The article is devoted to the analysis of the causes and ways of overcoming the identity crisis among the enslaved African Americans based on A. Randall’s novel «The wind done gone». The definitions of the terms «identity», «stigma», and «identity crisis» are given, basic types of stigma are described. The article proves that Africans brought to America were stigmatized, which subsequently led to the emergence of an identity crisis. The analysis reveals factors influencing the formation of identity among the black population and the ways of identity deprivation used by slaveholders, such as withholding information about the date and the place of birth, deprivation of name, separation from the family, sexual slavery. As a result, the author describes the resources used by ex-slaves after the abolition of slavery to overcome the identity crisis and to form their own identity as free people. Love of family members, positive interpersonal relations with the representatives of the community, recognition of oneself as part of the collective spirit play a very important part among them.