that moment when the earth sort of shifts and you realize that you have been half blind. Most of the branches of my family tree were planted in New England and Pennsylvania. Puritans and Quakers. At least for the first few generations. And congratulations to the Pennsylvania Quakers. They founded the first abolition societies in the colonies.
There were a few branches in the South, mostly in Virginia. One family were transplanted gentry. Anglicans mostly. The rest were Quakers, mostly.
One family that I know had slaves. There is a copy of a will that provides for two elderly slave women. Not fredom, but support. Since Virginia law required that freed slaves leave Virginia it was probably kinder to support the women where they were living and may have had family. That was the Anglican branch.
A first cousin several times removed of the Virginia Quakers split from his family, joined the revolutionary army in the South and ended up in South Carolina and Alabama. It is more than probable that those relatives were slave owners. Heck, he helped settle Alabama. Has a town and a county named for him. Doubt if he could have done that WITHOUT slaves.
And then I discovered a young African American actress who shares the last name of that former Quaker. And there is probably, I hope, only one way that could have happened. (Ownership not biology, I hope).
So. All those decades and centuries when those of us in the north patted ourselves on the back, and told ourselves "at least MY ancestors didn't own slaves" those ancestors profited from the trade. Whether they built the ships, supplied the ships, sailed the ships, made the rum, sold the sugar and other goods from the West Indies and never even set eyes on a slave they profited from the trade. And there were slaves in the north. Not many, but they were there.
Next month is the anniversary of the "I have a dream speech." That dream seems further away than ever.
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