Dr. Mario Beatty gave out class interesting details that I have never heard of before. For instance, nearly six and a half million slaves were taken from Africa and sent to America; however, even more were sent to other areas around the globe, such as the Domincan Republic. Despite the forced seperation from their homelands, Africans still embraced several cultural dynamics that are present even today. Things such as food, friendship, language or speech, and music still influenced the African way of life. In fact, they even had an impact on the way's of living of other ethnic groups. The use of African's method of agricultural culitvation with rice and the use of musical instruments such as the banjo are all central themes that Africans developed back in their original homeland. It's interesting to see the large number of dignified historians and professors who claim that everything was lost or forgotten when Africans left their home permanently and how it matches up against the amount of evidence that proves otherwise. This goes to show that we must do research on our backgrounds for ourselves to avoid any discrediting information to cloud us from are ture, historic past.