The institution of slavery became an issue of race, whites above blacks, a social role that was not to be violated. While enslaved black men, women, and children endured a great deal of violent beatings and sexual abuse, all used by the whites to exert power and control, as well as to impose fear into the lives of black slaves. In 1861 slavery was abolished and many slaves were left with the fear and inferiority that had been strongly embedded into their minds and into social mentality. “Many institutions, public and private, excluded blacks altogether… others offered blacks markedly inferior services