Every white person who has ancestors who were in the U.S. prior to the Civil War likely numbers slaveholders among them. In fact the only people I have met who share my last name and are not members of my own family are Black. The name is also shared by two famous brothers who are musicians. Their ancestors' names have been lost forever, and they now bear the name of the man who owned those ancestors.
We actually found the deed to some slaves in an old desk in my grandparents' house, which we donated to the University of Maryland. The plantation was in Somerset County, in the far south of the state. Maryland did not join the Confederacy -- the northern part, including Baltimore and surrounding areas, had a less harsh slaveholding culture and included enough people who were not committed to slavery to keep the state in the union. In fact, about ten times as many Maryland residents fought for the union as for the Confederacy. But Somerset County was a different matter, it was very much a part of the southern slaveholding culture.
My great grandfather and his children, including my grandfather's brothers, and also his cousins, lived in the Philadelphia area, however, so I don't have any personal connection to the original family seat. I suppose the people moved after the war in search of opportunity, since the old way of life was no more.
If people do know this about their ancestors, or discover it, I hope it will lead to some reflection. We have discussed a bit here about institutions studying, and owning, their history. It matters for individuals as well.
8 comments:
Here is a documentary about a local activist, along those lines.
https://jdogproductions.com/justified-journey-2/
My father, an electrical engineer, would be sent off to school in Detroit or Philadelphia for training, back in the 70s and 80s. He would spend some of his time off looking in the phone book for people sharing his last name. He was told, outright, "you don't want to go to that neighborhood!"
A few years ago, there was a player for the Green Bay Packers that shared our family's surname. We thought we should invite him to our house for Thanksgiving, but never got around to doing it before he left the team. We would tell people he is our cousin, which of course brought strange looks; he is Black, we are fair. But you never know; going back far enough, we could find a common ancestor!
"Every white person who has ancestors who were in the U.S. prior to the Civil War likely numbers slaveholders among them."
I'm not sure where you get that from. It is simply untrue. A political lie.
1860 census (freely available)
Slaveholders 393,975
Total population 31,183,582
A simple division tells you that about 1.3% of the population at the peak were slave owners. Does that sound "likely" to you? Even if you take out the non-white populations, IT'S STILL NOT TRUE.
Calling out the BS
You are still a moron. You have perhaps never heard of powers of 2? You have four grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents -- 1860 was (counts on fingers) 160 years so you have maybe 256 direct ancestors from about that time. (People used to have kids earlier than they do now). 256 * 1.3=332, which is considerably more than 100%.
Also, too, the 1.3% figure (actually the commonly claimed number is 1.4%) is total bullshit anyway.
It's just ludicrous to think that most people had slaves. For starters, men held property, not women. Secondly, slaves were expensive and you had to be a rich farmer or plantation owner before having slaves made any economic sense. Most people were dirt poor. And then there was the half of the country where slavery was outlawed.
Even the most generous estimation of only white people and only in the South, it's still a small percentage. Maybe your ancestors owned people, maybe not. You don't even know. That's the BS part of your post.
And in the end, it wouldn't matter, anyway. The whole slavery argument *today* is about power.
Christ you are so stupid you couldn't find your own asshole even if you took your head out of it long enough to look around. As I explicitly state in the post which you apparently did not bother to read, the deeds to slaves were in my grandfather's desk. I saw them with my own eyes. It's in the post we are discussing right now. I recommend that you have a cognitive assessment, since you appear to be demented.
You're right, my bad.
In my defense I work a LOT in a fast-paced financial environment(raw capitalism)and when I break, I read news, blogs, etc. I quickly glanced over your post and misread it.
You're still my favorite communist.
Obviously I am not a communist.
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