Stain Of Enslavement Touches Presidents, Judges, Congress
It is more important now than ever to understand critical race theory and the insipid and ongoing effects of enslavement of African Americans in America, from modern day lynchings in the form of police shootings of unarmed African Americans to attempts by red states to disenfranchise African Americans.
Right wing ideologues and political panderers have outlawed teaching critical race theory in schools in many states. They also have been highly critical of the New York Times’ “1619 Project,” a series of essays about the founding of America that argued the start of African slavery in 1619 wasn’t just the country’s original sin but “as important to the American story as 1776,” the year the United States declared independence
Two recent development show how important it is to understand the ongoing effects of enslavement and racism in the U.S. Critical race theory traces and examines the reverberations of enslavement.
One recent issue is a report by Reuters showing how common it was for ancestors of our leading lawmakers to be enslavers. The other is the Supreme Court’s toppling of affirmative action laws, historically one of the most effective tools for leveling the playing field for minorities in colleges and universities.
The Reuters report should not be read to impugn current legislators but rather to show that the ripple effects of African American enslavement continues today, especially in terms of the red states, where enslavement flourished that are now largely conservative.
Many of the lawmakers cited in the report have supported progressive legislation while others have not. In many red states, the vestiges of enslavement are shown by lawmakers who have worked at limiting voting rights and expanding gerrymandering to ensure GOP control to banning books that focus on racism in America.
The Reuters report showed that every living, past president, except trump, is a direct descendants of slaveholders. Trump jumped on the report and implied that it is proof that he is no racist. He reposted on his Truth Social site the section about his family lineage that had no slaveholders.
“I hope that every African American in our country is reading this right now. REMEMBER!” trump posted.
Whether out of ignorance or expediency, trump failed to mention that his father, Friedrich Trump, could not have had slaves. Wanting to avoid hard labor and serving in Germany’s military, the elder trump came to the U.S. to launch his family legacy in 1885. Slavery had ended 20 years earlier with passage of the 13th Amendment.
The Reuters report shows that 100 members of Congress, the five living presidents other than trump, Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch and 11 governors, including GOP presidential hopefuls Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas and North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum, are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved African Americans.
Among the living presidents, the report showed that Joe Biden has one direct ancestor, five generations removed, who owned one slave. Barack Obama has one direct ancestor, six generations removed on his mother’s side, who owned two slaves, George Bush has one direct ancestor, six generations removed, who had 25 slaves and Bill Clinton has one director ancestor, five generations removed, who owned one slave.
Among 536 members of Congress, Reuters found at least 100 descend from slaveholders. More than a quarter of the Senate, 28 members, have family histories with at least one slaveholder.
Lawmakers with a history of enslavement, include Democrats and Republicans and such influential politicians as Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth and Jeanne Shaheen. Reuters found that at least 8 percent of Democrats in the last Congress and 28 percent of Republicans have such ancestors.
The great-great-grandfather of Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., was John Mace who enslaved seven people. Reuters reported that in 1937, decades after emancipation, a formerly enslaved man, Hector Godbolt, was interviewed and recalled being made to work for John Mace. Godbolt recounted watching an overseer summoned by John Mace’s wife put an enslaved person over a fence plank and whip him 75 times with a “cat o’nine tails.” After 75 lashes, Godbolt recalled, “Blood run down off him just like you see a stream run.”
Rep. Mace said in a statement, “I don’t recognize these people named and can’t confirm they are relatives, but slavery was a stain on this country and we as Americans should be grateful for the progress we’ve made since the 1860s.”
Mace worked on trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. She was a strong critic of trump for having incited the Jan. 6 2021, attack on the Capitol by trump supporters but later again became a staunch trumper.
Slaveholder Henry Coe was the great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. In an 1829 appraisal of the Coe estate, the names of the enslaved and their assessed dollar values are dehumanized as they are listed along with seven sheep and a lamb, and a bull calf.
Duckworth is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a service organization of women descended from veterans of the Revolutionary War.
“There’s definitely political implications of the subject,” Duckworth said in an interview. “But I think it’s a disservice to our nation and our history to walk away from this. If I am going to claim — and be proud that — I am a Daughter of the American Revolution, then I have to acknowledge that I am also a daughter of people who enslaved other people.”
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., gained notoriety in 2009 when he yelled out “You lie!” at President Barack Obama during a joint session of congress. Wilson has at least five slaveholders among his forebears. His ancestors first enslaved Black people during the 1700s, Reuters reported.
During a speech at the South Carolina General Assembly in 2000, a year before being elected to Congress, Wilson said keeping the Confederate flag flying at the statehouse was “very, very personal. And it’s personal because it’s my family,” he said. “For me, it began very early in that I was named for a Confederate general, General David Addison Weisiger.”
In the speech, Wilson said one ancestor “was not a plantation owner; he was a bank cashier.” Wilson didn’t mention that the ancestor, an uncle of his great-great-grandmother, enslaved seven people in southeast Virginia in 1860. They ranged in age from 5 to 45.
Here are officials whose progenitors owned the most enslaved people.
An ancestor of Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., had 183 enslaved African Americans, the most enslaved people in the Reuters report. The slave owner was Francis Hopkins, six generations removed from Titus.
Titus, 73, has been a Nevada congresswoman since 2013. She was a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she taught American and Nevada government for 30 years. Born in Thomasville, Ga., Titus was raised in Tifton, Ga. Her uncle, Theo Titus, served in the Georgia House of Representatives for many years.
The next most extensive owner of enslaved people was Juriah Harris, a fifth generation relative of another Georgia lawmaker, Rep. Rick W. Allen, R-Ga. Harris had 133 enslaved African Americans.
Creed Taylor, with 70 enslaved people, was a sixth generation descendant of Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., who is a ninth-generation Arkansan. Taylor was a plantation owner, lawyer and judge of the Superior Court in Richmond, Va. Hill’s statement essentially acknowledged the importance of understanding critical race theory.
“From Biblical times until today, human bondage is a scourge. At our nation’s founding, slavery was a sad, unresolved burden. In pursuit of a more perfect union, our nation tore itself apart in civil war and united in the passage of the 13th and 15th amendments to our Constitution. We as a nation must recognize our past, learn from it, and look to the future,” Hill said.
Richard Sessions, a fourth generation relative of Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, had 96 enslaved African Americans. Richard Sessions owned land in Chicot County, Ark., valued at the time at $75,000. With inflation, Richard Sessions’ personal wealth was around $113 million.
In March 2016, Rep. Sessions introduced a House resolution to “recognize magic as a rare and valuable art form and national treasure.”
Daniel Edwards and his son, Nicholas Stone Edwards, both fifth generation ancestors of Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, had a combined 90 enslaved African Americans.
The Edwards family was one of the largest slave holding families in Louisiana in 1860, and was near the top one percent of slave holding families in the entire country at that time, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States.
The 1860 Federal Census Slave Schedules shows that Gov. Edwards’ great-great-great grandfather, Daniel Edwards, lived in St. Tammany Parish, La. and owned 57 slaves. The same census showed that Daniel Edwards’ son, Gov. Edwards’ great-great grandfather Nicholas Stone Edwards, a resident of nearby Ward 1 in Washington Parish, La., owned 33 slaves.
John J. Gause Jr., a direct ancestor of Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, enslaved 79 African Americans. Gause was a relative, six generations removed of Carter. Gause served in the North Carolina legislature and as Brunswick County’s Clerk of Court and was one of the largest landowners in Brunswick County, N.C. The Gause family made their fortune in turpentine.
Rep. Carter is a staunch trump supporter. He voted voted against both articles of impeachment against trump and later voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election based on spurious allegations of voter fraud. Carter was named as part of the trump campaign’s Texas leadership team in March.
William H. Lawton, an ancestor five generations removed from former Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., enslaved 64 African Americans.
Rep. Rice was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach trump in the second impeachment. The South Carolina Republican Party censured Rice, who later lost to Russell Fry, who had been endorsed by trump.
Peyton W. Norman, a direct ancestor of Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., had 61 enslaved African Americans. Peyton W. Norman is four generations removed from the congressman.
“Rep. Norman has long been aware of the fact that his ancestors owned slaves, as did almost one-third of Southern families in that era. However, his views on most of the current issues facing the federal government today, in 2023, are typically not filtered through a prism of an atrocity that our ancestors rightfully abolished more than 150 years ago,” said an aide to Norman.
In 2019, Norman was part of a small group of House Republicans who sought to reinstate Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on House committees. King had lost his committee positions due to a series of racist and white nationalist remarks. King was not reinstated and later lost a bid for reelection.
On Jan. 17, 2021, Norman sent a text message to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows asking him to urge trump to invoke martial law (misspelling it ‘Marshall Law’) to prevent Biden’s inauguration. Norman has supported efforts to impeach Biden.
Norman also voted in June 2021 against legislation to establish June 19, or Juneteenth, as a federal holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. On June 19. 1865, Major Gen. Gordon Granger proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Among living, former presidents, Jimmy Carter’s ancestor, four generations removed, James W. Carter, owned 54 enslaved African Americans. The former President declined an interview as the family is focusing on Carter’s health during his hospice care.
“As you likely know, President Carter has been a champion of racial justice since his time as Governor of Georgia and he has written extensively on how he first understood race and how it impacted him, his life, and his political life,” said a spokesperson.
Austin W. Woodward had 52 enslaved African Americans. He was a relative four generations removed of Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican governor of Arkansas and a Republican candidate for president in 2024.
John B. Lewis, an ancestor six generations removed from Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, had 56 enslaved African Americans.
A Republican, Kemp felt the ire of trump after the governor followed state law that required him to certify the results in the 2020 presidential election, despite Trump’s repeated false claims of fraud in the election. In 2021, Kemp signed into law the Election Integrity Act of 2021, which expanded early in-person voting and increased the state government’s control over local election officials.
Robert Mosely, a descendant, five generations removed of Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., had 44 enslaved African Americans.
In 2020, Biggs, a far right lawmaker, joined his colleague, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. in a video falsely claiming there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. He spoke at rallies promoting the “Stop the Steal” election conspiracy movement, and has claimed antifa was behind the January 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol.
Biggs voted against awarding three Congressional Gold Medals to the Capitol Police who protected the Capitol during the Jan. 6, failed insurrection by trump supporters.
Biggs supports efforts to impeach Biden, voted against passing legislation to establish June 19, or Juneteenth, as a federal holiday and rejects the science that proves climate change is largely caused by fossil fuel emissions.
Henry Ferguson, an ancestor five generations removed of Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-Ga., owned 39 enslaved African Americans.
After the Revolutionary War, Ferguson was granted 500 acres in Florida. He formerly lived in Georgia and South Carolina. In his memorial to the East Florida Claims Commission, Rep. Ferguson said of his descendant, “by his industry and assistance of a few slaves…he acquired a comfortable living.” Fifty acres were cleared, fenced and planted by 20 slaves, who also constructed a new dwelling house and detached kitchen, slave housing, a corn crib and other buildings that overlooked the St. Johns River.
Rep. Ferguson and the other seven Republican House leaders in the 117th Congress voted on May 19, 2021, against establishing a national commission to investigate the 2021 Capitol attack.
William McClanahan, an ancestor, five generations removed of Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., owned 42 enslaved African Americans.
Griffith has voted to allow Virginia to enforce federal immigration laws that make it illegal to knowingly employing illegal immigrants or undocumented workers and also voted to criminalize possession of firearms by illegal aliens. He voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes the government to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of fiscal year 2020.
Griffith voted against the Consolidated Appropriations Act which prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement from cooperating with the Department of Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of Unaccompanied Alien Children. The measure was approved by both houses of Congress and signed into law by trump on Dec. 10, 2019.
Griffith objected to certifying the 2020 presidential election.
According to Reuters, senators with direct descendants who were enslavers include Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, John Boozman, Richard Burr, Shelley Moore Capito, Tom Carper, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, Tom Cotton, Tammy Duckworth, Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Maggie Hassan, Martin Heinrich, Chris Van Hollen, John Kennedy, Angus King, James Lankford, Mitch McConnell, Gary Peters, Jeanne Shaheen, Richard Shelby, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Debbie Stabenow, Thom Tillis,Tommy Tuberville, Elizabeth Warren and Roger Wicker.
Representatives include Robert Aderholt, Rick W. Allen, Jodey Arrington, Brian Babin, Jim Banks, Andy Barr, Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Earl Blumenauer, Carolyn Bourdeaux, Mo Brooks, Julia Brownley, Tim Burchett, Ken Calvert, Buddy Carter, John Carter, Madison Cawthorn, Steve Chabot, Liz Cheney, Ben Cline, James Comer, Jim Cooper, Lloyd Doggett, Jeff Duncan, Neal Dunn, Drew Ferguson, Lizzie Fletcher, Jeff Fortenberry, Scott Franklin, Bob Gibbs, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Kay Granger, Garret Graves, Sam Graves, Morgan Griffith, Michael Guest, Brett Guthrie, Josh Harder, Jody Hice, French Hill, Richard Hudson, Bill Johnson, Ann Kirkpatrick, Rick Larsen, Julia Letlow, Frank Lucas, Nancy Mace, Carolyn Maloney, Tracey Mann, Barry Moore, Markwayne Mullin, Ralph Norman, Steven Palazzo, August Pfluger, David Price, Tom Rice, Hal Rogers, John Rose, David Rouzer, Chip Roy, Austin Scott, Pete Sessions, Adrian Smith, Van Taylor, William Timmons, Dina Titus, David Trone, Daniel Webster, Roger Williams, Joe Wilson, and Steve Womack.
Governors with enslaver descendants include Andy Beshear, Doug Burgum, Roy Cooper, John Bel Edwards, Asa Hutchinson, Kay Ivey, Brian Kemp, Bill Lee, Henry McMaster, Michael Parson and Glenn Youngkin.