Slaveholder paternalism viewed the enslaved as perpetual children incapable of adequately making their own decisions, dependent on white people for guidance and protection.
If I were kidnapped, shipped halfway around the world in a filthy ship's galley, sold like a cow at market, & sent to a plantation I'd never seen where they didn't speak my language, how many generations would it take for my descendants to assimilate enough to NOT appear childlike?
