Stumbled upon on old notebook handed down through my family- In intrigue I began reading.. It talked about life, philosophy, all kinds of interesting stuff- family, lineage... then It began into their profession. They talked about the slave trade, and their new stock of men/women/children- descriptions of what makes who a good value and how much they planned on selling them for... Then it goes into their business further- slave pens on their property in deep description- how they live, further on how much they ended up selling them for/ the bartering that went on/where they sold them, who they bought to trade for a higher price and then descriptions of the new 'stock'. Sucks, you go back into your geneology hoping to hear some cool things, things you can be proud of.. I have discovered a part of my lineage were disgusting slave owners/traders Furthermore it talks about how my great great or great / grandfather or whatever got attacked my bee's.. left to die when one of the slave women took him in and tried to help him recover. It goes into detail of tobacco or something she chewed and put all over his body- took care of him as her own son.. and of course he recovered or I wouldn't be here. other tidbits I've gathered: Ancestors sailed from Wales, mid-way through the trip the boat got damaged, they went back and re-gathered/fixed ship and sailed back over. One ancestor was a drummer boy in the revolutionary war Family split in civil war, most were on the southern side/ few went to the northern. I don't have much information on the northern side just the southern 2 brothers and a sister that were between 10-14 were caught as southern spies.. before their capture they broke into a northern camp and let all their horses go I also was related to a guy who was a pirate- he eventually got captured and was hung 'by his thumbs'
I'm a white guy with the last name Emerson. There's a lot of black people with that same last name. I can only assume my bastid ancestors had something to do with that. Digging up the past doesn't always yield the results you hope for but no point in denying it ever happened. You learned something about your family history and you can take something from that. I'm sure there's some good family history in there too if you keep digging.
hardly, I feel uneasy now like something isn't right. I think this book has raped me of pride/honor and ego.. all I feel is dirty. I posted this cause its bothering me and want to feel better. I know its not me that was involved but dammit I feel like I'm connected to it in some way, it sucks- I want to be proud of my name.
I'm pretty sure we all have a little murders, rapists, racists and all around horrible people in our genealogy. My distant family history has absolutely no influence on me and I could care less if my great great great great great grandfather was a rapist or a prince or a holy man or gay or straight or super rich... means nothing... Lets be honest, your family grew up in a time when racism and slavery was generally accepted and if we grew up during those times we probably would act the same way, not that their actions are justified....
If you go back far enough, everyone is descended from not just one horrible person, but generations of horrible people. So what?
You shouldnt have those feelings at all...as disgusting as the time was when slaves were involved, that was unfortunately, how life worked back then. It was very common to own slaves, but within that, there were good owners and ****ty owners. It's just a period in history that is very sad, but at least as a society, we are evolving for the better. Racism still exists today...so all of our great great grandchildren might look at us with disgust too 100+ years from now. And they shouldnt.
The real tragedy here is your sloppy attempt at a narrative. Had you introduced your subject with a provocative question such as, what would you have done if you found out your ancestors owned slaves? You might have gotten more constructive responses, than what you are getting now. Instead you took the: "i'm-shocked-by-what-i-found" approach, framing it in a narrative of: "i'm about to lead my readers to my dirty little secret," and then you are "shocked" by the fact that your readers did not find you: NOT SHOCKED ... but trite. IE, Proud. It's a simple mistake, you aren't a writer, nor do you know very much about narrative process. Next time, don't try to be manipulative and state the facts straight and to the point, and you'll be better off. I think.
Recently discovered I had Native American ancestors. Maybe a reason I was a track star in high scool? RIP Chief Henry
Give all your money to a black person right now. You owe him. Seriously, I just want to know what you were expecting them to find? In this country, people held slaves. And cheezyboy22, freaking awesome.
Your name is what you make it. One half of my family dates back to the 1600's in this country and they took part in both sides of the Civil War. You can't change your family's history, don't let it bother you.
I don't have any issue with the responses I've received, they have all been pretty helpful. Maybe you should take some writing classes because you come off very pompous and arrogant. Your discussion is filled with opinionated assumptions of what should be 'right', that I really don't think many share- atleast not the majority (again based off of responses). Further proof your incorrect- which I'll let you rebut. How could I have possibly* been better off when I've received so many responses with solid advice that has proved helpful? People who freak out and/or grammar whores "OHHhh you spelt that wrong, bad punctuations!!" show their idiocracy ten-fold. I don't think those things (in my case) detract from the subject or my insinuations. As long as a point can be made and deciphered by any half-way intelligent individual you should be well off. Einstein couldn't spell or use proper grammar for sh/t but that never stopped him from being able to hold an intelligent discussion or communicate complicated ideas and theories. No-one ever backed out of a discussion with Einstein, thought less of his intelligence or were unable to understand his meanings because he used "they're" wrong. what?
At the time of the civil war there were several hundred thousand African nationals in the U.S. Therefore, not all African Americans were descendants of slaves. And, yes, there were Black slave holders.
Meaning they emigrated to the US? Surprising if true. My reflex is to assume they were free descendants of slaves.
lead me to this (& more) http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2821/before-the-civil-war-were-some-slave-owners-black not casting aspersions, just appreciating the force of the internet
