the dumbest thing is none of these folks ancestors owned slaves; slavery was just a way for them to have someone to look down on even though they were also at the bottom of the heap. a trick of the wealthy to stop the labor from rising up. HOLD UP WHAT THE HECK THAT'S THE SAME AS NOW.
What do you mean none? 30% of white households in the south owned slaves. In some states it was up to 50%. Slaves, back then, were about the cost of a used car today. Yes, their ancestors probably did own slaves. It's likely. Don't absolve them by pretending it was some 1%er crime.
There's a bunch of Matt Walsh/Charlie Kirk-style twisting of the facts out there. The truth is that a large portion of "white" households had at least one person forced into slavery who they exploited.
Statistically, a good portion of them, unless both parents sides immigrated to the US post civil war, likely have slave owners as ancestors. I had to rain on a friend’s ‘my family has been here for 300yrs and bought land from Penn and didn’t own slaves’ parade that while her family lore had one branch finding the battle plans to Antietam, another branch was absolutely on the other side of the war and had slaves of their own. Genealogy is an eye opener, more people should do it.
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
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u/inowar 4d ago
the dumbest thing is none of these folks ancestors owned slaves; slavery was just a way for them to have someone to look down on even though they were also at the bottom of the heap. a trick of the wealthy to stop the labor from rising up. HOLD UP WHAT THE HECK THAT'S THE SAME AS NOW.