This line takes a tool of forced labor into a weapon for freedom which shows both the violence of enslavement and the want for self-emancipation. It shows how enslaved people turned what was meant to control them into a means of resistance. I wonder if the use of the cane knives was meant to be symbolic of the overall emotion of anger and hurt. Also, did they feel accomplished after this or did they feel like this was only the beginning of what they would endure on their fight to freedom?Using the same tools to demand freedom may represent both the resilience of the enslaved and the reality that resistance and survival had no separation.