Read the passage.

From My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass Although slavery was a delicate subject, and very cautiously talked

about among grownup people in Maryland, I frequently talked about it-and that very freely-with the white boys. I would,

sometimes, say to them, ... "I wish I could be free, as you will be when you get to be men." ... Words like these, I observed,

always troubled them.

What does this passage reveal about society's Influences at the time?

Slave and white children were discouraged from talking to one another.

Children were not supposed to express their opinions until they became adults.

Slavery was a taboo subject, to be avoided in polite conversation.

This passage reveals that:

C) Slavery was a taboo subject, to be avoided in polite conversation.

Explanation:

Frederick Douglass was born in 1818. He was an abolitionist, a writer, and a social reformer whose autobiography "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" greatly influenced the abolitionist movement in 1845. In the book, Douglass tells the story of his life as a slave and the measures he took to learn how to read and write.

From the passage we are studying here, it can be easily inferred that slavery was a taboo issue in conversations. Even though it was a reality - and a horrific one -, people were uncomfortable when it was brought up. According to Douglass, "grownup people" were discussing it, but whenever he brought it up with white boys around his age, they were troubled, bothered by it. Maybe they were suddenly and sharply reminded that that human being they were talking to, unlike themselves, did not have any freedom. His life was set in a very different direction than theirs. Being reminded of that was probably uncomfortable.