You have it. Many years ago I worked at youth detention center. The majority of our inmates were urban blacks. We took them camping in the woods. They were terrified—almost to to the point of being afraid to leave their tents. For the first time the white kids (mostly rural background) got to lord it over the black kids.
Snakes, bears, mountain lions were all out there, waiting to get them. I don’t think they learned that at school, but rather at their mothers’ knees. We used that fear to help prevent escape attempts. Now that I think of it, I bet slave owners did the same thing and it passed into family lore.
>> The majority of our inmates were urban blacks. <<
What about swimming? Were a lot of them afraid of that also?