I don’t think any of my ancestors were in the U.S. during slaveowning times. My grandparents were pretty much all first generation from immigrant parents (mostly German, some Irish, one great-grand was half-some-sort-of-local-Native-American, probably Choctaw).
Yes, it would. Are you a Killough?
I mentioned in another thread something that I recently learned from an ancestor’s will, but I mention it again just because I think it’s interesting. One of my ancestor’s bequeathed a family of slaves to his daughter, who was 5 years old upon his death (he was in his late 60s when she was born so he knew that he would not see her grow up). He died in 1861 and his daughter lived to be 99. She attended my parents’ wedding (she was my mother’s step-greatgrandmother and biological great-aunt and great-great-great-aunt [some halves in there]) in 1952 when she would have been in her mid-90s.
The reason I think this is interesting is because it emphasizes how recent this was. Slavery seems as remote as Columbus and powdered wigs and the like, but I’m 40 years old and a slaveowner was at my parents’ wedding. (Former slaveowner I should stress; nobody in my family has actually owned a slave in more than 11 years.)
PS- One of the slaves mentions Native American ancestry: many Native Americans were slaveowners, both individually or as tribes and both of other Native Americans and of African slaves. Many more intermarried with them; the Black Seminole rebellion is in fact considered the only successful slave revolt in North American history.
No, but I’m from that neck of the woods, the southern end of the county.
I’ve wanted to do some research on that event. I’ve wondered if the Cherokee really started it or if was instigated by Anglos who wanted to stir up feelings against the Cherokee.
The reason I’ve wondered is because of the questions that later came up regarding Chief Bowles negotiations with Mexico; whether or not he really was or was the story fabricated as an excuse to chase the Cherokee out of East Texas.
I have a muzzle loader that has a broken stock. It’s been in the family for years. My grandfather told the story that the stock was broken when it fell out of a wagon during the Killough Massacre. However, no one in the family was anywhere near there and the rifle is a percussion cap rifle. The massacre pre-dates the widespread use of percussion rifles by about 20 years. I pretty much figured my grandfather was full of shit. He seldom let facts get in the way of a good story.
I’ve read a few accounts and they all seem to allude that there may have been more to it than just an Indian uprising. There were supposedly some Cherokee involved but there were also a few other tribes represented and some runaway slaves and Mexicans and reports of a white man with them. It doesn’t sound like those involved were representative of the Cherokee tribe but the Cherokee were the ones that were blamed and run out of Texas.
But anyway, I’d better stop hijacking the thread.
I’ve done years of geneology and have all the branches of my family back to before the Civil War. The 1850 census was the first to list everyone by name, including slaves (at least in Kentucky and Virginia). So from 1850 on I can say that, no I’m not, as far as the evidence available goes, decended from people who held slaves between 1850-65.
A number of my lines lived in Virginia. Some of these go back to the early 1700’s. So it’s possible that they may have.
I’ve done years of geneology and have all the branches of my family back to before the Civil War. The 1850 census was the first to list everyone by name, including slaves (at least in Kentucky and Virginia). So from 1850 on I can say that, no I’m not, as far as the evidence available goes, decended from people who held slaves between 1850-65.
A number of my lines lived in Virginia. Some of these go back to the early 1700’s. So it’s possible that they may have held slave.
I’ve done years of geneology and have all the branches of my family back to before the Civil War. The 1850 census was the first to list everyone by name, including slaves (at least in Kentucky and Virginia). So from 1850 on I can say that, no I’m not, as far as the evidence available goes, decended from people who held slaves between 1850-65.
A number of my lines lived in Virginia. Some of these go back to the early 1700’s. So it’s possible that they may have held slaves.
I’d say, not for the past 1500 years. They were too busy living in the shtetl.
However, in biblical and classical times, Jews could own slaves, so who knows.
My Grandfather’s Grandfather was a Duke (I forget which brother). They had crazy money in the mid 19th century (Tobacco related). It isn’t something my grandparents talked about but it’s a safe assumption they did have at least one slave. I seem to remember reading something about hiring slave labour from bigger plantations.
Ironically, my grandfather is extremely liberal.
My mother’s great grandmother (who lived to be 106) loved to tell the story of one of her earliest memories, which was of fleeing the family’s Virginia plantation in advance of the Union Army. When they returned, their slaves had scattered to the winds. She was upset because she missed her nurse. My mom heard this story first hand as a child-- it’s crazy to me that my mom knew someone who lived on a slave-labor plantation. (I’m 28)
It really, really disturbs me how many people they owned (according to various census reports it was 40+).
That whole side of the family was planter class all the way back, so I’m descended from quite a few slave-owners on that side.
Preach it, bro. Like you, I’m a bit of an odd genealogical artifact in that several of my great-grandparents on both sides of my family were young adults in the Civil War era. This due to my being a very late addition to my parents(dad 45; mom 41) and due to my grandparents being late additions to their families as well.
My father’s maternal grandfather came from a long line of New Englanders (originally out of Braintree, Mass in the 1630s) but wound up in the Illinois Infantry for the duration of the war.
My mother’s mother was the youngest daughter (born 1891) of a man who enlised in the Confederate army in 1862 at the age of 17. His older brothers and cousins all took up arms for the wrong side of that conflict.
I won’t bore you with the other lines, but suffice it to say: like you, my parents have had first-hand conversations with male and female Civil War veterans, some of whom were slave owners; some of whom served to preserve the Union.
It really wasn’t all that long ago. And assuming that I live another 40 years, the “Late Unpleasantness” will still be just 3 generations removed in the middle 21st century.
On a separate issue, I don’t understand why some contributors to this thread are proud that their ancestors didn’t own slaves, and/or are ashamed that their ancestors did own slaves. It’s not like you can change what they did or didn’t do, or carry their sin or honor in your own life.
Likewise I’m curious about those who assume that because they have mainly Northern roots that there were no slaveowners in their families. As I mentioned upthread, my New York Yankee 4x great-grandfather (Orange County, NY) was a slaveholder in the middle 18th century.
Given recent genealogical theories, all living humans share common ancestors, so we’re all related anyhow. So, Cousin Sampiro, you got any mayhaw or scuppernong jelly? My supplier (great-aunt Matt) took her recipies to her grave, but not her brass jelly pot.
My Virginia roots go back to 1650, but there is no record of slave ownership. My father’s family was made up of indentured servants, tenant farmers, and poor tradesmen. My mother’s family were much the same.
You find something wrong with my logic Shag? :dubious:
Careful there. Some of us are rather proud of our whackaloon heritage. I remember my great uncle tell me about how hard it was when he was young and looking for work. Everywhere he went there were “Whackaloons need not apply” signs.
If you have ancestors who were in the pre-Revolutionary Colonies, it’s quite possible that they owned slaves. Slavery wasn’t abolished in the northern Colonies until the mid-1700s. A middle class family owning a single slave or indentured servant was not uncommon.
Slight hijack: anyone have a state-by-state list of when slavery was abolished?
Grandfathers GrandMOTHER. So it was her father.
My mother’s side of the family were not well-off farmers in Kentucky in the 1800s. The story goes that although the family owned a slave or two, they fought for the Union because the Confederate army pissed them off by confiscating the horses. No idea how true that is, though.
Yes to the mayhaw jelly. No scuppernong, but I do have some sweeter-than-sugar muscadine wine. 
Indeed. That would be my maternal grandfather. The other one (his son) is my uncle.