The basic element of fear on both sides of the master-slave relationship must never be forgotten. There remained an  Awareness on both sides that Masters ultimately held sway over their slaves by force or the threat of force. It was this which set the limits within which everything else happened in slave Society. In some respects, especially in the religion and family Affairs, slavery was a kind of acknowledged, negotiated agreement, under which a party autonomous slave community emerged.  These were probably the two most influential elements in the development of the slave community, and appropriately, both exemplify the ambivalence and the delicate balance which exists between the assertion of slave autonomy on one hand and the exercise of the Masters power on the other.  In the pre-civil war decades slave-owners made considerable efforts, with the aid of the white preachers, to inculcate spiritual and moral values which would lend safety and stability to the peculiar Institution.  Similarly, masters saw the family as an agent of discipline and orders, as well as of population increase.  Whatever the designs and the vested interests of the masters, the slave community attached its own special significance to both institutions.  Genovese places religion at the center of “the world the slaves made.” Kishos Christianity as a double-edged sword which could either sanction accommodation or justify resistance.