Does anyone know if it's possible to free slaves by simply casting a disintigrate armor spell until the bracer breaks?

Not that I know. you can try, but I fear it won't work. The best thing to do is still looking for the keys. Taunt some guards and guys, and you can collect them all!!

have fun

The only way truely free slaves is to use the key for their braces, but there are some that cannot be free no matter what. The ines that cannot be freed are the ones that will sy there is no hope and other such things. THey will resist freedonm which i ironic since you probably will endup killing the owner early on.

Get the master slave key mod. You can release all the slaves, even the ones that currently say there is no hope. It doesn't unbalance the game IMO since there is no reward other than that warm fuzzy feeling.

I can't really say anything that other's haven't already said. But to go off-topic a bit. Is there any real use for the bracers after they've been freed? They're not worth much and they don't seem to have any use apart from cluttering the ground.

I've always found those bracers to be a very sub-par method of keeping the slaves in check.

Deduct 5 magicka points? Wow....like Argonians and Khajiits are renowned for their magical abilities.