This idea of the slave as taking from the enemy parallels the notion of appeasing the slaveowners while at the same time, profitting one's self.  This duality is a common theme;  Ralph Ellison picks up this notion in Invisible Man.  The narrator's grandfather, a former slave, urges his grandson to, "Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight.  I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction.  Live with your head in the lion's mouth.  I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open." (Ellison, 16)