Many US Leaders Found to be Descendants of Slave Owners

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Facts

  • A Reuters investigation has found that a bipartisan group of at least 100 sitting members of the US Congress, and all but one living US president, are the direct descendants of slave owners.1
  • Donald Trump, whose family immigrated to America after slavery was abolished, was the lone ex-president not descended from slaveholders. Former Pres. Barack Obama was related to slaveholders through his white mother’s side.2
  • Among the sitting lawmakers are Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.3
  • In addition, two of the current Supreme Court justices – Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch – and (as of 2022) 11 governors also have ties to slave owners. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are also on the list.1
  • Reuters’s investigation involved analyzing census records, tax documents, slave records, estate records, family Bibles, and birth and death certificates to trace the lineages of these people. Board-certified genealogists confirmed the findings.3

Sources: 1Reuters, 2FOX News, and 3Daily Caller.

Narratives

  • Republican narrative, as provided by BizPac Review. This study obliterates the Democrats’ efforts to present themselves as untarnished defenders of Black people and other minorities while painting Trump to be a racist and white supremacist. As it turns out, relationships to slavery don’t adhere to political bounds. It’s going to be difficult to take Democrats who use racial division for political gain seriously anymore.
  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Business Insider. Republicans shouldn’t be celebrating like this study absolves Trump of his sins. Even though his family moved to America late enough to avoid slavery, he still can’t be forgiven for defending symbols of the Confederacy and declaring that the white nationalists who killed a woman during the Charlottesville protests were "very fine people."
  • Narrative C, as provided by Federalist. People living in the US today, even some of the country’s most powerful leaders, aren’t responsible for what happened a century-and-a-half ago, and all this study does is magnify the lie that people should make amends for something they didn’t do. This leads to people backing unconstitutional policies, namely reparations, and makes Reuters look like a politically partisan actor when it’s supposed to be a neutral journalistic endeavor.