can anybody help me find an Historan who argues that African American slaves did not have an identity! ?

Question

argue against Lawrence Levine
a-level c.w
i have to argue that the slaves did have a culture of resistance !

Answer 1

On an individual basis many slaves ran away. According to one estimate, the US South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850. Also in the Caribbean, the Maroons of Jamaica escaped in large enough numbers to establish their own communities and openly fight the British on a number of occasions.

There are also many instances of outright rebellion, the Maroons as mentioned already but also these are worth googling:

The Amistad (1839 Pretty famous event - Slave ship where the slaves took over the ship)

Saint-Domingue (Haiti) Rebellion (beginning in 1791)
Barbados 1816
Demerara (British Guiana) 1823
Jamaica 1831

Several attempts in the US including Nat Turner's 1831 rebellion in Virginia but also many others (not all lead by slaves but all had an element of slave participation) I'll list some names here in case you want to google them too.

John Brown
Denmark Vesey
Gabriel Prosser

It was also common for slaves to be offered freedom if they fought on one side of an insurection. At the conculsion of the American Revolution aproximately 3,000 runaway slaves who had assisted the British Army were moved from New York City to Nova Scotia and freedom. Similar offers of freedom were made during the War of 1812 and the US Civil war as well, both by the North and South.

There were other more subtle forms of resistance, you can talk about working slowly/poorly etc. but it's pretty hard to argue against these obvious forms. are many many more instances not listed above these are just the more famous/ well documented ones I can think of.

Answer 2

You could look into active and passive resistance by slaves, and the culture and roots of African-American music.

I think if you take a look into Black or African American stories and music, you find common thread that tells of hardship and the daily injustices that they talked about.

In this music, there is a element that they recognise themselves as being a group of oppressed people. And that it was as a group that they talked discussed and rejected their status as slaves.

This music and stories was a form of passive resistance - that the slaves recognised their identity and while they did not openly rebel, they were conciously aware that they were being treated harshly.

But there is also open resistance to slavery. Maybe if you even take a look at slave rebellions and where they most frequently occured, and during what time period.

Especially during the civil war period and slaves deserting from the plantations to flee.

Answer 3

While the slaves who boarded the ships in Africa may have been stripped of their clothing and possessions, of their language and religion, of their families and their future in Africa, the one thing they brought to America in perfect condition was their mind. They brought with them knowledge of planting and harvesting, ex, they brought knowledge of growing rice, a crop totally foreign to the Western Europeans. They brought music and traditions. Why else do you think the South developed so differently from the North, it's all about the culture of Africans.