Taskmasters

And the overseers of the works, and the taskmasters, went out and said to the people: Thus saith Pharaoh: I allow you no straw; go, and gather it where you can find it; neither shall any thing of your work be diminished.

And they that were over the works of the children of Israel, were scourged by Pharaoh's taskmasters, saying: Why have you not made up the task of bricks, both yesterday and today, as before?

The taskmasters had established the right to flog their slaves; they had dammed up the slowly rising waters of rebellion, but these rose to their level at last, and overflowed, and slavery is no more.