Assassin’s Creed III: On Slavery and the Revolution

Assassin's Creed III is set in one of the most tumultuous periods of American—if not world—history, taking place during the American Revolution of 1776. The game sees revolutionary forces fighting for independence against the British, with the game's Native American protagonist right in the midst of it all.

Speaking to the Official PlayStation Magazine, the game's lead writer Matt Turner explored the conflict (which in itself was anything but cut and dried) and the subject of slavery, which was pretty much as commonplace as owning a cat.

Turner stressed that it was important to make Connor, the game's protagonist, impartial to the war effort. "It was important he was outside of the conflict," he said. "He’s not British or Colonial and has his own reasons for being involved, his own path that happens to intersect with the Revolution."

"Our story is of both the Assassins and the Templars, that’s the focus of our story," said Turner, who also touched upon the messy subject of slavery in Assassin's Creed III.

"It’s something we’ve been very aware of," he said. "Everybody had slaves at that point; the first groups who rallied around emancipation didn’t come around until 1787 – largely driven by Benjamin Franklin funnily enough. That was very much after our game and slavery was maintained in culture."

"We feel that kind of a subject deserves a certain amount attention because it’s so serious and it needs to be treated with utmost respect. We’re definitely not going to shy away from it in terms of not showing it.”

Assassin's Creed III will be released on October 13 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.