Final answer:
Stereotypes served to justify slavery, maintain power and control, and morally justify racial inequality.
Step-by-step explanation:
Stereotypes served several functions within slavery. One of the main functions was to justify the existence of slavery by promoting the idea of paternalism, where white slaveholders portrayed themselves as acting in the best interests of enslaved people. This misrepresented the reality of slavery as a dehumanizing and traumatic experience.
Additionally, stereotypes were used to maintain power and control over enslaved people by reinforcing hierarchical social structures. Stereotypes portrayed enslaved people as passive and submissive, thus diminishing their agency and resistance to their conditions.
Moreover, stereotypes enabled the dominant group to morally justify racial inequality and discrimination, by spreading demeaning and dehumanizing beliefs about enslaved people, reinforcing racial hierarchies and promoting the idea of white superiority.