What’s unclear is how the proportion of lawmakers who descend from slaveholders compares to that of all Americans. In addition to the political elite Reuters identified - including lawmakers representing northern states such as New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts - “there are millions of Americans who are descendants of enslavers as well,” said Tony Burroughs, a genealogist who specializes in helping Black Americans trace their ancestries.Ĭensus figures from 1860 indicate that 1 in 4 households in states where slavery was legal enslaved people, according to data from IPUMS’ National Historical Geographic Information System. It is also a learning opportunity for their constituency … and for the American people as a whole.” “This is a learning opportunity for each individual. “It’s just to say: Look at how closely linked we are to the institution of slavery, and how it informed the lives of the ancestors of people who represent us in the United States Congress today,” Gates said. We do not inherit guilt for our ancestors’ actions.” Gates said identifying those familial connections to slaveholders is “not another chapter in the blame game. The Reuters examination reveals how intimately tied America remains to the institution of slavery, including through the “people who make the laws that govern our country,” said Henry Louis Gates Jr, a professor at Harvard University who focuses on African and African American research and hosts the popular television genealogy show "Finding Your Roots" on PBS. Such topics include what to teach about slavery and racism in America’s classrooms the future of affirmative action in college admissions and how to address the persistent inequality in income and wealth for Black households, including monetary reparations.Ī Reuters/Ipsos poll for this report showed that white respondents who said they’re aware of having a slaveholding ancestor were more likely than other white people to support paying reparations: 42% backed the idea, compared to 24% who said their ancestors did not enslave people. The new insights into the political elite’s ancestral links to slavery come at a time of renewed and intense debate about the meaning of the institution’s legacy and what, if anything, lawmakers should do about it. So too is the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster. Each of the seven white lawmakers who served in the 117th Congress is a direct descendant of a slaveholder, Reuters found. James Clyburn, a powerful Democrat - have forebears who were enslaved. The state’s two Black members of Congress - senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott and Rep. Every member of the state’s nine-person delegation to the last Congress has an ancestral link. South Carolina, where the Civil War began, illustrates the familial ties between lawmakers and the nation’s history of slavery. Although white people enslaved Black people in northern states in early America, by the eve of the Civil War, slavery was almost entirely a southern enterprise. The preponderance of Republicans reflects the party’s strength in the South, where slavery was concentrated. Reuters found that at least 8% of Democrats in the last Congress and 28% of Republicans have such ancestors. Two are seeking the Republican nomination for president: Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, and Doug Burgum of North Dakota. They include eight chief executives of the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America, which seceded and waged war to preserve slavery. states also had governors who are descendants of slaveholders, Reuters found. Supreme Court justices - Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch - also have direct ancestors who enslaved people. Bush, Bill Clinton and - through his white mother’s side - Barack Obama. president - except Donald Trump - are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. In addition, Reuters determined that President Joe Biden and every living former U.S. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth and Jeanne Shaheen. They include some of the most influential politicians in America: Republican Sens. Leila Register / NBC News Getty Images ReutersĪmong those lawmakers from the 117th Congress are Democrats and Republicans alike. Of that group, more than a quarter of the Senate - 28 members - can trace their families to at least one slaveholder. Among 536 members of the last sitting Congress, for example, Reuters determined at least 100 descend from slaveholders.
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