How Benedict Cumberbatch's family made a fortune from slavery

[markpkessinger]

92. You seem to be implying that only wealthy people are able to become actors . . .

. . . And yet, there have been plenty of successful film actors (even British ones) who did not come from wealthy families, and who were not educated at posh private schools (Rupert Graves and Rupert Everett are two who come to mind). Cumberbach's family's wealth may indeed have enabled him to attend Harrow. But attending Harrow is neither a prerequisite for, nor guarantee of, a successful acting career. I mean, to some extent, we all benefit to some extent from the families into which we were born. There are plenty of folks in this country -- rich as well as poor, professionally successful and not so professionally successful, who have ancestors that can be connected to the slave trade. Hell, the family of anybody in this country with a New England ancestor who did reasonably well in the 18th or early 19th centuries is, in this sense, "linked to the slave trade," because the New England economy was largely dependent upon it, even after most of those states, prior to the Civil War, abolished slavery.

But since there are various routes to becoming an actor, and since there have been and continue to be people who find success as actors who did not come from wealthy families, it really is nothing more than conjecture (and rather dishonest conjecture at that) to say what a person would or would not be doing today, based on family wealth amassed hundreds of years ago.