Posted on 04/23/2015 2:07:46 PM PDT by drewh
Ben Affleck has at least three ancestors who owned slaves including a wealthy landowner who bought a young boy who he appears to have set to work in his tanning business.
The Batman star's distant family can be traced to Connecticut and in 1728 they paid 80 pounds for a slave called Tobe who they kept until he was grown up. The bill of sale refers to Tobe as a 'negro boy' which the previous owner 'sold as my proper estate'.
Tobe's owner was called Nathaniel Stanley and was known as a smart man of 'respected piety and evangelical sentiments' - but that did not stop him keeping slaves.
Affleck's other slave owning ancestors were a man in Georgia and an Irish farmer from New Jersey who owned eight slaves.
None of these details were shown in the episode of Finding Your Roots which featured Affleck after host Henry Louis Gates Jr edited them out, leaked Sony emails have revealed.
PBS is now conducting an internal review to see if its own editorial guidelines were breached on the genealogy show.
Affleck has now apologized for asking Gates to make the changes. Gates - a respected Harvard academic - has said nothing for five days and was described by one commentator as 'diminished' by the disclosures.
The Oscar-winning actor said in a post on Facebook that the discovery of his past left him feeling 'embarrassed' and with a 'bad taste in my mouth' - but that he was wrong to censor it.
The row has been damaging for Affleck, who supports a number of liberal causes, has a charity for aid to the Congo, and is a champion of the left.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
So he was fine with it until he was found out. Typical leftist. They're not sorry about all the bad things they do, they're only sorry when they're caught. Just like criminals.
So what?
150 years ago.
Does he still have rights to a few? I didn’t think so.
This falls under stupid sh!t that doesn’t matter.
His three ancestors were:
Simon Legree (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)(an atheist northerner slaveholder)
Warren Maxwell (Mandingo), and
Calvin Candie (Django Unchained)
Just think...
the chances are great that Ben has black kin from those erstwhile slave owners...
oh how marvelous...
a diverse family...
Why should we be made to feel guilty for the actions of our ancestors by people who can’t control their own children?
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