User blog comment:Master Sima Yi/Assassinews 03-12-'14 — New Assassin's Creed in Victorian London leaked/@comment-31.123.94.63-20141216090308/@comment-1153722-20141216092001

"A body enslaved inspires the mind to revolt. But enslave a man's mind, and his body will follow on naturally. Efficiently." - Laureano Torres.

They want to control the people, but only to achieve peace for humanity, not to make them labour on the Templars' behalf. There's still quite a few Templars (new ones like Lawrence Washington) who were slave holders, but it's not part of the Templars' goals.