[QUOTE=Sunrazor]
Nope. My family tree branches back to the Auld Sod; we were all poor immigrant farmers who settled Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado after the 1860s.
[/QUOTE]
My mom’s family, too, in Nebraska. Dad’s family is descended from one of Sherman’s officers and was reviled by Southerners after the war. So I’m certain no slave owners on either side. Though they may have been right bastards in other ways, of course.
A g’g’g’grandfather on my father’s side willed a woman he owned to his daughter when he died.
I really don’t know what to think. If g’g’g’granddad hadn’t been wealthy enough to own a slave, his family’s life would probably have been different enough that his children’s lives wouldn’t have intersected with my other ancestors. It’s quite possible that I owe my existence to the fact that one of my ancestors owned another human being. At the same time, I find the practice so abhorrent, I would never subscribe to it, no matter my wealth or need.
I’ve no proof but my mother’s grandfather was said to have owned slaves. One of my family members supposedly has a document attesting to the sale of a slave by my mother’s grandfather but I’ve never seen it.
[QUOTE=LouisB]
One of my family members supposedly has a document attesting to the sale of a slave by my mother’s grandfather but I’ve never seen it.
[/QUOTE]
As much as people try to deny their part in the trade, that would still be a cool document to see.
Along that line, sometimes when I’m looking up old property deeds for my job, I’ll encounter one that has deed restrictions stating that the property may not be sold to or used by people of african, asian, native american or sometimes irish, ancestry. And THAT is why the government is not in the business of enforcing deed restrictions and covenants. Too many of them are just plain illegal or unconstitutional.
My great-grandmother’s grandfather owned five slaves in East Texas. He also contracted to provide beef to the Confederate army.
One of the slaves stayed as a hired hand and was still with the family when my great-grandmother are her siblings were children. I’ve heard them tell stories about him and it was obvious that they had no clue of the wrongness of owning another human being. They bought in to the myth of “benevolent caretakers”, probably to mitigate the subconcious guilt.
My great-great grandfather must have been born around 1850. He was of Belgian descent, and owned a plantage in Suriname. He married a black woman there of Ethiopian descent.
I woudln’t be surprised if his great grandfather had owned slaves.
My friends grandmother grew up in Dutch Indonesia, with household staff that was little more then slaves.
Probably, but too far back to tell (I can’t trace my line further back than 1700 or so, as can almost no-one not descended from royalty). Owning a thrall or two was fairly normal back in the early-to-mid middle ages.
Hypno-toad, are you asking about slave-owners in America, or slave-owners anywhere?
All my ancestors immigrated here after the Civil War.
[QUOTE=Litoris]
No. As a matter of fact, I am descended of slaves. My Cherokee ancestors (my father’s side) were owned by Andrew Jackson according to records found during my mother’s geneology obsession period.
[/QUOTE]
Owned by the jackass on the $20 bill, eh?
MY Cherokee ancestors owned slaves and took them with them during the Relocation. I’m not quite sure how to work out the moral calculus of THAT. They freed them during the Civil War. We were Union sympathizers.
Well, supposedly one of my ancestors had some farm land in Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweeping down the plains) and had a few slaves to help him work the land. But when Lincoln emancipated the slaves, my ancestor freed his slave and even gave them some land for their own.
I had many more ancestors who fought for the North in the civil war, so I think it balances out.
Not as far as I know - I come from a long line of dirt farmers. But I imagine that if one was to follow every branch back far enough, I’d find someone. My genealogist aunt claims we were here to welcome the Mayflower, and I’ve been told Ethan Allen is a direct ancestor, so that branch could have at one time or another. My Irish side - no way. Poor and came over too late.
Wife’s side of the family was contacted once by the descendants of the slaves they owned, and apparently they were treated fairly well. They (I’m told) had stories passed down from those days that held my in-laws in high esteem. I’ve not seen these letters first hand, so take that with a grain of salt.
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia]
Hypno-toad, are you asking about slave-owners in America, or slave-owners anywhere?
All my ancestors immigrated here after the Civil War.
[/QUOTE]
I was thinking of the Antebellum US, but anywhere is fine for this thread. I was surprised by HazelNutCoffees answer. I’d never connected the words “slavery” and “Korea” before.
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia]
Hypno-toad, are you asking about slave-owners in America, or slave-owners anywhere?
[/QUOTE]
My question as well. My ancestors fought each other and took each other captive so often that I’m willing to bet I have both slaves and slave-owners in my ancestry, but if we’re talking only in America then I’m willing to bet a whole lot more that I have neither.
[QUOTE=Pochacco]
Owned by the jackass on the $20 bill, eh?
MY Cherokee ancestors owned slaves and took them with them during the Relocation. I’m not quite sure how to work out the moral calculus of THAT. They freed them during the Civil War. We were Union sympathizers.
[/QUOTE]
Yup. Funny enough, on the marriage license for the Irish blood that came into the Cherokee blood, my full-blooded Cherokee g-grandmother was listed as “mulatto” because at the time in TN, it was legal to marry blacks or mulattos, but not Native Americans! That made researching our geneology a nightmare to some degree.
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad]
I’d never connected the words “slavery” and “Korea” before.
[/QUOTE]
I doubt there’s any country anywhere without slavery in its history.
[QUOTE=Pochacco]
Owned by the jackass on the $20 bill, eh?
MY Cherokee ancestors owned slaves and took them with them during the Relocation. I’m not quite sure how to work out the moral calculus of THAT. They freed them during the Civil War. We were Union sympathizers.
[/QUOTE]
I also had a branch of the family tree massacred in Texas by some renegade Indians, mostly Cherokee. I harbor no ill will though.
My Dutch ancestors in New Amsterdam were well off and probably owned slaves. Some of my German ancestors lived in Maryland and may have owned slaves as well. After the Revolution, all my ancestors were in the Northwest territories and wouldn’t have had slaves. Hmm, except for the Native Americans, I’m not sure if slave-holding was common in tribes of that region and time.
[QUOTE=Wile E]
I also had a branch of the family tree massacred in Texas by some renegade Indians, mostly Cherokee.
[/QUOTE]
Cherokees in Texas, and one of the “Civilized Tribes” at that.
A great aunt on my Mother’s side lived in a house built by slaves in Tennessee.
Bunch of Philadelphia Quakers on one side and Fiddler on the Roof on the other. Very doubtful.
[QUOTE=Wile E]
I also had a branch of the family tree massacred in Texas by some renegade Indians, mostly Cherokee. I harbor no ill will though.
[/QUOTE]
[Hijack]Would that have been the Killough Massacre?[\Hijack]