Is it true that slave owners bred their slaves to be less intelligent so they would be easier to control?

Absolutely,

but that doesn't keep slaves from learning nor having a spirit NO SLAVE OWNER can destroy!

Well, they didn't let them learn how to read or get a form of education because slave owners did not want them to be intelligent enough to rebel.

From what I understood they bred slaves to be bad asses, but they kept literature from them.

They didn't know how intelligent the slaves were, so there was no way to breed them into stupidity.

how do you do that ?

no i don't think that's true they where kept ignorant coz there was no need to educate them

in them days slaves did manual tasks that may of needed skill but did not need to read and write they just did what they where told

it was widely believed that slaves where inferior and most slaves accepted it that way

...........that is NOT true...... they were bred for strength, and endurance and the women were bred for beauty and fun,, actually the Owner was in da big white house and the slaves made passionate love at night..... down in da shacks....... That's why they are great athletes and Beautiful people today........