Posted on 03/04/2007 5:18:36 PM PST by Chi-townChief
Before Friday, I did not know that my ancestors owned slaves. Now that I know, I almost wish I didn't. As they say, ignorance is bliss. I don't have that luxury anymore. Now I'll have to deal with it. For years, you see, my mom had tried to get me to take an interest in our family history.
She's compiled quite a bit of research and just wanted me to help get it organized and maybe take it to the next level before she's unable.
But for some reason, I never could get interested. When you have a name like Brown, you don't have much confidence that anybody is going to be able to accurately trace your roots.
About the only genealogical finding of my mom's that ever got my attention was learning that my dad's cousin, Clarence "Hooks" Lott, briefly pitched in the Major Leagues for the St. Louis Browns and New York Giants in the 1940s -- thus giving hope that some latent gene in the Brown lineage might yet produce a descendant who will rise above the athletic mediocrity that has characterized the family during my lifetime.
Then I read a story Friday from the Baltimore Sun reporting that it appears one of Sen. Barack Obama's ancestors on his mother's side was a slave owner, the dubious implication being that this somehow makes Obama less attuned to the struggles of American blacks.
My immediate reaction was: What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
But it also prompted me to give mom a call about the family tree, telling myself the worst news she could give me was that some distant relative fought for the Confederacy.
Thought they were poor hillbillies As far as I knew, my family had always been dirt poor. Both my parents trace their roots to the hills of Missouri. Beyond that, I knew my mom's side -- the Richardsons -- came from Kentucky. We're hillbillies, though I never thought of myself as such until I moved to Chicago, and people started asking me about my ethnic heritage. It never was an issue anywhere else I'd lived. I'd answer by explaining what little I knew, and they'd say, "So, you're a hillbilly," and after fighting the notion for a while, I decided they were right.
I'd considered it unlikely that my hillbilly ancestors could afford to own slaves.
Mom set me straight.
"I can tell you that we did have slaves," she said. "At one time, the Richardsons were wealthy, and they did have slaves."
It's probably not coincidental that my mom switched from "we" had slaves in one sentence to "they" had slaves in the next, because I'll tell you, it's a hard thing to say out loud. It's even hard to write.
"I don't remember you ever telling me this before," I told my mom, trying to push some of the guilt I was feeling off on her.
"I don't remember you ever listening to me before," said mom, properly pushing it back.
So here are the ugly facts, as best as I can glean them from some grainy documents from Pulaski County, Kentucky, that mom sent me.
My great-great-great-grandfather David E. Richardson was the last of my direct forebears to own slaves.
It appears he inherited them from the estate of his father Charles (my great-great-great-great-grandfather) just months before selling them on Feb. 25, 1853, to one of his brothers for $170. The brothers also may have inherited other slaves from Charles.
It's unclear to me exactly how many slaves in total they owned, but the handwritten records make specific reference to "one Negro boy named Tom about 17 years old of yellow complexion," as well as a 5-year-old girl named Sarah and 7-year-old boy named Patrick, "both of black complexion."
We had family on the other side of war, too Mom surmises that David Richardson, who had 16 children, sold the slaves because he had little money and couldn't afford them. She believes our family had owned slaves dating back to the late 1700s when my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Jesse Richardson, a brigadier general in the Revolutionary War, received a grant of land for his war service and became wealthy as a result.
One more pertinent fact: My great-great-grandfather Milford R. Richardson, the son of the last family slaveholder, did fight in the Civil War -- for the Union Army. He enlisted near the end in 1865, just long enough to be seriously injured -- when he was kicked by a mule.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton told the Baltimore Sun that the senator's ancestors "are representative of America."
"While a relative owned slaves, another fought for the Union in the Civil War," Burton said. "And it is a true measure of progress that the descendant of a slave owner would come to marry a student from Kenya and produce a son who would grow up to be a candidate for president of the United States."
An Obama presidential candidacy was always sure to make us re-examine race in America.
I just hadn't counted on the examination hitting so close to home.
mailto:markbrown@suntimes.com
She's not white - nor is she black. She is a pleasant warm shade of peach, and very French.
Oh, I know the rule vanished, but not in some people's minds. The whole point is that almost all of us are a huge mix of 'races' from all over the place. If you look at the migration maps I posted above, you can clearly see this mixing.
And here I thought they were just trying to 'out' slaveowner descendants to line 'em up to pay "reparations"...
Wow! That's amazing . . . going to take a little while to figure out how to navigate the site.
Plenty of white folks have black ancestors that they didn't know about until they started doing some family research.
President Warren Harding was one example, and he was from Ohio! In his case, it was a political opponent that dug it up.
I have some tax docs from VA that showed my ancestors owned a few slaves.
Guess I should go flog myself now.
Yeah, I know how you feel. One of my ancestors, a guy named Cain, killed his brother a while back and I feel bad having a murderer in my background.
LOL! Not bad!
1829
SIX CENTS REWARD
Ranaway from the subscriber, living in Youngsville, Warren County on Saturday the 18th of April, an indented apprentice, named Henry Kinnear, between 17 and 18 years of age-small for his age. The public are cautioned against harboring or trusting him. The above reward, but no charges, will be given for his apprehension and delivery to me in Youngsville.
ALEXANDER SIGGINS
May 7, 1829
I am descended from both the Siggins famliy and the Kinnear family. The young man who was the runaway servant later went on to marry into the Siggins family.
At one time, servitude was quite widespread. It was a common, accepted form of employment. Chattel slavery was but one form if it.
Something similar can be said about the fact that men voted to give women the vote. Somehow we get no credit for that. If most men were really determined to oppress women, we'd be living in a North American Saudi Arabia.
bttt
hillbillies has been determined to be politically incorrect. In the future, please use the term Appalachian-Americans.
Thank you.
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