<p dir="ltr">Disability and Deaf Studies scholars have documented how United States Deaf culture developed in the nineteenth century partially through Deaf schools teaching a common sign language, American Sign Language (ASL). These scholars focus on the development of a broader United States Deaf culture and its long-term struggle against teaching oralism (lip reading), without much discussion about the variability of cultural identities within the Deaf community. This paper fills that gap by examining two historical Deaf subcultures, the Deaf community founded around hereditary Deafness and isolated on Martha’s Vineyard, and Black Deaf communities formed in racially segregated Deaf schools in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It shows how each case differed from the broader Deaf experience, resulting in diverse experiences from which Deaf subcultures with distinct ASL dialects emerged. Through comparative analysis, this paper argues that separation from the broader Deaf community resulted in the development of each community as unique Deaf subcultures that resisted oppression through cultural, community, and language development. By understanding how these groups lived, this paper further shows that there is diversity within Deaf experiences rather than one shared experience.</p>