Slave’s Mentality The ownership of slaves is an unerasable blemish on American history. Though in modern day people have moved far in racial unison, the strong impact slavery had back then still has its repercussions today. Anti-abolitionist ideas were strong in it’s mission to crush black America’s self esteem and has rooted itself in modern day “black culture”. Decades of oppression has wiped away what is claimed to be “black culture” and has instead implemented self subjugation of themselves. To eradicate this slave's mentality that is rooted into black American’s today they must embrace their individuality and reject the cycle presented to them at birth. George Fitzhugh, a pre-civil war anti-abolitionist, wrote in his book justifications …show more content…
Though it is correct that the weak do need a helping hand. Children, the old, the crippled all of them are protected by someone, because they are deemed weak, but protection and enslavement are two completely different things. The weak do not need to be protected in a way that forces them to be completely dependent. The weak need support just enough to hold themselves up but not carry them away. Abolitionist concept of protection was not the pure and kind gesture Fitzhugh makes anti-abolitionist out to be. The protection they gave made slaves lose hope for anything better. Slaves were weak and stayed weak because they were told this and believed it. Though it is not completely the abolitionist fault. Slaves did not question the “protection” they received. Frederick Douglass explains it best in this quote,” I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to darken his moral and …show more content…
Of course not all of black America is shackled by these self loathing ideas but there is not one black child that has not hard their own racial brethren talk down to one another for reasons that should be praised. Talking with precise pronunciation would be seen as talking white and wearing one’s natural hair would be ugly and unmaintained. These modern ideas can be connected back to Fitzhugh in this quote, “ Still, we like the idle, but intelligent house-servants, better than the hard-used, but stupid outhands; and we like the mulatto better than the negro;” (296) Outhands were usually of darker skin, house-servants light skin, and this set the standard. Light skin was wanted and appreciated. Dark skin was a curse that meant you worked in the fields. Though that is not the case in this era Black people still hold the light is better ideology close to heart. White, or light means smart, means pretty, means better to black people of today and this self-subjugation only harms the future generations. It’s a difficult problem to fight since there is no perfect way to get a handle on such a deep rooted psychological but this quote from an online article give a nice ideal, “ The black parents freed of the mental shackles must inculcate a culture of positive identity in their children—one that neutralizes the negative ideas stated above.”(“Slave