For African Americans, the one-drop rule was a significant factor in ethnic solidarity. African Americans generally shared a common cause in society regardless of their multiracial admixture, or social/economic stratification. Additionally, African Americans found it, near, impossible to learn about their Indigenous American heritage as many <answer>family elders</answer> withheld pertinent genealogical information. Tracing the genealogy of African Americans can be a very difficult process, especially for descendants of Indigenous Americans, because African Americans who were slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write, and a majority of Indigenous Americans neither spoke English, nor read or wrote it.
Who made it next to impossible to learn about their heritage for African Americans?
family elders