Posted on 03/02/2007 7:49:02 AM PST by dead
WASHINGTON: Many people know that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.
But an intriguing snippet of the Illinois senator's family history has received almost no attention until now: It appears that forebears of his white mother owned slaves, according to genealogical research and US census records.
The records - never addressed publicly by Senator Obama or his relatives - were noted in an ancestry report compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner, who works at the Library of Congress and researches genealogies in his spare time. The report, on Mr Reitwiesner's website, carries a disclaimer that it is a "first draft" - one likely to be examined more closely if the senator from Illinois is nominated.
According to the research, one of Senator Obama's great-great-great-great-grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Kentucky. The same records show that one of Senator Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.
The records show that Overall, then 30, owned a 15-year-old female and a 25-year-old male, while Mary Duvall, his mother-in-law, owned a 60-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman.
An Obama spokesman did not dispute the information and said that the senator's ancestors "are representative of America".
"While a relative owned slaves, another fought for the Union in the Civil War," campaign spokesman Bill Burton said on Thursday. "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."
It was unclear whether Senator Obama was aware of any slave-holding ancestors.
"You just can't casually throw some documents together and make a sophisticated analysis," said Tony Burroughs, author of Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree.
Senator Obama faces a showdown this weekend in Alabama with Hillary Clinton for black votes. The former president Bill Clinton will make his first campaign appearance with his wife. Senator Obama is keynoting tomorrow's civil rights commemoration in Selma while the Clintons will be at a nearby church. All three will join a march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where state troopers police beat civil rights activists in 1965.
Ok..I'm confused.
Will Obama be the "second" black president if elected or not.
We all know "Slick Willie" was the first!!
This is just as stupid as the "reparations" movement. Nobody can control what their ancestors did. It is the height of absurdity to hold someone responsible for actions they could not possibly have influenced.
In fact, it's a safe bet that everyone on Earth is descended from murderers, slave owners, etc. The only variation is in how many generations one needs to go back to find them.
I point out in my history classes that we all had ancestors who were slaves--and ancestors who were slaveowners--either in this country or further back. For example, my first American ancestor was a slave, and he was "white".
Yes, Blacks (when they had the opportunity to do so) owned Black slaves. Read for example the famous diary of the "Barber of Natchez', a free Black who owned, and beat, his Black slaves. As did American Indians. Chief "John Ross", for example, had over 100 slaves on his plantation in what is now OK.
sheeeesh!!! Can we leave the man alone?
Folks should have seen how she is when she was the co=president.
--LOL....we're ALL related! And, furthermore, MY great, great, great, great, great, great,.... great grandparents were likely slaves also....in the Roman Empire.--
Exactly. My ancestors were related to Attila the Hun.
One thing that I feel lacking in all this. His forefathers on the fathers side are the rich muslim landowner elite in Kenya, wich I beliewe descend from the heavily influence of Arabs in the east coast of Africa and as can be seen by his appearance are propably more arab than african/black.
And as muslim landowners in the area where the muslim slave trade was the most severe (remember slaveholding was not outlaved in Saudi Arabia until in 1960´s) they probably had a LOT of slaves.
That beeing said I am not in favour of punishing anyone for the crimes of his forefathers, or their religion. But I must say it is strange that during the war on terror there is a big change that a man born as muslim can become the President of the US.
I doubt this story because I don't believe women could own slave than. If it had said great (X5) grandfather than perhaps it would be more credible.
If this is from the 1950 census, there's a couple of quick generations in there. My great grandfather was born in 1850. He didn't own any slaves, and he ran a tavern. I think this makes me more qualified to be the Democratic nominee than Senator Obama.
Uh, That's the 1850 census.
Slavery still exists, but not just in Africa.
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