Yes, I am from the South. My people have been here since 1725, starting in North Carolina, then after the War for Independence, they came through the Cumberland Gap to receive Tennessee land grants awarded to soldiers.
Forebearers on my mother’s side fought at Little Round Top and previous to that were some of the first settlers in Tuscaloosa, traveling in a wagon train of like minded Believers down the Federal Highway from SC.
Back to my dad’s side:
After the Civil War, and after the land played out, they came to work in the mills in Huntsville, AL.
I love my heritage but there wasn’t any slave owning I could find in my genealogy research except for two people that I found who had one slave listed.
So I guess I don’t really feel an attachment to the slave owner/plantation situation because it wasn’t a part of who I came from.
I am distantly related to John Chisum and if memory serves he owned slaves but I think he also had black out of wedlock children.
Then you have nothing to feel bad about. Most people in the South did not own slaves.
I am descended from the 5 Ray brothers that got ran out of Scotland after the Battle of Culloden. They settled in North Carolina, around what is now Fayetteville. Back then it was called Campbellton. They were all proud Jacobites. My GGGGG grandmother was Catherine Ray, daughter of Donald Ray, one of the brothers. She married William Black, also from Scotland. Their GG grandson was Duncan Black, 15 NC Infantry, my GG grandfather. He was present for duty at Appomatox when Lee surrender. He was born in 1844 and died in 1919. My grandmother (his granddaughter) was born in 1897 and died in 1975. She told all her grandchildren about him and how he fought alongside his brother Daniel, who was KIA at Bristoe Station, VA in 1863. On my father’s side I have a great Uncle Travis Porter, 3rd NC Infantry, who was captured on the 3rd day of fighting at Gettysburg and transferred to Point Lookout POW Camp in Maryland, where he died in that hell-hole in Dec 1863. I have many more Confederate ancestors and have been a member of SCV for many years.