Barack Obama's Ancestors May Have Owned Slaves
(AP) WASHINGTON Democrat Barack Obama, who would be the first black president, has white ancestors who owned slaves, according to a genealogical researcher.
The researcher, William Addams Reitwiesner, says the discovery is part of his first draft of research into Obama's roots. Obama's father was from Kenya and his mother was a white woman from Kansas.
Obama wrote in his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," that while one of his great-great-grandfathers was a decorated Union soldier, family rumors also say he is distantly related to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.
Reitwiesner found in 1850 Census records from Kentucky that one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned a 15-year-old girl and a 25-year-old man. The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two black slaves — a 60-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman.
The Baltimore Sun first reported Reitwiesner's work and asked genealogical experts to review it, but they would not confirm the findings.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said 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."
Reitwiesner found that two other presidential candidates were descendants of slave owners — Republican John McCain and Democrat John Edwards.
source: http://cbs2.com/national/topstories_story_062150428.html
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SELMA, Ala. - Barack Obama reached out to the civil rights generation Sunday on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march, saying the protesters helped pave the way for his campaign to become the first black president. He also urged blacks to take more personal responsibility.
Obama said he was not surprised when it was reported this week that his white ancestors on his mother's side owned slaves. "That's no surprise in America," he said and added that his mother's family was inspired by the unity in the Selma marches.
"If it hasn't been for Selma, I wouldn't be here," Obama said. "This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me if I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."
Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_el_pr/selma_politics
Obama's link to slave owners should be a non-issue. Virtually all Americans, regardless of their race or ethnicity, had ancestors who owned slaves or participated in the slave trade. This includes African Americans. Thousands of free blacks also owned slaves (one of the South’s largest slave owners was a free black man) and many—probably most—African Americans have white ancestors who also owned slaves in their family trees. The percentage of freed blacks who owned slaves was small, but so was the percentage of whites who owned slaves. But the way the genetic pool works guarantees that practically everyone is related to them.
Slavery was also practiced in all Northern states and was still legal in some Northern states at the time of the Civil War, so it makes no difference which side of the Mason-Dixie line you happen to have been born on. Most Americans have ancestors who fought for the North as well as ancestors who fought for the South.
Hispanic Americans also have ancestors who owned slaves (more than two-thirds of slaves transported from African to the Americas went to Mexico and South America). American Indian tribes had both before and after the arrival of Europeans (the largest slave market that every existed in the Americas was one the Aztecs maintained near Mexico city prior to the Spanish conquest). Slavery continued to be legal on tribal lands inside the United States after the Civil War. The United States finally ended slavery within its borders by purchasing slaves from the Indian tribes and setting the free.
The Cherokee ware the last to give up their salves, and just this weekend they voted to exclude the decendants of Cherokee slaves from tribal roles.
dude...my folks owned slaves too. the black ancestors as well as the white ones. so what? they did it, but i ain't doing it. and at the end of the day, they're still my kin.
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