AskHistorians

i'm not a historian, but can tell you that slaves were treated as if they were helpless toddlers-- they were made to believe that their existence was entirely dependent on their "owners." in other words "if it weren't for your owner, you would suffer even worse than you already are, and you would die." they were prohibited from learning how to read and write. they were born and raised with the mindset that if they did leave the plantation, the only thing that would happen would be they would be caught, whipped, and brought right back to where they were, to be whipped again, or very likely worse. when you're born and raised in this kind of environment, the idea of "walk off the farm" doesn't even occur to you

and where would they go? they were prevented from knowing that there was such a thing as abolitionists, or places where they could escape to and not be slaves. and even if they heard about this possibility, they were brainwashed to think they were offending god by defying "master" or some shit. it was self-preservation, not fear. the frederick douglasses who taught themselves how to read, beat up their owners, and escaped to the north were rare.

if you're really interested, i recommend douglass's own book , as well as Caste by isabel wilkerson. the burning hate and racism of whites is still here

tl;dr: mind control

edit: since we're on the topic, i'm going to rant

the argument "you can't judge people in the past according to today's societal standards" is bullshit. yes i fucking can, and yes i fucking do. "slavery is wrong" is not a "welllll...." or "but....." statement. slavery is fucking wrong, and always has been. and there have always been people who know this simple fact, regardless of what century they lived in. this is evidenced by the fact that there would still be slavery if not for the people at the time who recognized its wrongness, and fought to end it.

if you want to dive deep, read up on Bartolomé de las Casas, a person from the 1400s who, through the course of his life, went from "slavery is normal," to "only africans should be slaves," to "NO ONE should be enslaved." because of the horrific things he saw and experienced in the new world. yea, they don't teach de las Casas in school, because of systemic racism, and so they can continue to push the bullshit "they were products of their time" narrative.