McCain's Black Relatives

[CrackerBarrel]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Why would you assume they probably did, since most white families did not?

Slightly off topic, and maybe this has been mentioned at GC before and I missed it, but did anyone else hear that Obama is distantly related to Dick Chaney and Harry Truman?

A quarter of white families in states allowing slavery owned at least 1 slave. That doesn't mean a whole lot though since there have been quite a few generations in between slavery and now, so your ancestors cover a lot of families back in the days of slavery.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

A quarter of white families in states allowing slavery owned at least 1 slave. That doesn't mean a whole lot though since there have been quite a few generations in between slavery and now, so your ancestors cover a lot of families back in the days of slavery.

What's your source for information? And what time frame are you covering? What is the percentage of black/mixed race slaveholders at the time? I've seen the 25% figure banded about in research, but have had trouble sometimes pinning down the specifics of the statement. ( And 25% still means 75% of families DID NOT own even one slave.)

You can't really make a blanket statement like that and have it be accurate. As a basis of comparison, the percentage of New England slaveholders in 1760 is basically the same as southern slaveholders in 1860. If you talked about slavery in 1760 the percentages overall would differ from slavery in 1860. Heck, if you want to have fun with technicalities you could point out that 100% of all slaveholders after the Emancipation Proclamation lived in states of the Union. It's interesting that you specify your percentage as being those who owned at least 1 slave - I've seen percentages as low as 3.7 for southern slaveholders with 50 or more slaves, depending on the year.

Ultimately, getting back to the political aspect of all this, McCain could no more chose his ancestors than you or I. Whether or not his family, or Obama's, owned slaves tells us NOTHING about the candidates and their views on any racial issue of today.

[CrackerBarrel]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

What's your source for information? And what time frame are you covering? What is the percentage of black/mixed race slaveholders at the time? I've seen the 25% figure banded about in research, but have had trouble sometimes pinning down the specifics of the statement. ( And 25% still means 75% of families DID NOT own even one slave.)

You can't really make a blanket statement like that and have it be accurate. As a basis of comparison, the percentage of New England slaveholders in 1760 is basically the same as southern slaveholders in 1860. If you talked about slavery in 1760 the percentages overall would differ from slavery in 1860. Heck, if you want to have fun with technicalities you could point out that 100% of all slaveholders after the Emancipation Proclamation lived in states of the Union. It's interesting that you specify your percentage as being those who owned at least 1 slave - I've seen percentages as low as 3.7 for southern slaveholders with 50 or more slaves, depending on the year.

Ultimately, getting back to the political aspect of all this, McCain could no more chose his ancestors than you or I. Whether or not his family, or Obama's, owned slaves tells us NOTHING about the candidates and their views on any racial issue of today.

I had seen that number in this thread and repeated it. I was just explaining the logic that the fact that x% of families had a slave doesn't mean that x% of people now have ancestors who had slaves.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

A quarter of white families in states allowing slavery owned at least 1 slave.

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

What's your source for information? And what time frame are you covering? What is the percentage of black/mixed race slaveholders at the time? I've seen the 25% figure banded about in research, but have had trouble sometimes pinning down the specifics of the statement. ( And 25% still means 75% of families DID NOT own even one slave.)

Originally Posted by CrackerBarrel

I had seen that number in this thread and repeated it.

It was me, here in post #16. I got the info here. I'll admit that I haven't compared this to the census records themselves, which I can only find on a county by county basis.