ slave
usage and also prominent members of the elite. She points out that this has
already caused a backlash of power and fear among the elite, including tougher enforcement
of the unequal “Code Noir” that governed non-white persons in the area. She
fears that targeting the slave ships will make conditions for the current
slaves worse and damage the anti-slavery faction’s plan. On the other hand, Adé is adamant that he can free the would-be slaves
and that freeing them is the paramount right thing to do.
Ultimately,
Adé attempts to free the would-be slaves but
is only partly successful. He and Bastienne make peace after these events and acknowledge
the importance of care for human life in their quests against slavery, although
they still carry on using different paths.
Freedom Cry is a unique method for allowing a large
group of people to appreciate some of the horrors of slavery and the ways in
which it was enforced. Beyond this, the game poses a variation on the debate
over the weight of wrong – how do we weigh right? There is no question that
both Adé and Bastienne were acting in
accordance with what they believed to be right. Rather, it is a question of
which right has more value. To Adé, the most valuable
right is the right that can be more immediately achieved with tangible results
that help people. To Bastienne, the most valuable right is the right that has
the most impact for the largest number of people even if this will require more
time and effort.
There
is no clear answer to the question of how to weigh right. Indeed, at a legal
and societal level this question may be even more intricate than that of how to
weigh wrong since it is difficult to articulate methods of arguing against
right in any form. However, as law and society must face issues such as modern
day slavery and human trafficking this question seems highly relevant.
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