The Patriot forcefully embraces the idea that the American revolution and black freedom is one continuum. In the story, a black slave signs up with the rebel force because he is promised freedom after twelve months' service. Well, actually, no. In North Carolina in 1774, the punishment for killing a slave was a mere year's imprisonment and the value of the property that had been destroyed. The new revolutionary law made the willfull killing of a slave murder, and punishable by death.
Ideas have powerful consequences none more so than in shaping the future.
But so do negative ideas and negative images of the past. SEE IN IN YOUR FACE .