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I don't know many Americans who are black who do *not* have a slave-owning ancestor, but you'd be surprised how few very southern whites, even many generations in the south, have no slave-owning heritage. In modern money, owning a slave in the 1800's was like owning a second home on the beach, and a fine, upscale one at that…out of reach for all but the 1%. And you'd be surprised how many old families in the *north* DO have a slave-owning ancestor. Connecticut, New York…all at some point were slave territory.

Few Americans who go back several generations in this country are "pure" in any sense, which makes nonsense of "sins of our fathers" since we all have the same fathers! I invite you to read the continuing saga of the very white-looking Henry Louis Gates and Ben Affleck on Breitbart. Ben is so ashamed of his ancestry, that he tried to hide it and Gates tried to help him!!

The fact is that there is a cachet and romance attached to the "Lost Cause" in the South, which is the thing that the left is trying to destroy, to shame southerners into abandoning. The fact is, this romance accounts for a lot of the cultural success of the south, the rich religious heritage, the art and music, the land and the voices. I happen to love the south, but I detest Democrats like Earnest Hollings who put the rebel battle flag of northern Virginia on the dome of the capitol in ***1961*** in a defiant gesture against integration. I do think the real flags of the Confederacy have a place at memorials and museums..and nobody can kill the magnificent "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, which was really a farce that lampooned all that was pretentiously southern. Margaret was not Scarlett.

Beg to differ. My family name goes back to the Revolutinary War. My amateur genealogical work on other parts of the family has yet to reveal a single slave. I suspect I am not all that unique. Now when you start looking at families who historically had wealth and power, of course you will find slavery. The vast majority of us descended from peons who had to do their own work.

In modern money, owning a slave in the 1800's was like owning a second home on the beach, and a fine, upscale one at that…out of reach for all but the 1%.

Not really true. Most often the head of the household would one slaves. So if a family was composed of five or six people the numbers would look low if you considered the ratio of slaves to all free people. If you look at families or households the numbers are pretty surprising.

49% of Mississippi households and 46% of South Carolina households had slaves, and about a third of households in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The numbers were lower in other states. Stats here.

People could save or borrow money to buy slaves or they could inherit them. A summer home is a luxury and doesn't bring in any money. Slaves, by contrast were part of the productive economy and brought in money for their owners.