Racism has destroyed African’s mental health, families and freedom for many years, and it was all for no reason. In his autobiography, My Bondage and Freedom, Frederick Douglass suggests that people are raised to believe that blacks are incapable of participating in a civil community. This is displayed by the fact that slave owners worked hard to keep their slaves ignorant, and that Douglass believed that owning slaves affected the slave owners decision making and morals. In the story, we see Douglass say “She finally became even more violent in her opposition to my learning to read. (Douglass 523)” This goes to show that the slaves were strongly encouraged not to learn how to read, so the parents had to try to teach them on their own. We also
