well they migrated from scotland and ireland, dad’s original ancestors in america were farmers in virginia while slavery was still an institution. anyways they migrated to the north which were free states, so im not sure if they ever owned slaves or not? i hope they didn’t of course, it would be a great shame on the family.
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I’ve never really understood this sentiment. Why would it even matter if they did own slaves? Sins of the father are not heritable, despite what others say.
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A lot of descendents of people who owned slaves have inherited wealth that was built through slave labor. So they feel guilty for benefiting financially from something so atrocious.
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Not sure if any of mine did. Maybe on my father’s side. On my mother’s side there were Pennsylvania Dutch and I think they were abolishionists. Then there were the Natives who were running, not owning.
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Dude, I could care less how many slaves my family owned. I didn’t get any money just for being born, didn’t inherit anything but a used 1994 Camry. My ancestors’ crimes are not my crimes. Plus, I’m pretty sure I’m descended from immigrant Italians and Pollocks.
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I inherited schizophrenia.
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yeah i think whatever wealth there was, was inherited by marriage. everybody in my family has always worked and had to work for years to be middle class and upper middle class. we certainly didn’t inherit the wealth.
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My ancestors owned schizophrenia genes 
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I’m from working class stock, my ancestors were Coal Miners going back hundreds of years.
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Mine were all northerners.
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On my surname line
3gt- cabinet maker,joiner, inn keeper
2gt - coach builder, shopkeeper
gt -telephone engineer, ended up as chief inspector engineering department
grandfather - Higher clerical officer
father - short spell as an army officer then joined Foreign office. Took early retirement after serving as British consul general for Atlanta.Who’s who entry since 1978.
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My ancestors didn’t own slaves.
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My ancestors didn’t own slaves, but my great uncle was an infamous camel thief.
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One of my greats like six generations back joined the union army right before civil war ended. It says he deserted after it ended. I’m thinking he deserted after the war because it was over. I’ll never know for sure.
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A 2gt on my mother’s side was a bigamist. Years later his grandson(my grandfather) had an affair while doing war work in the north of England. I never met him though he didn’t die till 1988.
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I come from poverty on both sides of the family so it’s doubtful any of my ancestors owned slaves.
I have some dutch and supposudly the dutch were big in the slave trade.
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Money was a tense and secretive subject in our house. Obvious shame. I was always confused and scared of money. I called my first stay in a state hospital being in the poor house.
Coming from a noble lineage, slavery was a different caste in Korean society. They weren’t really slaves- they were helpers of the noble families who lived during the Joseon Dynasty. Some slaves were later inducted into the nobility based on their talents. So, yes, my ancestors probably owned slaves but they’re completely different from North American “slaves” since we didn’t get anyone from other countries to be enslaved.
I have pride in my noble lineage and from a clan with an independence activist, but the Joseon Dynasty was a rough dynasty with rigid castes.
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I think we can’t really judge our forefathers with the way we view the world today. The world has become evermore accepting of almost everything. There are very few taboos left.
When we look at history we see that power was much more concentrated in the top before democracy. There were kings and noblemen and the church running the world, and this was the way the world was supposed to be back then, because people didn’t know of any alternative. The idea that the commoners one day would have a say was quite foreign. Caucasians were also slaves to their kings, noblemen and the church, paying taxes, but having no say whatsoever.
I am sure that in a couple of hundred years if humanity still prevails they will look back at this time and have their laughs and disgust about some of the ways we ran the world just like we think about the people who came before us.
Point being, it is easy to judge people when a new and more righteous knowledge has been aquired through the test of time.
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