It seems that the ancestors of everybody's favorite black man once owned slaves:
According to the research, one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.
Echoing Fences, "You can't visit the sins of the father upon the child." In this case I guess it would be on his mother's side, but the point still holds. Still, it will be mildly amusing, perhaps, to see anyone from the left bring up those infernal reparations for slavery. I still don't think Obama has a snowball's shot in hell, but he might be snagged for VP, in which case we should be free of dealing with reparations, at least for a time.
Also, the right is going to have some fun with this. It'd almost be worthwhile to tune into Rush Limbaugh today. Yup. Almost.
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It is hardly surprising to learn that Barack Obama has slave onwers in his family tree. Virtually all Americans, regardless of their race or ethnicity, have ancestors who owned slaves. Many African Americans who researched their family trees would be shocked to discover that have black as well as white ancestors who were slave owners. In the United States, free blacks as well as whites owned slaves (one of the South’s biggest slave owner was a freed black man notorious for his harsh treatment of his slaves). The percentage of free blacks who owned slaves was small, as was the percentages of whites who owned slaves, but the intricacies of the genetic pool guarantee that virtually everyone is related to them. African Americans who traced their heritage back to Africa would discover that virtually all their African ancestors were involved in the slave traded. The African tribes ran the “supply side” of the Atlantic slave trade. The ancestors of Hispanic Americans owned both black and Indian slaves. American Indian tribes practiced slavery both before and after the European discovery of America. The Cherokee Nation, for example, voted yesterday (3 March 07) to revoke the tribal citizenship of about 2,800 descendants of Cherokee slaves. It seems only Americans of European descent feel obiged to feel guilty about slaver
My ancestors didn't own slaves because they all came over after slavery had been made illegal. Also, poor Irish peasants who immigrated during the potato famine didn't own slaves.
I guess I've always suspected that I'm not in the minority on this one. Do you have any figures to back up your proposition?
For the most part, the Irish who arrived on the famine ships sooner or later married into American families who owned slaves. The Irish and Scots Irish who preceded them became prototypical slave owners.
The Irish also practiced slavery in Ireland. Saint Patrick as a slave who escaped to England and returned later in life to christianize the clans. \
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
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