Althouse: "Revealed: Bush ancestor was heavily invested in kidnapping Africans into slavery."

June 21, 2013

"Revealed: Bush ancestor was heavily invested in kidnapping Africans into slavery."

I assume this report is true and that the tainted blood of the Bush clan is interesting, but why is it being revealed now?

Because Obama's in trouble, and it's the next thing that could be pulled out of the country's miscellaneous bag o' distractions?

Because Jeb's in that lineage too, and he's in the running for next President, and he said something embarrassing recently, so it was a good time to kick him?

Because the George Zimmerman trial is getting underway, and that hasn't worked out as well as some in the race-baiting industry had hoped, and maybe some unrelated racial disturbance would resonate?

Because Paula Deen said something really stupid about slavery, so the editors at Slate looked around in their storehouse of as-yet-unpublished articles and found one that had slavery?

116 comments:

Strelnikov said...: All of the above.; 6/21/13, 9:40 AM
MayBee said...: Bush sure chose horrible ancestors, didn't he?

Paula Deen skipped out on her today show interview.; 6/21/13, 9:40 AM
Rusty said...: Which has what to do with anything?; 6/21/13, 9:44 AM
Brent said...: You are spot on . . . All of the reasons you are listing are correct.

George Will's column today accurately descri es why Obama's second term is already a failure and will be recorded as such by history. What a waste of American life and years his time has been for this country and the world. How¡Much farther ahead we would be today with a Republican President and Congress. In every conceivable area. How sad each lost day.; 6/21/13, 9:45 AM
Joan said...: Pathetic. Now they're going back 6 generations and 220+ years to discredit an already out-of-office president and try to distract the public from the myriad scandals swamping the current administration.; 6/21/13, 9:46 AM
bagoh20 said...: The slave trade existed because Africans were capturing and selling other Africans. Obama is not descended from slaves, so there is a decent chance some of his ancestors were slave owners and sellers.

Regardless, it has nothing to do with anyone alive today. You can't logically select one short period of history and assign who is descended from innocence and who is not. We are all descended from a very long line of innocence and evil just with different dates to each.; 6/21/13, 9:47 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Because our unprofessional pro-democrat hack cheerleader media are on the never-ending distraction tour.; 6/21/13, 9:50 AM
Fernandinande said...: "... kidnapping Africans into slavery."

Nope.

They were kidnapped by other black Africans, and to a lesser extent by Arabs, who then brought them to the coast and sold them to Europeans.; 6/21/13, 9:50 AM
Michael Haz said...: Tell me, Althouse, why do you assume that the story about a Bush ancestor is true? Is it because you simply want to believe it because it's about Bush?

Weren't you in the least skeptical about the fund-raiser pop-up ad for the Democratic National campaign Committee when you read the article?

The Paula Deen "slavery" report in the National Enquirer was bogus, by the way. The actual transcript is quite a bit different. Do you feel remorse? Was it fair to paint Paula Deen as a racist absent any real proof beyond an article in the National Enquirer?

Or does accuracy not matter as long as the portal is working?; 6/21/13, 9:51 AM
Lyssa said...: "Obama's great-great-great-great grandfather George Washington Overall owned two slaves, a Baltimore Sun study found, based on 1850 census records."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-romney-family-trees-hold-slaves-british-countryfolk/story?id=16889505#.UcRnvTufg8o

So, um, yay for distant and dead relatives?; 6/21/13, 9:51 AM
Unknown said...: Stop making sense, B-h2o. The world is way past all that. Talk about acting white. Sheesh.; 6/21/13, 9:53 AM
mpeirce said...: Everyone has both slave owners and slaves in their family tree. Everyone. You just have go back far enough.; 6/21/13, 9:53 AM
Moose said...: this is so ham-handed that its more funny than tragic. Well, no - it's tragically funny because it's so ham-handed.
Look! 5 generations ago the Bush ancestors were bad to black people! Obama is a black man!
Sheesh; 6/21/13, 9:55 AM
bagoh20 said...: Throughout history, when people were able, they often created slaves from those who they could overwhelm. Today you have people descended from either the winning or losing side of that, often both, especially if you go back far enough, but why do we choose to honor those from the losing side and punish those from the winning? If they were able, the losing side would enslave the other without reservation, reversing the tables. It's pure luck of a soul which side they ended up on, and at what time in history.; 6/21/13, 9:55 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: It's only fitting that the Bush family should pay reparations to all those former slaves.; 6/21/13, 9:56 AM
Fernandinande said...: Thomas Sowell:

"The real world-class chutzpah, however, was the demand of African and Arab nations for reparations of slavery. Just who do you suppose enslaved the millions of Africans who ended up in the Western Hemisphere? It was the Africans. And who enslaved the even greater number of millions of African slaves who ended up in the Islamic world? It was the Arabs."; 6/21/13, 9:56 AM
campy said...: All slavery is evil. But only slavery of blacks by whites is evil evil.; 6/21/13, 9:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Tell me, Althouse, why do you assume that the story about a Bush ancestor is true? Is it because you simply want to believe it because it's about Bush?"

Because Slate published it. I assume the facts were checked. And if Slate got it wrong, we'd see pushback by now.; 6/21/13, 9:58 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Why are you looking at me as someone who is out to get Bush?

That's rich!; 6/21/13, 9:59 AM
Renee said...: Considering how common slavery existed, one way or another you probably have an ancestor who owned slaves.

.05 of the population is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.

"it has spread through social selection due to the power that Genghis Khan and his direct descendants held and a society which allowed one man to have many children through having multiple wives and widespread rape in conquered cities.[7]"; 6/21/13, 10:00 AM
SteveR said...: Gee, I'd think the Democrats would love to run against Jeb Bush.; 6/21/13, 10:00 AM
bagoh20 said...: Bush continues in command from his bicycle in Texas. Why is he allowed to do this. Obama won. Man what a pussy. He won twice and he still lets Bush decide everything, and make him look bad. Can't Obama send a drone down there and shut down that Bush power center.

Oh yea, Bush controls the drones too.

Well, lets go protest outside his ranch and demand that he relinquish power to the elected leader. Dammit, that Bush pisses me off!; 6/21/13, 10:01 AM
Scott M said...: Because it's nigh impossible to trace the bloodlines of black Americans that might be of lineages that include blacks that sold blacks to white slavers on the coast.; 6/21/13, 10:02 AM
MadisonMan said...: This was my reaction to the Bush story:

So?

Who among us descends only from Saints?

I have already spent too much time thinking about this non-story.; 6/21/13, 10:03 AM
Unknown said...: Renee
Make sure you pronounce that Jen Jess.; 6/21/13, 10:04 AM
Kevin said...: Mpeirce is correct. Everyone is a descendant of both slave owners and slaves. Slavery has existed for almost all of human history and pre-history. If anything is an aberration, it's the last hundred and fifty years, not the vast eons that came before.; 6/21/13, 10:05 AM
traditionalguy said...: The southern slave owners' complaints about the northern abolitionists in 1850-60 focused on this fact: great profits had been earned off them by New England shipping interests, such as the Walkers of Connecticut, who sold them the humans that they were now supposed to set free.

Obama can claim that the country really needed him, and he did finish off the prejudice system simply by being elected. But that work had been done started by Harry S. Truman.; 6/21/13, 10:06 AM
Scott M said...: Everyone has both slave owners and slaves in their family tree. Everyone. You just have go back far enough.

Exactly. What's the cosmic statute of limitations on this offense anyway? My people were savaged and enslaved by the Romans, but you don't hear me conquerentes de omnibus iniustitiis.; 6/21/13, 10:06 AM
rhhardin said...: It's called temporizing the essence (Kenneth Burke's term).

The essential of a thing is expressed by where it came from.

It's a literary device, in lit crit theory.

It's a grudge stabilizer in political activism.; 6/21/13, 10:07 AM
chickelit said...: One look at the bio and publication list of the author of the piece told me everything I need to know about his motivation and integrity. I do that more these days.

That's one thing I could fault Althouse with. She spends an inordinate amount of time probing the lives of famous artists and jurists--things which interest her. Rarely are journalists held to such scrutiny and dare I say mockery. Is this because artists purvey fiction or works of synthesis whereas journalists offer truth and analysis?; 6/21/13, 10:07 AM
jacksonjay said...: Now it can be revealed! Ancestry.com has confirmed that Sarah Palin is a descendent of Delilah! No wonder Johnny McCain was unwilling to take it to Saint Barry!

Still no word on the Chuck "Are You Taliban" Hagel's ancestors!; 6/21/13, 10:07 AM
chickelit said...: I mean, what someone had the time and resources to probe whether Stephen C. Webster had slave traders in his past? Wouldn't that be fair?; 6/21/13, 10:09 AM
Tank said...: If you think this doesn't resonate with some people, you're wrong. I was listening to WBAI radio on the way home last night. A caller talked for TEN MINUTES about how slavery never ended in the US. He and the host had a lengthy conversation about how whites are still enslaving blacks in the US.

PS When my blood pressure is low, I listen to BAI to get it back up to normal.; 6/21/13, 10:10 AM
chickelit said...: Oh and Michael Haz is on to something, I think.; 6/21/13, 10:11 AM
rhhardin said...: Slavery was the spoils of war, enslave the defeated rather than killing them. It's an economic plus, as well as a plus for the enslaved at the margin.

It ended when it could no longer be justified economically.

Its last justifications became noneconomic and lamer and lamer, namely based on race, naturally enslaved, and so forth.

The new Western economic system freed the slaves by making them move valuable free.; 6/21/13, 10:11 AM
jacksonjay said...: bagoh20 sez:

Can't Obama send a drone down there and shut down that Bush power center.

I predict that W will have a mountain bike accident and his body will be burned beyond recognition!; 6/21/13, 10:11 AM
Nathan Alexander said...: http://www.genetic-inference.co.uk/blog/2009/11/how-many-ancestors-share-our-dna/

So George W Bush shares pretty much the same amount of DNA with these ancestors as does Jesse Jackson.; 6/21/13, 10:11 AM
Nathan Alexander said...: @Althouse,
Because Slate published it. I assume the facts were checked. And if Slate got it wrong, we'd see pushback by now.

That's two extremely bad assumptions right there.; 6/21/13, 10:12 AM
n.n said...: Fernandinande:

Sowell, huh? He is a man of integrity.

Revealed: Obama Luo ancestors were heavily invested in kidnapping black Africans into slavery.

Oh, well. What tribe, or minority group, did not at one time or another participate in retributive change in order to defeat or exploit their competing interests?

The same nonsense (e.g. slavery) took place in the Americas, long before the arrival of modern Europeans. The American Indians even sacrificed human lives for wealth, welfare, and convenience. Truly a regressive people.; 6/21/13, 10:13 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: I wonder if Obama's white side of the family has any slave trade history?

We will never know.; 6/21/13, 10:13 AM
Nathan Alexander said...: "Obama's great-great-great-great grandfather George Washington Overall owned two slaves, a Baltimore Sun study found, based on 1850 census records."

This is why I have never understood how anyone could give even a moment's consideration to reparations:

"20% of my ancestors brutally oppressed another 40% of my ancestors, so the descendents of people whose ancestors immigrated to the US after slavery ended need to pay more taxes to give money to me and other people with the same skin color, including millions who immigrated to the US long after slavery was ended (like Gen (r) Colin Powell)!"; 6/21/13, 10:19 AM
Anonymous said...: Revealed: Obama ancestor, the kidnapper, supplied the Bush slaver the African slaves.

The "revelation" is Overseer Obama's last ditch attempt to keep his black supporters in line.

The "revelation" will keep the jounolista from a fiery car crash.; 6/21/13, 10:23 AM
Renee said...: The reason why many African-Americans are related to slave owners, is because umm... the slave owners took advantage of the women they enslaved.

Yes, they share the same ancestry but one was a product of rape.; 6/21/13, 10:25 AM
Anonymous said...: AprilApple said...
"I wonder if Obama's white side of the family has any slave trade history?"

All in the family slave trade: Obama's black ancestor kidnapped Africans to supply slaves to Obama's white ancestor.; 6/21/13, 10:26 AM
Titus said...: "Oh and Michael Haz is on to something, I think."

Of course you do chick limp dick wimp.

Your entire premise here is to constantly go of on Althouse, bitch about everything she does, belittle her and then go report it back to other blogs so others can commisurate how much they hate her with you and how elite and pompous she is and the horror that she is a college professor.

Oh and then do some stupid video recording about the entire situation that no one listens to.

Your doing good work girl.; 6/21/13, 10:33 AM
Loren said...: "Oh Look! Squirrel!!!!"; 6/21/13, 10:34 AM
Unknown said...: Make it stop! We're all related to Adam and Eve whose children committed incest.; 6/21/13, 10:36 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Because they didn't have anything stupid enough he said presently to match the stupid thing Chelsea Clinton said.

I can't believe I'm typing that creepy twats name. (and quit underlining the word twat in red, you twat)

This is the Sisyphus hell to repeat these cycles endlessly to collapse, covered by inbred media already buried and overgrown.

*takes pill*

I wan derd lone lee as a clerd
that floats on high o'er vales and hills
When all a-twonce I ser a crewed; 6/21/13, 10:37 AM
Swifty Quick said...: It doesn't matter what the truth is. Just say it and the low information voters will buy it. And by low information voter I mean anyone who ever voted for Obama, which includes Althouse.; 6/21/13, 10:45 AM
Nathan Alexander said...: @Renee,
The reason why many African-Americans are related to slave owners, is because umm... the slave owners took advantage of the women they enslaved.

Yes, they share the same ancestry but one was a product of rape.

Got any stats to prove that?

We've got an example as President that belies your assertion, so you probably shouldn't make blanket statements without providing some context.

We also have Thomas Jefferson's example that supports your assertion, but exactly how prevalent was that?

How many of the people of mixed race were the product of a mixed-race marriage within the last 60 years?

Until you answer that, your assertion assumes too many facts not in evidence.; 6/21/13, 10:47 AM
bagoh20 said...: Racism, Slavery, Zimmerman, Obama, Bush,...

If you just throw in a little gay marriage, we would have a swiss army knife of a post.; 6/21/13, 10:48 AM
Lyle said...: History will remember the Democrats for being the lying race baiters they are.

Obama ain't no Lincoln. Lincoln move forward in his views on race, while Obama and the Democrats have just gone backwards or staid backwards.; 6/21/13, 10:54 AM
madAsHell said...: They were kidnapped by other black Africans, and to a lesser extent by Arabs

I'm guessing that this was like getting fired. Where the Scots would burn down the house of the guy they didn't want around.; 6/21/13, 10:56 AM
chickelit said...: Titus: Your doing good work girl.

I will gladly suffer your heaped scorn if it spares others.

Oh, and last I checked, there were 70 or so "nobodies" who listened to my last chirbit of you.; 6/21/13, 10:58 AM
Lyle said...: Scandinavians raped and pillage my ancestral home. They are all despicable people and most hate themselves for what their Viking ancestors did to my people.

May they never forget and always no their place when in my presence.; 6/21/13, 10:58 AM
Professor Chaos said...: "Because Slate published it. I assume the facts were checked. And if Slate got it wrong, we'd see pushback by now."

But the Slate story says the ancestor was a slave trader and quotes from a letter in which he complained about the cost of slaves. There's nothing about kidnapping.; 6/21/13, 10:59 AM
Paddy O said...: They shall be cursed even to the tenth generation for their crimes.; 6/21/13, 10:59 AM
David said...: And the Democratic Party is the party of slavery; Planned Parenthood was formed explicitly to reduce the growth of the African-American community.; 6/21/13, 11:00 AM
Anonymous said...: "Oh and Michael Haz is on to something, I think."

Of course you do chick limp dick wimp.

Your entire premise here is to constantly go of on Althouse, bitch about everything she does, belittle her and then go report it back to other blogs so others can commisurate how much they hate her with you and how elite and pompous she is and the horror that she is a college professor.

Oh and then do some stupid video recording about the entire situation that no one listens to.

Your doing good work girl.

6/21/13, 10:33 AM

Titus, forget that other place, it's unhealthy, incestuous even.; 6/21/13, 11:00 AM
Greg said...: 1) So what -- we are talking about two-and-a-quarter centuries in the past.

2) Obama has white American slave-owners in his family tree through his mother.

3) Given the history of slave trading by the Luo tribe -- the tribe that Obama's father was a part of -- it is likely that Obama is also descended from slave traders. Indeed, it is possible that he has relatives engaged in slave-holding and slave-trading today. And that says nothing about Obama himself, either.

4) Given the genealogical research done by my family, I can be pretty sure that I'm not descended from slave-traders or slave-owners. Ironic, isn't it, that if a reparations program were ever to go into effect I would be paying reparations to Barack Obama and his family.

http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/341098.php; 6/21/13, 11:04 AM
edutcher said...: BFD, I might have an ancestor or two in the same place.

It was acceptable then and we've proven all the Affirmative Action in the world doesn't change the past; it just makes the present miserable.

And I'm willing to bet the real were (are you ready?) other Africans or even (gasp!) Moslems.

"They made the discovery by comparing the signatures of known Bush ancestor Thomas Walker with a notorious slave trader of the day who bore the same name. Stacked side-by-side, the signatures looked almost exactly the same."

Almost? Well that nails it down.

Interesting nobody heard about this "notorious" Walker until now.

Notorious usually is somebody like Jesse James.

Or the She Devil of the SS.; 6/21/13, 11:11 AM
Strelnikov said...: "What's the cosmic statute of limitations on this offense anyway?"

As a direct result of your White Privilege, there is none for you.; 6/21/13, 11:15 AM
Strelnikov said...: "They shall be cursed even to the tenth generation for their crimes."

And farther if they are white politicians.; 6/21/13, 11:19 AM
Amartel said...: Because the unreasoning mob needs its daily Two Minutes of Hate.

Because laying the sins of the ancestors at the doorstep of their descendants is a classic mob incitement tactic.; 6/21/13, 11:20 AM
chickelit said...: Because laying the sins of the ancestors at the doorstep of their descendants is a classic mob incitement tactic.

It's something they will do regardless, but they don't need encouragement or approval.; 6/21/13, 11:24 AM
Anonymous said...: Because Obama's in trouble, and it's the next thing that could be pulled out of the country's miscellaneous bag o' distractions?

Actually Obama has been in trouble, having a bad week, a worst week ever, for most of his presidency since the honeymoon ended with his stupid remark about the Cambridge Police.

The only letup was getting back to full campaign mode last year when a Seven Dwarfs assortment of Republican candidates presented themselves as targets.; 6/21/13, 11:28 AM
X said...: and Obama's deadbeat dad ran up bills leaving others to pay them. the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.; 6/21/13, 11:28 AM
X said...: Inga, how do you feel about generational guilt?; 6/21/13, 11:29 AM
Matt said...: Why now indeed? I mean if this information was available in the past why didn't they use it when he ran for president and when he ran again? Why 6 years after he leaves office is it news? In fact, it's not news. No one cares. It has no affect whatsoever on anything except maybe Jeb Bush who has little chance anyway.; 6/21/13, 11:39 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: My ancestry is German. No skeletons there at all.; 6/21/13, 11:58 AM
Methadras said...: Hmmm, gosh, I wonder if Dutch, British, or even African pols get this kind of treatment in their respective countries.; 6/21/13, 12:08 PM
Brian Brown said...: Ann Althouse said...
Because Slate published it. I assume the facts were checked. And if Slate got it wrong, we'd see pushback by now.

That is comically stupid.; 6/21/13, 12:10 PM
Methadras said...: Also, this is what leftism has devolved into. If you are a leftist, you should be ashamed and disgusted that you are part of this ridiculous and dangerous ideology that allows this kind of nonsense to infuse political rhetoric.; 6/21/13, 12:11 PM
K in Texas said...: Gee, I guess I better not ever run for office, since I have many ancestors on both sides of the family that were slave owners. Must I also now wear a scarlet S in public?

The Slate article is nothing but a hit piece. It doesn't matter if it is historically accurate or not, the intent is to reinforce the "Bush bad" meme in case Jeb Bush runs for the GOP nomination in 2016.; 6/21/13, 12:15 PM
Jason said...: Bush freed more people in his first term than Lincoln could even dream of.; 6/21/13, 12:17 PM
Methadras said...: Hey, guess what? A couple of thousand years ago my ancestors where kill and fucking yours to death. Oh man, I feel so bad about that.

/sarcasm; 6/21/13, 12:17 PM
Methadras said...: campy said...

All slavery is evil. But only slavery of blacks by whites is evil evil.

White christian men are now officially the only group of people in the universe you can offend with impunity and nary a repercussion or reprisal. Go after whitey without a care in the world, box them into the politically correct corner that they are in even more. Whoever put this story out needs to be found and put to shame for their idiocy.; 6/21/13, 12:20 PM
Methadras said...: El Pollo Raylan said...

Titus: Your doing good work girl.

I will gladly suffer your heaped scorn if it spares others.

Oh, and last I checked, there were 70 or so "nobodies" who listened to my last chirbit of you.

I being one and enjoyed it thoroughly. When Titus talks about tits and hogs, he's barely enjoyable, but when he goes of like a queen in wrist slapping heat, he's a detestable smug little twink with delusions of being a top.; 6/21/13, 12:30 PM
Amartel said...: Because it's a day that ends in the letter "y."; 6/21/13, 12:37 PM
Amartel said...: Because Booosh is a slavemaster.; 6/21/13, 12:37 PM
test said...: Strelnikov said...
"What's the cosmic statute of limitations on this offense anyway?"

As a direct result of your White Privilege, there is none for you.

The left does seem to believe there's something magical about white skin. They believe somehow whites inherit the sins of their forebears and cross-contaminate those not directly afflicted.; 6/21/13, 12:38 PM
Amartel said...: Because Obama comes from Africa, just like slaves. Well, I mean, his dad is from Africa, just like slaves. You know what I mean: He's black, just like slaves. And, uh, uh, Boooooosh baaaaad.; 6/21/13, 12:40 PM
ricpic said...: How best to enslave a whole people? Terrorize them with what you might have on each and every one of them: Obama's MO.; 6/21/13, 12:41 PM
Revenant said...: You know what would really be an "edgy" article? Figuring out how many white slave-owners Barack Obama is descended from. :)

For bonus points: figure out how many Kenyan slave-owners he's descended from.; 6/21/13, 12:54 PM
Brian Brown said...: Ann Althouse said...
Because Slate published it. I assume the facts were checked.

Slate has egg all over their face for publishing a list of gun deaths that included the Boston Bomber and Chris Dorner.; 6/21/13, 1:01 PM
DADvocate said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/21/13, 1:30 PM
DADvocate said...: Big shit. According to those who have done geneology on my family tree (my uncle and brother), I may be related to a man who captained slave ships. He also wrote "Amazing Grace."

Let he who is without sin...; 6/21/13, 1:31 PM
ken in tx said...: I read an article in a sociology journal that asserted that slavery was, in part, a result of polygamy in Africa. The village elders had all the women. That left an unruly bunch of unattached young men around. If there was no war going on, there was no need for them. Periodically they were rounded up and sold down the river to the coast. This was the theory.; 6/21/13, 1:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Funny thing: Romney was insinuated with wrong doings for his great-great-great grand father's polygamy, Bush is held accountable for his ancestor's slave trade, Obama is not accountable for any of his own actions.

Is that a case of "magic negro", or a case of "low expectation"?; 6/21/13, 1:46 PM
Anonymous said...: DADvocate said...
"Let he who is without sin..."

Let he who is without an ancestor slaver...; 6/21/13, 1:48 PM
Illuninati said...: Unless Bush has Portuguese ancestors, it is safe to say that none of his ancestors went into Africa to capture slaves. The majority of slave raiders were Muslims with a smaller number of slaves taken in tribal warfare. The Portuguese did penetrate into the interior to some extent later on but they were not big players in the slave raids.

After they took Egypt, the Muslims did a steady trade in African slaves who were cheaper and more fit for hard physical labor than white slaves. European women were prized for the harems.

The Muslim jihad against Africans accelerated about 250 years ago. about 200 years ago. The Muslims made massive raids on African villages took the women and children as slaves and killed the men. This was done on a massive scale. David Livingstone spent his life documenting this and eventually managed to slow the raids. Since they are religiously sanctioned by Islam, the slave raid have resumed in places like Sudan where the West has less influence.

People like Bush would pick up slaves on the coast or would travel up the Niger river to pick up slave who were already captured and broken down.; 6/21/13, 1:53 PM
Anonymous said...: So how many white Europeans went to Africa to engage in the slave trade?

It's a trick question there were very few whites on at the slave ports in Africa.; 6/21/13, 1:53 PM
Illuninati said...: Obama's ancestors were undoubtedly part of the slave raids. That was what Arabs did when they went into the interior of Africa. They would buy or steal ivory from the Africans, and make the African slaves carry the ivory to the coast.; 6/21/13, 1:55 PM
Illuninati said...: Muslims from North Africa who wanted to make the hajj to Mecca would use Africans like travelers checks. They would take a group of slaves with them and sell them when they needed money to finance their trip.; 6/21/13, 1:57 PM
Seeing Red said...: Well, ken, we might find out with China if that's true.; 6/21/13, 2:22 PM
Michael Haz said...: Because Slate published it. I assume the facts were checked..

Good soldier.; 6/21/13, 2:29 PM
Seeing Red said...: Why am I thinking of a "Northern Exposure" episode?

John Cullum's characher Holling ws running for something and lost by a vote because one of his friends still had a family grudge against the Huguenots.; 6/21/13, 2:31 PM
Dante said...: Why are you looking at me as someone who is out to get Bush?

It's ironic for a number of reasons. First, I don't like the idea of the sins of the forefathers being foisted on the children. What's the point of that? I suspect Ann would agree.

The reflexive defensive mode is a problem. The correct answer would be "So what if some of Bush's forefathers were jerks. What does that have to do with Bush the man?"

By being defensive about a particular fact it gives the attack power. It's something to be defensive about.

Ironically, by being defensive, it gives validity to the attack mode.; 6/21/13, 3:06 PM
avwh said...: It seems nobody knew or saw Obama in college; his transcripts are still sealed. But this yahoo "researches" the Bush family tree a few hundred years back and writes about it.

Is Slate trying to usurp the NYT's role in publishing hit pieces on Republican politicians?; 6/21/13, 3:24 PM
FleetUSA said...: B0's only position has been: It is Bush's fault; 6/21/13, 3:29 PM
Cedarford said...: Brent - "How¡Much farther ahead we would be today with a Republican President and Congress. In every conceivable area. How sad each lost day."

=============
Yes for Romney, but the country dodged a bullet with John McCain.; 6/21/13, 3:57 PM
Sam L. said...: I seem to recall reading that one of Benghazi Barry's maternal ancestors was a slave owner. I suspect we all have one in our backgrounds, slavery having been common for millenia.; 6/21/13, 3:58 PM
rcommal said...: Paula Deen's out at Food network, announcing that it won't be renewing her contract which ends at the end of this month.; 6/21/13, 4:11 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: Like many Americans who can trace their "American" ancestry back into the early 17th century I have ancestors who owned slaves. I also have ancestors who fought and died to eradicate slavery--and ancestors who fought and died not so much to preserve slavery but simply because the Yankees were there. I had relatives who fought and died at Vicksburg wearing Union blue and Butternut Grey.

I also suspect I have at least one or two ancestors who were or who had been slaves.

I got over it all--I'm much more interested in what people do with their lives today than what some of their ancestors may have done. But then the folks at Slate and on the left have always been more interested in playing with themselves and making mudballs to throw. I sorta stopped doing that when I was three years old.; 6/21/13, 4:12 PM
ampersand said...: Thomas “Beau” Walker should have bought the extended warranty, many of these slaves stopped working completely.

BTW, How is it that Southern born Clinton hasn't has an ancestry deep cleaning?; 6/21/13, 4:38 PM
david7134 said...: Note that Bush is actually a Yankee and not originally from Texas. It is a good teaching point to note that the majority of slave entered the US from northern ports, notably New York. If you were Jewish in the US before the Civil War, there is a very good chance that you or your family was involved in the trade as they were heavily involved. Then note that the majority of slaves in my area of northern Louisiana were owned by free blacks and not aristocratic whites. In fact, there were a large number of blacks that owned slaves, it seems that as soon as they were freed, they purchased slaves to expand their wealth.; 6/21/13, 5:00 PM
JAL said...: Heh. Anyone looked into what Obama's ancestors were doing re slavery? (Which still is a reality in Muslim Africa.)

Turn about's fair play, right? And I'd wager that if O's Kenyan (so called now) ancestors were leaders as they are now --- well, you can put money on it.

Hahahaha Bush's great great some one or other did something or other.

Wow.

I mean WOW.

They have Lost. Their. Minds.; 6/21/13, 5:03 PM
JAL said...: Hey there DAD. Newton did write Amazing Grace -- and he did run a slaver ship. And I think he also was a slave prior to that.

Back then slaves were a diverse bunch. (I think Robinson Cruso touches on that?)

Newton wrote "Amazing Grace" after he was converted to Christianity and repented.

God does offer truly amazing grace.

wiki- "John Henry Newton (24 July 1725 – 21 December 1807) was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career at sea, at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years, and was himself enslaved for a period. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of slavery. He was the author of many hymns, including "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken."; 6/21/13, 5:11 PM
Rocco said...: @ampersand:
"BTW, How is it that Southern born Clinton hasn't has an ancestry deep cleaning?"

Even if he wasn't a progressive-approved Democrat, it's still quite possible Clinton (or any other Southern Democrat) may not have (much) slaver-owning in their family tree. On the eve of the Civil War, less than 5% of Southerners owned even 1 slave. A higher percentage of some Indian tribes - like the Cherokee (~8%) - owned black slaves than southern whites did.

The vast majority who did own a slave just owned one or a few. Just 1,700 families (both black and white) owned the vast majority of the slaves in the south. The population of the South was 38% African-American at the time. (The North had a little more than 4 times the population of the South and very few African Americans, so the overall percentage of the U.S. population was around 10%.); 6/21/13, 5:50 PM
MD Greene said...: Nobody would be proud to discover an ancestor was a slave owner, nobody. Oddly, in counterpoint, W is remembered fondly across Africa (more than, say, Clinton) for his humanitarian initiatives and efforts to treat and stop the spread of AIDs. By their actions, ye shall know them.; 6/21/13, 6:39 PM
SukieTawdry said...: Geneticists are tracing human dna back to it origins. When last I heard anything about the project, they had succeeded in tracing the peoples of Europe to eight females scattered about the continent. They fully expect to trace all human dna to a single female in Africa. I propose we call her Eve.

My mother's family has been in North Carolina since the late 1600's. They were Scots-Irish farmers and as far as we know, none ever owned a slave (slaves were expensive--I saw a slave sale newspaper ad once among some historical documents and was amazed at the prices). At the same time, however, we know of no abolitionists either and my ancestors who fought in the Civil War fought for the South. Even if I had a mind to, I wouldn't know what to do about this ancestry. This is silly.; 6/21/13, 7:45 PM
William said...: My 18th & 19th century ancestors in Ireland suffered terrible privations as a result of English misrule. These are hurts that can never be made whole by reparations. But I'm a forgiving man. One bj from Pippa, and I'll call it even.; 6/21/13, 9:13 PM
From Inwood said...: This sounds like an episode of Pawn Stars:

A guy comes in with a musty paper, purportedly a dying declaration signed by a cousin of Harriett Beecher Stowe, which says that an ancestor of W was the prototype of Simon Legree....; 6/22/13, 12:17 AM
From Inwood said...: Westbrook Pegler, a Hearst columnist (referred to by The Right People as "Pestbrook Wegler"), used to write that the wealth of the ancestors of FDR was ill-gotten from the opium trade. Peg’s name was never to be mentioned in polite conversation.; 6/22/13, 12:24 AM
lemondog said...: In addition:

From 2007 article Legacy

Census findings compiled by a genealogy researcher show slaveholders in the family trees of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat; former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat; and Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican. The census also documents slaveholding ancestry in the family of former U.S. Sen. and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee. He was the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 2000. Those census records were gathered by William Addams Reitwiesner, who works at the Library of Congress and is a spare-time genealogist. The records are retrievable at his Internet site,www.wargs.com"; 6/22/13, 8:20 AM
Nichevo said...: And do "they" all look alike? Do "they" have horns? How many of "them" were there in the US and how many of "them" owned or trafficked in slaves? And since I'm sure you know, how big is Farrakhan's dick and what does it taste like when he pulls it out of your ass?

If you were Jewish in the US before the Civil War, there is a very good chance that you or your family was involved in the trade as they were heavily involved.
6/21/13, 5:00 PM; 6/23/13, 3:32 PM