Slave Rebellion in the Antebellum South - a Non-violent Fight

A professor of African American history once said, "The trauma of slavery stripped Africans of their culture and left them submissive and pliable. Thus black American culture is wholly derived from the experiences of slaves in America.”  There is a problem at the very core of this thesis statement: It contains no concessions. Very few arguments can make such an absolute generalization and remain completely valid. One could easily argue that black American culture is partially derived from the slave-experience of their ancestors, but not wholly. So instead of wasting time attempting to prove a haughty, over-generalized thesis statement wrong, let us explore this concession, this partial cultural change. After all, it was not only the African culture that changed; the slaves boldly clung to their native languages, arts, and lifestyles. It was the European culture as well. The impact African culture had on colonial America proves on its own that the slaves, as a whole, did not submissively drop their culture when faced with slavery.