Barack Obama's Ancestors Owned Slaves

Wire services carried an article a few days ago describing the relationship of the families of segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Now another politician has been linked to slavery in a manner that may surprise all. It seems that Barack Obama's ancestors owned slaves.

Mr. Obama's immediate ancestry is well known. His father is a black man from Kenya, and his mother is a white woman from Kansas. William Addams Reitwiesner, who works at the Library of Congress and practices genealogy in his spare time, spent time researching Obama's ancestry and found that his mother's family owned slaves, according to census records.

According to the research, one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 Census in Nelson County, Kentucky. The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.

You can read more in the Chicago Tribune at http://tinyurl.com/3d7rbb.

While this is an interesting story because of the other recent news articles, I suspect this is not a rare occurrence. If every American traced his or her ancestry, many of us would find similar stories in our family trees.

It reminds me of a quote from Helen Keller: "There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors and no slave who has not had a king among his."

Comments

[Alice Paige]

So, who cares? The anti-Obama people are trying to make a big deal out of something that is not of his doing and is beyond his control. This is viciousness creeping out.

[Laurie Kender]

Viciousness is in the eye of the reader - perhaps the article was written with a political motive, hoping to find the readers who would 'make hay' of it, perhaps not....but I hope we're looking at it from a genealogy perspective here.

I find it interesting and somewhat ironic, in a philosophical sense. I agree that if you shake anyone's tree, you may well come up with a slave-owner or two - I have, from New England in the 1600s (yes, I was surprised). But I like to muse on what those generations-back Southern Civil War era ancestors would have thought...about their ?X-great-grandaughter marrying a black man from Kenya...and about the son of that marriage being in contention for the presidency of the most powerful nation in the world. I'd have to think they'd be mind-boggled, at the least....

[B. Kirka]

What a great country we all share. The facts of his family history and the advancements of our history is why he is able to run for President with a chanch to win. That is exactly what we , as a country, are all about !!!!

[Pat]

and???? so what??? Let's trace all the candidates' ancestries to see what is there. Can anyone help what their ancestors may or may not have done? I have ancestors that were in the Rev. War....and at the same time, some members of my same family were Tories. (sided with the British, in case someone doesn't know what that means). It doesn't affect who I am. Let's get on to some real news now.

[A. Calkins]

Similar situation came up when Kerry was in contention last election. In his it case was his Jewish heritage.

[C. Henry]

I love the quote from Helen Keller. What a wonderful, diverse nation we live in! If we were all judged on our ancestry, would we even be able to be in this great land?

I, too, have not only wonderful Rev. War hero's in my ancestry, but one of those hero's had a daughter who married the son of a Loyalist who actually fought under the command of Cornwallis! That son became an indentured servant when the father died prematurely and the mother could not take care of her children. He was only 12 years old at the time!

During the Civil War, I have a great-grandfather who fought for the South, but later changed his allegiance, and fought for the North. His position there? Guarding the very men he fought side by side with in a Northern Prisoner of War camp. His allegiance switch tore his family apart.

I have slave holders in my history. I also have slaves. It is a sad point of history. Something that we, as a people, have hopefully learned and evolved from. And I think Obama is a beautiful example of that. A blended history. Black and white. Cultural diversity from different nations.

What more beautiful example of this great country could we ever hope for?

[Barbara]

Every time you see a light skinned African American you are probably looking at someone whose ancestors had slaves. It was very common for white slave owners to relieve themselves with slave women. If you go back further to Africa you will find more slave owners. When they warred with each other the winners got to keep the losers as slaves. Africa wasn't the only continent to engage in slavery, of course. I'm afraid that slavery has always been, and still is, part of human behavior. Telling us about one person's slave owning past is like telling us about one grain of sand on the beach.

[V. Souers]

Name one person who can change the past!

[Teresa Elliott]

Just makes me wish one of my cousins on my brick wall line would run for President. :0)

[Barnegat Blummis]

I had several tzitzit-knotters in my family tree, as well as people well-known for running around screaming "gournisht tzu hilfen!" That notwithstanding, I believe that this story represents a kind of 'guerilla genealogizing' and is quite similar to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (aka, "Lying Ideologues From the South") and ought to be condemned by the entire genealogical community as unworthy behavior and an invasion of privacy.

[Otwane Omuleppu]

Shall we note that George W. Bush's Grandfather was CEO of a company that sold US technology to the Nazis and helped them to do the Holocaust much more efficiently? And he was investigated by congressional committees for aiding the enemy in 1942 and 1943? Is that the fault of Vietnam-service-avoiding-AWOL-good-old George W?

[Blair]

Many African Americas who researched their family trees would be shocked to discover some of their black ancestors were slave owners. In the United States, free blacks as well as whites owned slaves (one of the South's biggest slave owners was a free black man.) The precentage of blacks who owned slaves was small, of course, but so was the perecentage of whites who owned slaves.

African Americans who traced their ancestory back to Africa would discover their virtually all their African ancestors were involved in the slave trade. African tribes ran the slave markets.

[Steve Franklin]

I hope that Barnegat Blummis's genealogy work is more factual than his diatribe against the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, who were much more truthful than the wonderful Mr. Kerry. Genealogy is about the truth, whatever it reveals.

[MSwoager]

I'm terribly surprised by the reactions of Obama supporters - one's genealogy is something that not one of us can change. I can no sooner change having both Union & Confederate ancestors or Revolutionary ancestors than I can change my DNA.

Lighten up, people! This is hardly meant as an attack on "your" candidate!

[MSwoager]

I'm terribly surprised by the reactions of Obama supporters - one's genealogy is something that not one of us can change. I can no sooner change having both Union & Confederate ancestors or Revolutionary ancestors than I can change my DNA.

Lighten up, people! This is hardly meant as an attack on "your" candidate!

[Elaine O'Neill]

One difference to be noted is that Al Sharpton was asked first and gave his permission to the people from Ancesty to research his family tree. Was Mr. Obama asked, and did he give his permission for his family tree to be researched? If not, then this research and even more, the publicizing of it certainly seems to be an invasion of privacy, regardless of the type of information discovered.
It certainly comes across as trying to discredit him in some way for something neither he, nor his mother, had any control over. I really don't like to see genealogy used as a weapon. It's just not right.

[Janis]

While I find it interesting to know about the ancestors of our Presidents and Presidential hopefuls, they had no control over what their ancestors did or didn't do. I base my vote on who they are today and what their viewpoints (not their ancestors) are on running our country. Likewise, I hold no grudges against my ancesotors (or anyone else's) who owned slaves, aided Nazi's or had done anything else that I would not have done. Since I did not live in their times and walk in their shoes, I don't know what influenced the choices they made. I have found no record of my great-grandfather's parents owning slaves, but he joined the Confederate Army shortly before the war ended, at about age 16. Did he join for the adventure or maybe to protect his mother and younger siblings from the Yankee soldiers? (Supposedly he built embankments) I will probably never know!

[Sandi Lee Craig]

I, too, have Rev. Soldiers, and men on both sides of the Civil War - all as a part of my interesting ancestry, their stories filled in by many years of research. I am able to tell the tale, proven with back-up paperwork, of how one of my ancesters was sold into slavery on the Boston docks for 10 pounds. Several comments have ranged from "you don't look Black" to people insisting that then it was called "indentured". I chose the word "slave" because any Scot who was a POW of Cromwell, lived through battle and the Tower of London, much less a Winter crossing of the Atlantic - and here in the New World totally against his will - SOLD in to service, certainly didn't come here of his own intentions! People, NOT all slaves were from Africa! How the genealogy would prove harmful to any candidate is beyond me. Most any one whose family has been in this New World for over 450 years has to have a similiar story to be unraveled with deep research. Genealogy isn't just about what was, but who we are and the responsibility we have to our ancestors to change this world for the better.

[Kathy Birch]

Personally, I am glad to see this story. In my opinion, the whole to-do-ta-da about the Sharpton/Thurmond story was ridiculous--and CERTAINLY nothing to get all hot under the collar about. Stories about tragedies our ancestors experienced or caused should always serve as lessons to us, but as we have no control over them at this point, why be angry or traumatized? This Obama story supports the argument that there could be horse thieves (or the equivalent) in everyone's history!
Conflict doesn't even have to be all that far back. My father was born in Germany in 1939. My grandfather, his father, was enlisted in the German army during WWII, and was assigned to an anti-aircraft weapons unit. My maternal grandfather built military planes in So. California, which my paternal grandfather then shot down. Meanwhile, my father-in-law was a soldier in the US Army and spent horrific months as a POW in Germany before being liberated by the Allies after the end of the war. Remember: we're talking here about people who actually LIVED through these things... and there are no hard feelings at family reunions! My daughter is a living embodiment of the sum total of all of their experiences.
Just because someone has decided to play in the very visible political arena doesn't mean we have to turn their lives--especially their ancestors' lives!--into soap opera drama! They are certainly NOT the only ones who experienced tragedy!

[Kathy Birch]

Like I teach all my students: "There is no judgment in Genealogy."

[Gordon Banks]

Everybody's ancestors OWNED slaves. Everybody's ancestors WERE slaves. Humans just aren't very nice animals much of the time. We do bad things to each other.

[Candy-Lea Chickite]

Anyone involved in politics knows that the best and cheapest way to have your family tree traced is to, well, be involved in politics!

It's inevitable that someone's going to do it, and nobody should be shocked at what is discovered.

[Dora Smith]

Well, guess what? My 3X great grandmother was the great grand-daughter of a Mulatto slave on her father's side, and the infamous DeWolf family on her mother's.

The only problem I've got with this is where my family has always lied about both parts of this.

Yours,
Dora Smith

[Irma Saldana]

If anyone wants to hold (Obama)or anyone of us accountable for our ancestors, trace your DNA and you will realize that everybody in the world came originally from Africa. DNA can determine our ancestors migration pattern over the last tens of thousands of years. We all share a common ancestor who lived in Africa some 120,000 years ago. At what point do we condemn our ancestors for their actions--50,000 years ago, 100 years ago, or 50 years ago? Your family story can be told through the science of genetics. I challenge anyone placing judgement to test their DNA.There is evidence in our genes that we have inherited to prove who you are and where you came from? Read the Journey of Man by Dr. Spencer Wells just to begin your journey of who you are. Don't worry about what you find out. It is possible that your ancestors owned slaves, were slaves, fought in wars, killed to survive, were warriors, kings, queens, farmers, etc. So, what are we going to do about it? Let's continue our journey in improving ourselves as human beings and we can start by not being so judgemental on what our ancestors did or didn't do. We are now the most intellectural group of people that ever existed. Let's act like it.

[Blair]

Reply to Janis: The early American colonies did have some white slaves whose offspring also became slaves, but they should not be confused with indentured servants. Most indentured servants freely contracted to become indentured for specified number of years in exchange for passage over the Atlantic. For most, it was a good deal. The cost of the voyage to America was equal to three or four years wages. At the end of their period of servitude, indentured servants were due a lump sum payment. Most used the payments to buy land. By that time, they knew where the best land was and which crops grew best. As a result, many quickly became more proporous than their fomer masters. Some indentured servants were cheated and mistreated, but most masters lived up to their end of the bargain. Indentured servants could, and did, sue masters who failed to live up to their end of the bargain.

Slaves from Africa quickly replaced the white slaves in the American colonies because they were cheaper and had some immunity to diseases such as malaria.

[Blair]

It is not surprising that Obama has slave owners in his family tree. Virtually all Americans, regardless of their race or ethnicity, have ancestors who owned slaves. Many African Americans who researched their family trees would be shocked to discover that have black as well as white ancestors who were slave owners. In the United States, free blacks as well as whites owned slaves (one of the South’s biggest slave owner was a freed black man notorious for his harsh treatment of his slaves). The percentage of free blacks who owned slaves was small, as was the percentages of whites who owned slaves, but the intricacies of the genetic pool guarantee that virtually everyone is related to them. African Americans who traced their heritage back to Africa would discover that virtually all their African ancestors were involved in the slave traded. The African tribes ran the “supply side” of the Atlantic slave trade. The ancestors of Hispanic Americans owned both black and Indian slaves. American Indian tribes practiced slavery both before and after the European discovery of America. (The Cherokee Nation, for example, voted overwhelmingly yesterday (3 March 07) to revoke the tribal citizenship of about 2,800 blacks who are descendants of Cherokee slaves.

It makes no diference which side of the Mason-Dixie line you were born in. Slavery was practiced in all the Northern states prior to the American Civil War and was still being practiced in many of the Northern states during the Civil War. That's why Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation applied only to states that had rebelled against the Union.

[Ward Greene]

I live in Australia but was born in Newfoundland when it was a separate country.As far as I know,Newfoundland was never a slave-owning place,though apparently a handful of Americans did move there at one stage with one or two of their slaves but could not continue the practice. Meanwhile, I was always told we, Point Verde Greenes,were pure Irish and that my Pikes and Judges(mother's side) were English.Since starting on genealogy a couple of years ago,I found my Judges were totally Irish and apparently my Greenes wre English Greens who moved to Boston way back when. In the Rev.War,my Quaker ancestor wanted to stay neutral(not a popular decision) and his brother fought on USA side. In late 1778 these both moved to Placentia,Newfoundland,an area they'd been trading with,probably not wanting to be actual Loyalists who could have moved to Nova Scotia and received free land grants. They had to buy their own land. Aside from not being told this when growing up,they also neglected to tell me why ,depending on the way the light struck their faces,my mother and her siblings looked sort of Indian,but I assumed it was a trick of the light because,after all,they would have told me,wouldn't they?! Nope,they wouldn't.I now have found out my mother's GM was native American,a Mi'Kmaq(same language group as Cheyenne). I think it's great! Now I am really looking forward to the next USA election to see if we maybe get the first black president,the first woman president,or who knows who else will show up in months to come.It looks like being the best election yet for people-watchers.

[Melissa]

-->Every time you see a light skinned African American you are probably looking at someone whose ancestors had slaves.

You should not assume that a light skinned African American has white ancestors. Two dark skinned African Americans can have a child that is light skinned, just as an interacial couple can have a child that looks more like one race than the other. It's all in the way the gene pool plays out.

[Dennis Lohr]

i just hope this thread doesn't turn political ....

[NANCY TOURJEE MAURO]

You can choose your friends...but you can't choose your relatives. I would hope that Barack Obama,as all other canidates, be judged on his beliefs on illegal immigration, health, education, peace and less waste of our tax dollars. These are issues that will effect us and generations of the future.
In all fairness let us examine the person...when we shake Rudy's tree his cousin falls out and whops!!He marries her.

[Barnegat Blummis]

I just want to bless my old DNA. Woweee, I'm a white guy whose DNA traces back all the way to what is now Libya! And the Sudan. Whoopee. Now what have we accomplished?

[Barnegat Blummis]

I just ran Steve Franklin's family tree and found Ho Chi Minh right there!

[Kathy Shoe]

I hear that a new book "Ancestors of Barack Hussein Obama 50 Generations" will be available on amazon.com in a week. I am going to get the book. It would be interesting to see who Obama is related to.

[Carlene duBois]

Having spent the last two months working on this, I've discovered that Steve Franklin is one of Al Sharpton's direct descendants.

[Tourmaline N. Fubsy]

You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.

[Caryatid P. Porch]

I just ran a full genealogical analysis on Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, John McCain, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Huckster P. Huckabee et al. It only took 45.6 seconds because this is a movie and the internet and research is magically instantaneous. No computer glitches, no slowdowns, no 404 messages, no object not found. They all came back fully annotated. Each of them with two exceptions are actually related to each other through a common ancestor, 47 generations ago, they share Cesare Borgia as a grandpa. Dennis Kucinich and Rudy Giuliani do not share that ancestor. Rudy Giuliani traces his ancestry back to Vlad the Impaler of Transylvania. Dennis Kucinich's 47th great-great ancestor lived on the Planet Guumba-Wekka in the Constellation FrootaKayka.

[Onusomos]

I find it very telling that it is less likely African-Americans can trace their geneaology beyond three-four generations. The fact that Barack Obama can go back further than those of us of the slave-trade makes him more American. That his father was an African makes him more African as he has roots in the Motherland. He may have one foot in this world and another foot in another world, and that is the insight he brings. His worldview is broader and richer than any of us whose experiences are limited to one worldview - whether black or white. He has the advantage of not being too close to one or too far from the other. He can walk down the middle being friend and foe to both. Mr. Obama's audacity of hope is testamony to reconciling the best and worst of his heritage. Somewhere in time he balanced his heart and mind and knew he was more than the product of an interracial marriage. He is the product of African and American heritages and to that degree represents black and white for better -- for worse. We should expect civility from everyone and where respect is earned are allowed simply just to be who we are at this moment in time. Ask yourself how you felt after graduating from college and were told you did not have enough experience for a job you wanted. How do you get the experience if you don't get the job? I understand the presidency is more than just a job, however, no employee should do only what is expected. Hillary will do what is expected. Barack will listen and do what is expected and more. He will do more in four years than Hillary because his partners' wills shall be focused on getting much done. The minds in his coalition will not always agree but that collection of hearts and minds will have an affinity toward each other. This affinity is the energy that will move them to achieve more together than Hillary can - even with all her so called experience. Where these shall be the many voices in unison, Hillary remains the same recording set on auto-loop. She really is the only one who likes the sound of her own voice.

[Pat in columbus]

Barack Hussein Obama cannot and should not be held accountable for the sins of his ancestors.I do not question his Africanism but I do question his Americanism. What is up with the Hussein middle name? We know where he SAYS he came from but anyone can post a Family Tree be it yours or fictional.We just rid ourselves of ONE Hussein,will we elect one who will turn our country over to the Terrorists? I only pose this question. Has ANYONE bothered to check this out? One great labor organizer and union leader in the US was an ILLEGAL ALIEN who sent a lot of money back to Mexico. He had NO Family Tree listed on the Internet, oh wait, my bad, we had no Internet then. I disagree with fanatic political people who use this or any other Ancestry Forum to help elect their favorite candidate and further their own political agenda. Pat

[Shalala]

I'd be hard press to find an African American who does not have ancestors who were SLAVE OWNERS. We are descendants of SLAVES. And it's well known that slave owners mixed with slaves. What some people fail to acknowledge is that nearly all WHITE people in American also have African slave ancestry.

[Dottie]

I am a first generation American and was raised to respect all people, SALUTE my flag, pay homage to my God and serve my country. Therefore it bothers me that a picture has circulated of Obama with his back turned away from the flag giving the appearance of not pledging his allegiance to the American Flag. Also bothering me is a story that Obama would not swear on the bible but used the Koran after election.

Is there any truth to the picture and story? I would prefer not. If there is truth should we American's be concerned.

I do not care about the color of one's skin, where they came from, how rich or how poor the family is/was. It is what one does today that matters.

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

Well, both Theodore Roosevelt and Chester Arthur decided to be sworn in without a bible. Who would you trust more, someone swearing on a holy book or someone who decides not to swear on a holy book?

[Sarah]

I suggest to Shalala as my son suggested to me when I first got on-line some years back and when I also questioned forwards sent to me by emails: Please go to snopes.com and you will get the truth about any and all rumors that we might scratch our heads about. The answers to your questions are there.

[Mike]

It would be interesting to examine if Obama's father's ancestors owned or traded in slaves. He was a Muslim and the Muslim slave trade was huge on the east coast of Africa -- such as in Zanzibar. It would not be far-fetched to speculate on his paternal ancestory and slavery then.

[Diana]

I came to this page quite by accident and was amazed/appalled at the comments found herein. I love genealogy, I love the history, I love the family stories and cannot understand how anyone would think tracing someone's family history is an attempt to discredit them. It can only mean that those posting such negative comments don't really care about genealogy, they want to share their hate and discontent. How sad for them. My family contains all types of humans, bad and good, and each has a place in my heart. History has lessons for us - for me, what I am is what I make of myself - what my ancestors were helps me understand where I came from and possibly why my health is what it is and why I may behave in some manner. Thanks for researching and posting such interesdting family information.

[Jerry Jones]

Obama's ancestry is nothing he can help. That has nothing to do with him. What I am finding interesting is an article about his paternal grandfather being an Arabian, not an African. If this is true, it seems to be something he is desperately trying to hide (muslim). All the information that I have found is about all but that grandparent.