9 White Celebs, World Leaders Whose Families Owned Slaves

[NewDeal_Dem]

Last edited Fri Jan 2, 2015, 04:39 AM - Edit history (1)

"A rule of thumb is: where there is old money, you will find some connection to slavery"

Anderson Cooper: His bloodline is tied to the Vanderbilts, one of the richest families in American history. Cooper’s great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt – who was also Cooper’s cousin through inbreeding – was a tycoon who built his wealth from shipping and railroads. He also owned plantations: one in particular was in Georgetown, S.C., where Michelle Robinson Obama’s ancestor Jim Robinson, who was born a slave in 1850, worked.


David Cameron: According to Dr. Nick Draper of University College London, as many as one-fifth of wealthy Victorian Britons inherited part or all of their fortunes from the slave economy. As a result, there are now wealthy families all around the U.K. still indirectly enjoying the proceeds of slavery they have inherited. In addition to benefiting from slavery while it was legal in the British empire, Cameron’s ancestors were given £4,101, equal to more than £3 million today ($4.7 million dollars), for the 202 black people they enslaved on the Grange Sugar Estate in Jamaica.


Paula Deen...

Pastor Rick Warren...

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush...

Richard Dawkins is the direct descendent of Henry Dawkins who owned 1,013 slaves in Jamaica... Dawkins’ 400-acre family estate, Over Norton Park near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, is believed to have been bought with money made through slave ownership hundreds of years ago.

Reba McEntire...

John McCain: descendants of McCain’s great-great-grandfather inherited and still own 1,500 acres of the original plantation land, the descendants of the Africans who were enslaved on the same plantation, “built a four -room school house with $1,750 they scraped together and $900 from philanthropy.” The black descendants also worked to save “enough to buy a small parcel of farmland.”

President Obama:one of Obama’s ancestors, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records indicate that another Obama’s ancestors, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves...

http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/08/21/10-celebs-whose-family-owned-black-slaves/5/


More on the Bushes: they've got slave owning and trading ancestors all over the place.

As you will learn from the attached PDF files, and as is commonly known, the mother of former United States Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush (the father of US President George Herbert Walker Bush and great grandfather for US President George Walker Bush) was Flora Livingston Butler Sheldon. The attached file Margaret Ruth Sheldon.pdf references the family connection to the New York Manor Lords and one of the most prominent slave trading families of the mid 18th century. Philip Livingston, slave trader and slave owner, donated his slave money to endow Yale College's first professorship.

Amazingly, (or maybe not), when the New York Times ran their article on the new $5 million exhibition, "Slavery in New York in their Arts section on September 27, 2005, they didn't feel it was important enough to mention that Philip Livingston's sister Judith Livingston was the g-g-g-g-g-grandmother of United States Bush Presidents. But then again....why keep dredging up ancient American history...he is only the leader of Free World; which somehow sounds like an oxymoron....or a pun?

http://inaaronsopinion.blogspot.com/2005/12/george-bushs-slave-trading-kin-nyc.html

[Sherman A1]

1. And

as i posted in another thread, I had a Great Grandfather who fought in a NC Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.

Begging the question.... So, What?

[malaise]

2. So now we have more facts

and that's always good

[JI7]

3. so do you think Obama is responsible for racism in this country

because of what's in the OP ?

[malaise]

4. Not at all n/t

[Scootaloo]

6. What an odd question

[Sherman A1]

5. Sure

whatever..................

[Doctor_J]

26. Agreed. This should be in te lounge or some such place

I had a great uncle who was a mobster - like Italian Mafia. So what?

[ReRe]

7. Anyone who has family lines...

... that have been here since the 1600s-1800s: you have ancestors who touched slavery, either as a slave or as a slave owner. Just saying...

[Boreal]

10. Not that it matters

but that isn't true. Most were not wealthy enough to own slaves.

[exboyfil]

13. Majority yes, most no

He is a table of statistics. Slave ownership approached 50% in two states (Mississippi and South Carolina). About a 1/3 in six other states. About a 1/4 in four other states.

http://civilwarcauses.org/stat.htm

[NewDeal_Dem]

20. Didnt realize there were only 9 states in the union; that's all that are on your table.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. This is all very interesting ,but...

just how is it relevant to who these people are today?

Most of the Founders and every President up until 1850 except the two Adamses owned slaves at some point. Many while in office.

Even Johnson was a slaveowner, and Grant, while not a slaveowner himself, had control over his wife's slaves.

We all now know how bad slavery was, but are we to visit the sins of the grandfathers on the children? Because an ancestor did this dreadful thing 150 or more years ago, should the descendants be charged for it?

Judge these people for who they are today, not for their ancestors.

(And, OK, in line with that, feel free to bring up that Paula Deen stuff again.)

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Good point....have no clue what that has to do with people today.

Having said that, and having traced my family history back to 1780's, I am one of millions of people whose ancestors were too out of pocket to have owned another person.

Yep, I come from a long long line of mediocre souls.

[Trillo]

15. Just my quick observation

Those folks all seem rather "prominent".

Perhaps there is something in their family lines, some kind of hidden personal training that occurs in their families, that cause that? Just speculating.

I think we have judged the Bush's here on DU. Now I understand Jeb Bush wants to run for prezeldent.

America and its ruling class, and then there's the rest of us.

[immoderate]

34. I think inheriting wealth implies a great deal of training.

--imm

[NewDeal_Dem]

29. It has to do with why some are ruled and others are ruler; why some have power and others do

not; why some are poor and others rich, and such trivia.

People don't start from scratch out of the womb, contrary to the American mythology. Even less today.

[hobbit709]

11. The status of serfs was often little better than outright slaves in history.

so unless you were one of the 1% at any time, you had little freedom and little rights.

[madokie]

12. My great grandfather was a slave owner

My grand father fought with the union soldiers to put an end to the practice of owning another human being. I'm not rich and famous but I am a descendant of a slave owner and proud of my Grand Father. I never met the man as he died in 1910, me in 1948 but I was born son of his youngest son.

[NewDeal_Dem]

28. How many slaves? Where? Was he in debt to the banks (as a large part of the southern

planter-ocracy was)? Etc etc etc
.
One of Bushes ancestors was an abolitionist, and he didn't do very well in life -- never made much money, didn't rise too high socially. If he'd been typical, we'd never know the Bushes.

It's because of the multiple Bushes who made money off slavery that we know them and are ruled by them.

[Takket]

14. This is nothing more than a historical curiosity

And I certainly hope in no way would be perverted into drawing any conclusions or having any opinions about the descendants of the slave owners.

[JustAnotherGen]

16. Doesn't impact the financial lives of Black Americans today

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/


Let's talk about banks and hustlers in the last 60/70 years effing us over on housing, mortgages, etc etc.

Those policies have also snookered poor, working class, and middle class white Americans in SOME cases into believing the 'others' have taken something from them - not the wealthy classes.

[bravenak]

18. +1

[NewDeal_Dem]

27. Of course it impacts the lives of black americans today. Because the people who made fortunes from

the slave trade and rose to dynastic power are the same people pulling the same shit today.

All americans should understand the real foundations of class power.

[randys1]

33. Add to that the CIA truckloads of cocaine in the AfAm communities, best way to stop

them from voting, if you ask me.

[JustAnotherGen]

36. Plus 100!

[JustAnotherGen]

35. It seriously doesn't impact me

Jim Crow - now that is scandalous. Working and paying taxes and fighting in wars and not even full human beings. Now that chaps my ass. My dad took a bullet for this country and couldn't even vote while home on leave in the 60's without fearing for his life.

And here they go rolling back voting rights.

[randys1]

31. Reparations are necessary, and like racism, a problem only white people can resolve

I dont ask AfAm if they think they are necessary, who I ask this question of is the white folks.

[JI7]

37. things like a minority who CAN afford to buy a home, rent apartment etc not being able

to do so in certain neighborhoods because of their race.

a chart was posted a few days ago that blacks without criminal records have a tougher time getting a job than whites with a criminal record.

things like this show it's not just about poverty, lack of education etc. of course these things are problems and we can discuss them but that doesn't mean we have to deny other realities that exist.

[JustAnotherGen]

40. Amen!

I'm frustrated with the slavery discussion - when in the here and now I never know if a jerk with a gun is going to put an end to my nephews coming over for Sunday dinner. If Kai's Ivy League Acadmic scholarship education isn't going to be enough to get his foot in the door. If My bother is going to get killed during a traffic stop.

White folks need to stop blaming slavery for the actions of some bad pole white folks today.

Those bad apples need to own their prejudice and bigotry.

[Number23]

41. THANK. YOU.

things like this show it's not just about poverty, lack of education etc.

Which is one of the many, many reasons the "it's not race, it's class" crew get so little play from people who understand how this country has always worked.

[FLPanhandle]

17. I take no blame or credit for the sins or good deeds of my ancestors.

Nor should anyone else.

[daredtowork]

19. This reminds me of

David Eggers book "The Circle" - all those rich tech workers so eager to make a buck over invading peoples privacy even as their own gets peeled away - the slave-owning family histories is among the things those privileged B-school students wouldn't want to wear on their sleeves.

[NewDeal_Dem]

25. +100.

[kiva]

21. And a whole lot of people who aren't rich,

or powerful, or celebrities also have slave owning ancestors. If having slave owning ancestors is an indicator that someone will be wealthy and powerful, it's a pretty faulty one.

[NewDeal_Dem]

23. depends on how many you owned. Most people didn't own any; of those who did, most owned

just a few.

Most didn't own multiple plantations (like Anderson Coopers family) nor did they get millions in government payoffs for their 'losses' when slavery was declared illegal (like David Cameron's family) however.

Slave owning ancestors isn't a particular indication of future wealth and power; making lots of money on the slave trade as a whole is, whether you traded, owned, insured, etc.

[ananda]

22. Weelll...

I have an ancestor or two who owned a couple of slaves
in Tennessee back in the day. They were poor farmers,
and some of them moved to Texas to farm.

That accounts for my very racist Texas family.

But it doesn't account for me or all Texans.

The point is: it's what a person stands for now that counts.

[NewDeal_Dem]

24. Anderson Cooper's ancestor owned multiple plantations. PM Cameron's family got millions in

government reparations for its 'losses' when slavery was declared illegal in Britain (losses on Caribbean plantations).

Do you think their situation and your family's might be in no way comparable?

[Boomerproud]

30. When Anderson Cooper was told on "Finding Your Roots" that his gggrandfather was killed

by his slaves he replied "Good. He deserved it." I don't think he was playing to camera. I am the proud gggranddaughter of a private in the Indiana Infantry who was injured twice in 1864 necessitating the amputation of his left arm.

[NewDeal_Dem]

32. So what? The wealth of his slave-connected ancestors is one of the reasons he's wealthy today.

And one of the reasons he has the job he does (& why the guy who held it before was kicked out to make room for him).

What would you expect he'd say, today? "Good, I hate black people & love to think my ancestors enslaved them!" But he won't talk about money, notice.

[MohRokTah]

38. My grandfather, his father, and his grandfather before him....

and generations going back centuries in Europe were all shoemakers.

I feel so responsible for the deaths of the animals that were skinned to provide the leather for the shoes they made.

[Dreamer Tatum]

39. Hold on - is the point of all these OPs to say that slavery is bad?

DAMN. I'm not sure where I put the receipt, either. Slavekea is going to give me the stinkeye when I try to return them.


Or wait - maybe the point is that slavery WAS bad? Gee, if that's the point, why can't all these posts be joined into one and submitted to the prestigious American Journal of No Fucking Shit?