Did any of your ancestors own slaves?

If so, do you feel guilty?

• 1) I had many who did. My McCullochs owned quite a few in Orange Co., NC, and one slave allowed me to trace my family''s trek into eastern TN because of the slave''s mention in a will...\ \ True story.\ \ 2) Why would *I* feel guilty? I wasn''t around.

  Meh

• You can go on ancestry.com and you can see slaves itemized on a list like a grocery list. It really is shocking.

  Rumpy

• Yes, my colonial New England ancestors had slaves. I was surprised and had a flash of guilty feeling when I found out.

• Yes. When my great-great-grandfather came from Ireland, he bought two slaves and freed them in NC. He hired them to help build his store and to work in it. When he passed on the store to his son, the son of one of the ex-slaves worked there. That family stayed friends with my family through several generations. I met some of them at my grandparents 50th anniversary when I was a kid. Had I been older, I probably would have taken notes because there were some fascinating stories that had been passed on.

• How did I know Rumpy started this thread? Do you ever read books or do something constructive instead of wondering things?

• One of my ancestors was a notorious slave trader from the Isle of Mann. He''s an ancestor that I share with Dan Quayle.\ \ Since this man is an ancestor by birth and I was adopted by another family, I have in no way benefited from his ill-gotten gains.

• My father''s side of the family has lived in North Carolina for almost 200 years. My mother''s for about 150. I''ve never found any ancestor who owned slaves. Most White families did not own slaves.

• Imagine your family owned slaves back then. And that was life. and then there was the Civil War and slaves were granted human status and couln''t be owned. Wouldn''t you feel weird? Suppose you really tried to be a Christian and you had to face what you had done to slaves just last year or something when they were property.

  Rumpy

• I''m black and think the notion that white people today should feel guilty about their ancestors having owned slaves is absolutely ludicrous. They weren''t even around back then.

• More Asperger''s-related inappropriate musings from Rumpy. Nothing to see her folks--move along.

• Part of my father''s family came over on the HMS Double Wide and we''ve faithfully adhered to that white trash tradition ever since.\ \ However, we do share a Welsh name with many black people in Virginia.

• Yes, they owned many slaves.%0D\ %0D\ No, I don''t feel guilty in the least. That was a century before I was even born.

• Yes, I own slaves. I just asked them if they felt guilty about me owning them, and they said no.

  Newt

• Those of you who had ancestors who owned slaves probably also had ancestors who *were* slaves. \ \ But I won''t worry your pretty little heads about it.

• None owned slaves that I know of, but they did fight for the Confederacy.\ \ My family has a long and fine standing tradition of doing stupid shit that is in direct conflict with their own best interests.

  Another One of the Lesbians

• It''s more likely my people were slaves rather than owned them. Actually, indentured servants is more probable.

• My family didn''t own slaves, but interestingly enough, my uncle traced that we were descended from Irish indentured servants. Apparently my ancestors bought their freedom and then changed the Gaelic last name of O''Callaghan to the more Anglican sounding Calloway. \ \ Fascinating what you can find when you dig into your familial past.

• Probably not, but they were crazy drunks and gamblers.

  MarshallLaw

• No -- Amish didn''t own slaves, and I''m descended from Amish on both sides.

  PA Dutch girl

• Yes, in Georgia and Virginia in the 18th and 19th centuries. I have copies of their wills that explain how the testator wanted to dispose of the slaves, who are in the same section of the will as livestock. Pretty depressing.

• My guilt doesn''t go back that far, especially for something I didn''t do.

  Probably in Ancient Rome and/or Greece

• I think we still have a few.

  Bar Bush, looking for the dinner bell

• Like the majority of people of European descent, I don''t have any slave owners in my family in the last 300 years. I don''t know about before then. There is a good chance that some of my Eastern European ancestors were slaves themselves, considering they fought to throw the Turks and the Tatars out of their countries for centuries. Reading about the many Slavs that were abducted and taken to the Middle East, I felt extremely blessed that my ancestors somehow avoided that fate.

• Are the Taters'' children Tater tots???

  Ciaran

• Yes, my ancestors owned a large amount of slaves. Our family home is now a National Trust property, a very well known plantation here in Charleston.\ \ I have no guilt over it, it was what it was and has nothing to do with me, although I have the family name which is also the name of the plantation. Descendants of my family and of the slave families get together annually at the plantation for a reunion and it is always a wonderful occasion.

  PrinceofTides

• The Slavs were enslaved by greater powers for over 2000, starting with ancient Rome. The very word "slave" comes from Slavic.

• Yes and no, no guilt.%0D\ %0D\ Blacks owned slaves and some still do in Africa today.%0D\ %0D\ This effort to perpetuate racial warfare is disgusting.%0D\ %0D\ US Slavery ended nearly 150 years ago. Time to move on.

• I had at least one ancestor who was an indentured servant, she left Ireland during the famine for the U.S.

• Yes some of my ancestors owned slaves and I''m Black. My father''s family is from Louisiana and they were free coloreds which means that they could own land. They purchased land and with that land came slaves. I have no idea if they set them free after the purchase but I hope so.

• Yes, and the thought sickens. %0D\ I met a black woman with my surname, Lenoir, but she married into the name. I was too ashamed to ask if her husband''s family came from around Dallas Co, Alabama.%0D\ %0D\ I struggled with "white guilt" for years, but finally let it go when I realized how ridiculous it is to feel ashamed of something I didn''t do.%0D\ %0D

• No but, even if I did, I''d feel no guilt.

• My ancestors were passing out drunk in their own vomit in gutters in and around Belfast during American slavery, so no. My family didn''t come to the US until much later.

• Yes, some of my ancestors owned slaves; no, I don''t carry guilt as a result, no more than I carry pride.%0D\ %0D\ [quote]I struggled with "white guilt" for years, but finally let it go when I realized how ridiculous it is to feel ashamed of something I didn''t do. %0D\ %0D\ It seems not so much ridiculous as pointless, counterproductive, even indulgent to revel in "white guilt." If the measure of a person is in how they behave toward others, this inward "struggling" contributes nothing but self-indulgence.

• as far as i know, only my celtic ancestors owned slaves...mostly welsh. my mom''s family were pirates in the outer hebrides, and their most famous captive was named succat, but after converting to christianity he romanized his name to patrick. this was in the 8th century. once my dad''s family came to america, they were too poor to own african-american slaves, and that ancestor actually desserted the confederate army and spent a few years in a confederate prison (elizabethton?). my mom''s family came over in the 1870''s, after slavery. that having been said, slavery is a blight on all human civilization, and still occurs today. i have a dear friend from india who was a victim of human trafficking. he''s done well for himself, however, once he was able to escape his sad situation. and don''t get me started on sexual slavery...

  never forget the past

• My ancestors not only owned slaves, but hid their own African ancestry in the process. My gr gr grandfather was the last to have slaves, and he - in the parlance a quadroon - had a black grandmother and an uncle who was exiled from North Carolina for marrying a white woman.\ \ I''m the one who unearthed the hidden family background, which apparently had been forcefully suppressed and then forgotten. It left me feeling humbled and more fully grounded in the history of the country, and connected to all Americans in a closer way. \ \ If that sounds like a "Mary" statement, I''ll accept it.

• Not that we know of.\ \ Most Southerners did not own slave. The quarter of the population that did, owned just one or two and worked in the fields alongside of them.\ \ A small percentage of the population owned the large plantations and thus lots of slaves.\ \ Despite the above facts, nearly all the southern population supported the institution of slavery and the wealth it provided for the small percentage of top plantation owner. I guess, like today, they believed the lie of trickle-down economics.

• My ancestors were French shippers who apparently got their start in the slave trade before the Revolution, then in the late 19th century actively participated in the Scramble for Africa.%0D\ %0D\ I don''t feel guilty about it. I didn''t do it. We all have ancestors who likely did horrible things.

• If you call them personal assistants or interns it helps avoid all that messy retrubution chatter.%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ %0D\ (Kunta get me a low fat vegan bagel!!! Now)

  www.goop.com

• Yes they did and No I don''t feel guilty.\ \ R1 - did your McCullochs land in NC or did they migrate down from VA?

• My ancestors were slaves in Egypt.

  Shlomo the Homo

• Yes, some of mine (in America) did. No, I don''t feel guilty. How can I feel guilt over something I can''t control or change at all. Go back far enough and we''ve all been slaves. Most of us still are.

• My mother (35-40 years ago) had an equally elderly neighbor over. The woman had lived out west her whole life and upon learning mom had grown up in Virginia asked if if she had owned slaves while growing up. %0D\ %0D\ Of course, back then my Virginia relatives were surprised to learn we no longer have "injun trouble" out here.

• My dad, who is super big into genealogy, told me a couple years ago that one of our ancestral families owned slaves. Not a lot because they weren't rich with a big plantation or anything, but he had found records of this guy owning one or two slaves in Kentucky while he farmed there before he moved to Illinois. I can't say that the knowledge that my own ancestors owned slaves changed anything for me. I was someone who often thought about the Civil War and pre-Civil War America, a pretty die hard liberal and someone who always acknowledged historical white privilege beforehand so it more confirmed my worldview more than anything. But I suppose I would have been more upset if in that same ancestral family I didn't also have Civil War veteran ancestors who fought for the north or had I had any ancestors whatsoever who fought for the South. Honestly though the ancestry that's hurt me more in my lifetime is being a Serb. My largest ethnic concentration is Serb and my favorite grandparent was a Serb, albeit one born in America almost 100 years ago. Yet in my lifetime all I know of Serbia is an embarrassing car called the Yugo, Serbs committing genocide after the Yugoslavia breakup and Serbian-American Rod Blagojevich being the worst governor ever. I know *my* Serbian DNA had nothing to do with these things, but it still hurts.

• My mother's family is from Camilla GA going back to somewhere in the 1790%E2%80%99s. My twin sister and I lived in south Georgia until we could escape to college.%0D %0D %0D When we were growing up we learned about slavery in school. When we told our mom what we were studying she told us her family had owned slaves for a long time and they had worked on her family%E2%80%99s plantation. She talked about her family owning slaves like it was a good thing that her relatives had been bought and sold people. She later denied ever saying it. She said we made it up just to hurt her, because her family was a fine upstanding southern family and they wouldn%E2%80%99t ever have done that. %0D %0D %0D Several years later when my sister brought up the slavery issue again and asked how her family had run their plantation with out slaves my mom slapped her so hard she wore the hand print on her face for days. %0D %0D %0D About 10 years later my sister got engaged to a great guy from a very liberal family up north. At the engagement party my mom got drunk and started to talk to several members of my sister%E2%80%99s future family about the history of her fine southern family. She told them about the amazing plantation house, and what life was like there. As if she had lived there her whole life instead of only seeing it in pictures. It burned down in the 1940%E2%80%98s because her crazy ass mom got a bit too crazy and thought God had commanded her to do it. %0D %0D %0D Then she bragged to the future in laws and several other people that had wandered into the group, including my sister and myself, that her family had kept their plantation for so many years past the time when other families had lost theirs, because her family had been so financially brilliant, and had such good control over their %E2%80%9Clabor%E2%80%9D. She then proudly told everyone that her family had been the very first family in Mitchell County GA to own slaves. She told us all that at one time her family had owned more than one hundred %E2%80%9Cdarkies%E2%80%9D (her word). They were such good workers and helped to make her family incredibly rich. %0D %0D %0D When someone said that it was a horrible thing to own people, she proceeded to explain why there was nothing wrong with owning uman beings. Her family had been shrewd business people who understood that it was absolutely necessary for their survival for them to own people. %0D %0D %0D Someone asked if anyone from the families of the slaves had ever tried to contact her family to try to find out anything about their history or information on other family members. My mom pulled a look like someone had just offered her a fried baby%E2%80%99s leg for dinner. She said that neither she, or anyone in her family had ever had any contact with %E2%80%9Cthose people%E2%80%9D. %0D %0D %0D She said that her family, in owning slaves, had really been doing a very good thing for them. They got to leave Africa, which was an illiterate, diseased, and mostly evil country full of people who had no chance of a better life, to come to America. They were treated well when they were bought by her family, because for the first time in their lives they lived in a proper house, one with a roof on it. According to her, the most important thing her family had done for their slaves was to teach them that their religion was wrong, and had brought so many people to Christianity and had, as a result, saved their souls. %0D %0D %0D By that point everyone had a horrified look on their face. My sister and I had to force her to leave the party and make her go back upstairs to her hotel room. She didn%E2%80%99t understand what she had done that was so bad, and in typical mom fashion, found a way to dump the blame on someone else. Supposedly my sister and I got her drunk just to embarrass her, and make her look like trash. Ya right, like she needed any help at with that.%0D %0D %0D My sister was sure that after my mom%E2%80%99s performance her fianc%C3%A9 was going to break up with her. It didn%E2%80%99t happen but he did insist, along with his parents, that our mom didn%E2%80%99t come to the wedding. I know it might sound heartless, but no one wanted to take on the risk of her behavior.

• Sorry to go on like that and sounding all EST-y. I%E2%80%99d meant to write a short reply but hit save post before reconsidering

  R43

• Sadly, no. Proper slavery has never been legal in Australia.

  Rupert Murdoch

• [quote]and that ancestor actually desserted the confederate army and spent a few years in a confederate prison\ \ Nice to know that those rebels had cake and ice cream!

• When I was forced to go to church as a kid, we would always sing ''Amazing Grace''. and I heard recently that Amazing Grace was written by a prominent slaveowner who came to regret the sin of slavery and so that''s what the song is about. But I don''t remember any references to slavery in ''Amazing Grace''. Can anybody explain?

  Rumpy

• Nobody in my family owned. We always rented.

• No. All my ancestors emigrated to the U.S. well after the Civil War. On my father''s side they were shtetl Jews from Russia. On my mother''s side they were European peasants. Once they got here they got by through hard work and education. No exploitation of others, including persons of African heritage, was involved at any point along the line.

• My Uncle Clarence had a slave. His name was Jake. He cleaned Uncle Clarence''s boots, and sucked like a water pump. This was in 1966.

• I hope so!

• I''m not sure guilt is the right word, but I do get a strong sense of sadness that the benefits and privileges I have living in Australia were at the expense of our indigenous people. It''s particularly strong because I live in an area where I see how badly disadvantaged indigenous Australians continue to be.\ \ I know that had the British not colonised, someone else would have and there was no way traditional Aboriginal culture could have survived against external forces, but it''s still something I contemplate.\ \ I often wonder whether there''s a similar feeling among Americans. There''s much discussion regarding issues of race pertaining to African Americans, but discussions regarding the situation of Native Americans seems rare.

• Three of my great-grandparents were indentured servants. The fourth''s family owned a fleet of whaling ships and had both indentured servants and slaves for most of the 19th century. Oddly enough, when the family freed their slaves, they kept the indentures of their Irish house servants.\ \ In fact, my father''s grandfather bought my great-grandmother''s indenture from his own father and married her. Apparently only my great-great-grandfather approved of the marriage, and the notion of his marrying so far "beneath" him caused a rift with the rest of the family that never healed. In the family bible the names of my great-great-grandmother and my great-grandfather''s siblings are crossed out, and no further marriages or births on that branch of the family tree are listed.

• My ancestors were like those of 90% of the people in the US -- farmers here or abroad hoeing their own rows, sometimes with hired help.

• Yes, and no.

  Golden Arches

• I do not believe the correct word is "guilty" but rather *regretful*. I do feel regretful that some of my ancestors own slaves. I can''t imagine that any decent person would feel differently.

• Yes. No, but I do feel guilty that the average white family has ten times the assets of the average black family, a legacy of those times. I feel that we need to make a one-off payment of 50K to African American households to improve things.%0D

• [italic]I feel that we need to make a one-off payment of 50K to African American households to improve things.[/italic]\ \ LMAO!

  Lotto tickets, and 20 inch rims, here I come!

• Troll-dar leaves no surprises about R59.\ \ This, and other threads.

• Cool story, r54. Sounds like it would make a good movie. Wonder why we don''t ever see anything about indentured servitude in movies or books. Apparently a great many people came over that way.

• Hell, my ancestors didn''t own ANYTHING!

• Yes, my mother.\ \ But she freed all of them in 1992 because her neighborhood association objected.

• Yes.\ \ No.

• No, my mother''s family immigrated to the US after WWI from Budapest. They were part of the German minority there. My father''s family immigrated to the US from the Netherlands and England also after WWI.

• r61 If you take a look at some history that tells the truth about things like The People''s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn, you would find that information about indentured servants and about slaves and what there relationship was to one another. Those in charge at the time knew to keep the slaves and indentured servants distrustful of each other and to breed bigotry between them. It is an interesting read.

• [quote]I''m black and think the notion that white people today should feel guilty about their ancestors having owned slaves is absolutely ludicrous. They weren''t even around back then.\ \ Dude, can you PLEASE come to Canada and tell the government that it should have the same attitude towards Indians?!?!?!

  it was 200 fucking years ago, get over it

• [quote]slavery is a blight on all human civilization, and still occurs today. i have a dear friend from india who was a victim of human trafficking. he''s done well for himself, however, once he was able to escape his sad situation.\ \ In what way(s) was your friend a slave? And was this pretty recently?

• both of my maternal grandparents were descended from largescale slave-owners, in KY, VA, and LA. %0D %0D My uncle was compiling the family genealogy about a decade ago and was corresponding online with a distant cousin. When he brought up the idea of contacting some of the "african-american" relatives, ie, those who were also descended from our forebears, this woman went nuts and forbid other family members from contacting him...this was around the time of "Slaves in the Family" and the press stories re. Thomas Jefferson's family and if his black descendents would be allowed to participate in family events at Monticello or something like that. %0D %0D What don't realize how many current "white" Americans are descended from freed slaves. In the late 1700s/early 1800s many slaveowners (such as Jefferson) granted freedom to "family" slaves, ie, their illegitimate sons/daughters; these children often left home and went west to what is now Ohio, Indiana, etc. and settled there, arriving as unknowns and blending into the new societies there as "white". No one knew better; many quietly married other white homesteaders, had families, and their descendents currently populate the midwest and other parts of the U.S....many "whites" have african blood and have no idea, maybe millions of people.

• [quote]Descendants of my family and of the slave families get together annually at the plantation for a reunion and it is always a wonderful occasion.%0D\ %0D\ Till it''s time to clean up.

• W&W for R70!

• So true R69. A government study in the 50s stated that 5-15% of the so-called "white" US population had varying degrees of African ancestry, some only a couple of generations ahead.

• Do any black Africans feel guilty about capturing and selling fellow black Africans into slavery?

• [quote]A government study in the 50s stated that 5-15% of the so-called "white" US population had varying degrees of African ancestry, some only a couple of generations ahead.%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ In your dreams.

• Cheer up, R43, you also have the Djoker!

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novak_Djokovic

• Being that my ancestors were Italian, it is very likely that they either owned slaves or were slaves.

  beachstevemiami

• No, my family arrived here after WWI....

• My parents still own a couple

• Actually, r76, if you go back far enough ....

  Spartacus%20

• Hortense Calisher wrote a memoir about her discovery that the grandmother who'd helped raise her had been a slave owner. (Calisher's father was born during the Civil War; she was born in 1911, died in 2009.) It's called "Tattoo for a Slave."

• Yes. But if pictures of their feral plants around the porches are any indication, not enough.

• Yes. My first ancestors settled in Virginia in the mid 1600's and owned slaves until the Civil War. Do I feel guilty? Fuck yeah--my ancestors OWNED other peoples ancestors. It STILL sort of gnaws at me that human beings were considered property. But...what can I do? That was so long ago. I have no control over the past, unfortunately.

  I%27m%20Sorry%21

• Get over it...

• Yes. My ancestors had slaves. In Kentucky. I don't feel guilty, it was 150 years ago. I do feel guilty that slavery still goes on today in many places in the world and and very few people are doing anything about it.

• That whole serf thing was practically slavery.

• No No No -- no slave. Raneen is our friend who helps us from love. No. No slave.

  Ranimesh%20Ram%20in%20Larchmont.

• [quote]Did any of your ancestors own slaves? What do you mean "did?" We just call them "nannies" nowadays.

  Fraus

• Yep. My great-great-great-grandfather (originally from the Netherlands) owned a mess of 'em. He took a fancy to one Kitty Maundy (spelling is probably wrong) and had several children with her - including my great-great-grandfather. So, should I feel guilty about being the descendant of a slave master or should I feel victimized about being the descendant of a slave? Either way, what does it really matter to me what was going on during the nineteenth century? They're both there at the top of the old family tree. As a side note - great-great-great-grandfather's brother ended up in South Africa...and we all know how that ended.

• Those who say "I didn't have anything to do with it" need to search their hearts for a deeper understanding of white privilege and their role in either perpetuating or helping to end the ongoing racial inequalities in America. The legacy of slavery is very real and still alive. The political will to change things like the unconscionable racial inequalities in education is affected by white attitudes like "it's not my fault." The privileges and resources people are born with or not born with are definitely not one's fault, obviously. But the responsibility to educate yourself about social justice and make a difference now certainly is yours alone.

• My ancestors were poor farmer folk in Norway. They certainly didn't own slaves. But I feel guilty anyway, the enormousness of this crime is so hard to deal with. Shameful.

• My New England ancestors did own slaves until about 1800. And my Kentucky ancestors were slaves until about 1860. I am facsinated with history and dont feel guilty at all.

• Most of mine didn't own many slaves themselves, but I am descended from the guy who essentially started the triangle trade (along with Francis Drake): Admiral Sir John Hawkins. He introduced tobacco and potatoes to Europe (thereby gifting Europeans with new sources of terminal illnesses) and hatched the trade of slaves, rum and sugar up around the Atlantic. This was underwritten by Elizabeth I, who was always scrounging around for money. He died a rather ignominious death probably from dysentery on a voyage with Francis Drake and was dumped in the ocean of the coast of Puerto Rico. I now wonder if I have bad karma with the state of Veracruz in Mexico after he tried to use that state's port city as a foothold to take Mexico away from Spain. (He was wildly unsuccessful.) Through him I can trace my ancestry on a male line back to William the Conqueror and the great-grandfather of Charlemagne. He wasn't prolific (one son) but some of his descendents were. Some Hawkins descendant from Devonshire recently paraded through the capital of the Gambia or somewhere in chains to atone for our ancestor's actions toward the people there. He looks exactly like my uncle. I've seen the wills of some of my more recent slaveowning ancestors. They didn't own many. In the Virginia tidewater unless you were a big deal cotton planter (which my ancestors weren't) you didn't own a whole lot of slaves. In fact most slaveowning families owned fewer than 3 slaves. There was one bequest of an "old colored man George" sometime in the early 18th century. He probably managed the stables, judging from what else was devised in the will. I hope they weren't assholes to their slaves. And no, I don't feel guilty, though I probably would if I found something worse than descent from the person who founded the whole damn slave trade to begin with. I get into trouble with my partner for this, but when you consider that the people of African slave descent in the West enjoy the highest standard of living of people of African descent anywhere - especially Africa - I guess I can see the grey areas.

• I have ancestors who owned slaves, some who were slaves, some who were Native American, some who fought for the Confederacy and some who fought for the Union. I also have a female ancestor who was tried in federal court for attempted murder, and her brother was convicted of and served time for two murders, but was believed to have committed at least one other murder. I have ancestors who fought in the Revolution and one who killed his father-in-law in self-defense and who served time for driving a get-away car in a major robbery. I have a close relative who is an elected politician and another who is an award-winning actor. My father was a bigot, batterer and child abuser who pretended to be a role model for Christian teenagers. I don't feel guilty for any of their misdeeds any more than I take credit for any of their accomplishments. I am responsible for my own behavior, not anyone else's.

• I heard there are more slaves now than during pre-civil war times. It is cheaper to traffic people now or treat them as quasi slaves by paying a low wage and forcing them to pay rent and pay for their food from their employer. It is digusting, non justifiable and needs to end now. To the people who have slaveholder lineage think of all the black relatives who share your blood and do your part to fight racism and slavery.

• If your ancestors came from the UK and your name ends with an 's' such as Roberts , Richards ,Kendricks or something similar, chances are your ancestor was a slave or at the very least an indentured servant "belonging" to Robert,Richard or Kendrick.

• Yes. No. Screw white guilt. Life's too fucking short and masochism is nothing but a neurosis.

• Oh, and R89--go die, you pansy-assed neo-Puritan. Mother Nature has declared you a weakling and wants you out of the gene pool. Pussy.

• Nope. They all came over around 1903, half from Holland and England, and the rest of them from Poland (or the Austro-Hungarian Empire). My grandfather and great-grandfather were "slaves" themselves, gardener and driver on the Loew estate on Long Island.

• [quote]Some Hawkins descendant from Devonshire recently paraded through the capital of the Gambia or somewhere in chains to atone for our ancestor's actions toward the people there. Of all the nations in west Africa, The Gambia seemed more advanced than the others. I spent time in five W.A. nations in the 90s. Every one of them has had a revolution or coup since I've been there. In the capitol of Sierra Leone, there's a big island in the middle of the harbor. It's where the captives were held before they were shipped out and sold into slavery. I got chills every time I saw that island. When we were leaving Sierra Leone, a revolution began that day next door in Liberia so we met some of the refugees at the airport. I'm glad I had an opportunity to contribute something in those nations but never want to go back.

• [quote]Those who say "I didn't have anything to do with it" need to search their hearts for a deeper understanding of white privilege and their role in either perpetuating or helping to end the ongoing racial inequalities in America. But slavery is not solely a white or solely an American phenomenon. Slavery existed (and exists today) in Asia and Africa and Europe and South America:. You had ancestors who owned slaves too, toots--unless you're an Australian aborigine or a New Guinea tribesman.

• r99, why do you think The Gambia is in better shape than its neighbors? It's so tiny.

• My partner has such connections: On his mother's side are Tlinget Alaskan indigenous tribes who considered themselves superior to other native tribes and enslaved them, according to his grandmother. His father's people are from Mississippi and include slaveowners. But my partner is funny and sweet and loved by everyone who knows him. His ancestry is a part of him, I guess, but it's not a part of his experience on this planet. I'll marry the big lug the first chance I get....

  Anomynous

• No we were po' white trash back then.

• Tlingits are awesome, r102. I bet your partner is pretty if he resembles mom.

• Chung Ho have many ancestors in Korea. Some in what is now the North and some in the South. Chung Ho never own the slaves. Koreans are much to kind to be owners and much to proud to be the slavery. Once Chung Ho ask the Afrikan why he be a slave and he say that he have no choice but deadness. Chung Ho say better dead than red

  Chung%20Ho

• How far back are we talking? Or is the implicit question "did any of your ancestors own *black* slaves?" If you think you are "safely" white, it is more than likely that you can "safely" say that you have had slaves in your ancestry - as in *they* were the slaves... In the same way, I can *guarantee* that you have black ancestors... And in the same way, you can demolish any "oh, I am descended from *insert famous person's name here* by simply saying "me too" Personally, I'm descended from Julius Caesar... Well, it explains the nose.

• [quote] I heard recently that Amazing Grace was written by a prominent slaveowner who came to regret the sin of slavery and so that's what the song is about. Cathartic.

• R73 just hit the nail on the head. I work for a predominantly black college and I'm one of the few white staff members. I attended a meeting yesterday for an upcoming Founders Day event, which was attended by a few prominent black community members. One elderly "stateswoman" went into a rant about an alleged vote-fixing scheme in the 1920s by white people against the black community in our city. I thought, "Bitch, you weren't even there! Why are you so pissed off about it?" I finally got up and walked out.

• I don't feel guilty about anything that happened before I was born. I do feel guilty that white families today have something like fifteen times the wealth of black families.

• [quote]My grandfather and great-grandfather were "slaves" themselves, gardener and driver on the Loew estate on Long Island. You misunderstand the term "slave" on all levels.

• [quote]You misunderstand the term "slave" on all levels. You misunderstood my post on all levels.

• The Bible says we are allowed to own slaves so long as they are from a neighboring country. I own two Canadians.

• Going back to the dawn of slavery in antiquity? It's very possible.

• My ancestors were so poor they had to apply to become slaves. I think they were on the slave waiting list for 20 years. Often,they would have to beat themselves just to stay in good slave condition. To this day I cannot eat cotton candy.

• Absolutely. Their descendents should thank my family because without us they'd all be living in some malaria filled mud pit, running around naked, uneducated, and uncivilized. They're all very welcome!

• Own? You're using past-tense.

  I still do

• Those whose families owned slaves are also very likely to be related to descendants of slaves.

• Yet how to explain *your* apparent lack of education and civility, R115?

• Since she retired, my mom has been spending time doing the on line ancestor thingy. My family has been here a really long time, like they were in New York before it was New York. That being said, there is a pretty good chance someone owned a slave. However, one other relative was an outspoken abolitionist and five ancestors died fighting for the Union in the Civil War, so my guilt about any possible slaves is not very strong.

• Do our African-American posters feel ashamed of the slave-owners in their own ancestries?

• One or two Israelites. And a Sumarian.

• My paternal ancestors were murdering tyrants in Europe for centuries. I'm sure they owned people, or worse. In the last several generations, though, not so much. Mostly farmers and laborers.

• Ancestors?!

  Mitt%20R

• Yes, my great great grandfather had over 250. No, I do not feel guilty. When the union came thru their farm and burned down the house, barns, shop, kitchen, and slave quarters, most of the slaves stayed on after the war. My grandmother told me her grand father was good to them.

• R105, you can pull your little shtick as many times as your fat little fingers can type, but NO ONE finds it funny. As for the slave issue….my ancestors were northerners and some came from Europe after 1865….but as horrifying as the idea is, I don't find it shocking when someone learns their ancestors did. It's part of our history. Reba McEntire found out one of her ancestors had slaves. If you had even a middle class life at that time, it was likely you might have owned some.

• When doing my research on my family, I found a great-great-great grandmother, Sarah, owned slaves. There was no mention of her having a husband, and I was under the impression that women couldn't own slaves, so I don't know what to think? Anyone have any ideas on this?

• R126, excellent question. I think that women could not own slaves or real estate because they had no property rights back then. Women, themselves, were little more than chattel, a step above the slaves, actually. I am not sure about inheritance rights, though. Say the plantation owner died and left everything to his widow. Would she then own the slaves through probate succession? I am quite sure that laws were pretty "loosey goosey" depending upon various factors such as social position, MONEY and power. Powerful, rich women would have found a way to own slaves, I bet. And I have found no evidence that anyone in my family owned slaves, although we are Welsh on the maternal side and were originally farmers when my ancestors came to this country in the 1700's. There was some great wealth in my family at one time but that is in the early years of the 20th century. Now, there WERE an awful lot of employees in our family business (lumber mill) but they were compensated and taken care of quite well. And several of those employees were black. My family were very much equal opportunity employers even way back then.

• [quote]Do our African-American posters feel ashamed of the slave-owners in their own ancestries? Most black people dont know if their white or black ancestors owned slaves or not, but Im sure thats the case a lot of the time. Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were biracial. My maternal grandmother's parents were both half white and half black, so all their children were biracial blacks also. It pretty safe to assume that they were the product of a owner- slave relationship. But you can't really feel ashamed of anything if you dont know the nature of the relationship. I think whats more freaky is that most black people in America are related to white people who live completely different lives from them and will never know.

  black%20

• R126 and R127 - I think on several of the ancestry shows they have actually indicated that slaves were considered property and therefore could be inherited by the widows. Hard to tell early on as neither women nor slaves were in the Census.

• My ancestors were very virtuous. All of the women in the family were nuns.

• If you read wills, you will see that women did indeed control property. Most of education is ridiculous, if not lies.

• No they didn't, but I wouldn't feel guilty anyway. The notion of inherited guilt isn't that far off "original sin" and is just as nonsensical.

• Yes, my ancestors owned slaves in Virginia, Alabama and Texas and had around 100 on the Texas plantation at the end of the Civil War, when they were freed. Most stayed on the plantation after freedom since that was the only life they'd known and they knew they'd be treated fairly there. They were paid as hired help from then on and kept the house and farm running. Do I feel guilty? No. It was 100+ years before I was born and it was a different way of life then.

• We did. During the holidays my mother is apt to say she wishes we still did. Do I feel guilty? No. Mother's always taking on too much.

• Yes they did, OP, at least the ones who migrated South from Massachusetts after the Revolutionary War owned slaves. And yes, of course I feel guilty about it.

• Kinda still do. I buy cheap clothes and produce, so it's outsourced.

• No, My italian family was poor, when my grandfather came to America. That is why I refuse to identify myself as white, white people owned slaves.

  I%20always%20choose%20other%20%26%20put%20italian

• My ancestors haven't owned slaves since the days when the Vikings terrorized Europe and Scandinavia. Back then they would invade communities, steal anything worth having, destroy anything they couldn't carry, and drag the survivors off to spend the rest of their lives as brutalized slaves. Of course, so much time has passed that the Vikings are now considered cool.

  Descendant of Viking

• Yes, but he became very religious and freed them (around 1805). No, I don't feel guilty.

• r11, thanks for the real LOL moment at this nail biting time!

  anonymous

• My imperial ansccestors in Russia owned many serfs. My great times seven grandmother Catherine the Great created many serfs. Personally I feel very guilty, especially over the serfs in the ba k yard that darling mamma bought on eBay. I am, sincerely yours, Grandfluke

  HIH%20Georgy%20%20Romanov

• My family used to own Oprah's family. With any luck, Mitt will win and we'll get our property ba k.

• I don't think so.

• YOWZA YOWZA!!!!!L Yes Masser. My great great grand daddy was owned by Mr. Benny. He let us go though. The government man sent by Mr. Roosevelt made him!

  Rodney%20Benjamin%20Rochester%20

• My ancestors were Jews and I don't think Jews owned many slaves for a few thousand years. We never truly know of all our ancestors, so their might be a goyim slave owner in my past. Would I feel guilty about that? Nope! Just as all of us have some cheaters liars and ne'er do wells, there is no reason for the current generation to feel any hereditary grief. More likely, there are ancestors of mine who were slaves. I feel anger towards them for the decisions they made that earned them that position. All groups make choices. Those who have made the most bad choices might have some sort of shared regret, but it's done and one is only responsible for their own choices.

• I'm like R145. My ancestors lived in Wales and Ireland under English rule, so they [bold]were[/bold] slaves instead of [bold]owning[/bold] slaves. They were branded as seditionists by the English and brought to this country when it was going to be a penal colony.

• My family owned slaves, and, upon emancipation, most of them became sharecroppers for my family. (The three families who left went to seek out relatives elsewhere.) As best we can document, the slaves were treated well. (I've been able to track down several families and share documents.) Many of the families took variants of my family's name. I'm sure it wasn't an ideal situation, but it is what it is.

• Has it ever been studied or analyzed to determine if slaves had it better on plantation than they had it as prisoners of another tribe? Surely being a prisoner was a horrible way to live, and most of those conquering african tribes were mean as hell. I don't think tribe prisoners were allowed to marry and have children. What did the tribes do with money they got from the Dutch and Portuguese slave traders? Are they the wealthy rulers of Africa today?

• Tallullah Bankhead tracked down the descendents of the slaves her family used to own. Had a wonderful relationship with them. She used to go to their family reunions. Because her granddaddy and his daddy used to pay a midnight call on the slave quarters, she was actually related to many of them.

  I%20Read%20A%20Bio

• Yes and no. It's a rough world, honey. Get over it. R147 had the handle on it.

• I just came across probate papers from Cumberland county North Carolina. Can someone help with the term "presumedly negro" mean? Also, I did not think women could "own property" in this state until after the 1860's but in Angus Brown's probate records there are 2 slaves mentioned. Billy was 14 when he was advertised in 1841 and To be sold in Fayetteville, Cumberland Co, NC 2 Dec 1844 highest bidder Malcom Gillis for right at $300 securities James Wilkison, Joseph Arey, and Alexander Johnson Then "Willis" a likely negro was bought by Catherine Brown for $711.00 March 7th 1842 He was "about 27 years" And to top it off, Flora Brown was as surity. Is this unusual? DigMyPast@msn.com

  Laura Schmidt

• Southern virtues: human slavery, rape, treason and rebellion.

• I don't think so, but I'm thinking about getting some for myself. Isn't that what this "Black Friday" sale everyone's talking about is for?

  Lady Ann of Romney

• Yes. My great great great grandfather on my mother's side was a doctor in Tennesee and a slave owner. How do I feel about it? I do not feel anything. I can't change what happened many generations ago. I live in the now. It's 2013. We live in a time where more people are getting more equal rights. I do not apologize for what happened long before I was born. I am just happy I was born in a time where that ended long ago.

  K

• Yes, and my family is black. That just makes it even worse. The Louisiana Creoles are a very odd bunch. Many of them don't even consider themselves black & self-hate is common. The "white is right" mentality is pathetic. It's rather bizzare. I had to chuckle to myself just last night when I saw a Loreal ad on TV where Beyonce (her mother is Creole) states her race as ''French, Native American, & African American.''

  anonymous

• In the 18th century my family owned one slave, a woman. The house is still in our family so we think we know the room she most likely lived in. It has its own staircase off the kitchen area. This is in NY State just south of Albany.

• I DID feel guilty, but then Barbara Bush made me realize that they were probably better off in their well-constructed quarters than their families had been in African huts.