"More than 100 US political elites have family links to slavery"

" More than 100 US political elites have family links to slavery \r\n\r\nA chiseled block of sandstone in the U.S. Capitol\u2019s visitor center serves as a reminder that the home of the nation\u2019s Congress was built in part by enslaved Black people. A bronze plaque says the stone, originally part of the building\u2019s exterior, \u201ccommemorates their important role in building the Capitol.\u201d\r\n Many lawmakers need look no further than their own family histories to find a much more personal connection to slavery in America, a brutal system of oppression that resulted in the deadliest conflict in U.S. history. \r\n In researching the genealogies of America\u2019s political elite, a Reuters examination found that a fifth of the nation\u2019s congressmen, living presidents, Supreme Court justices and governors are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people. \r\n Among 536 members of the last sitting Congress, Reuters determined at least 100 descend from slaveholders. Of that group, more than a quarter of the Senate \u2013 28 members \u2013 can trace their families to at least one slaveholder. \r\n Those lawmakers from the 117th session of Congress are Democrats and Republicans alike. They include some of the most influential politicians in America: Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. \r\n In addition, President Joe Biden and every living former U.S. president \u2013 except Donald Trump \u2013 are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and \u2013 through his white mother\u2019s side \u2013 Barack Obama. Trump\u2019s ancestors came to America after slavery was abolished. \r\n Two of the nine sitting U.S. Supreme Court justices \u2013 Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch \u2013 also have direct ancestors who enslaved people. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n This series was reported by Tom Bergin, Makini Brice, Nicholas P. Brown, Donna Bryson, Lawrence Delevingne, Brad Heath, Andrea Januta, Gui Qing Koh and Tom Lasseter. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n And in 2022, the governors of\u00a0 11 \u00a0of the 50 U.S. states were descendants of slaveholders, Reuters found. They include eight chief executives of the 11 states that formed the Confederate States of America, which seceded and waged war to preserve slavery. Two are seeking the Republican nomination for president:\u00a0Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, and Doug Burgum of North Dakota. \r\n South Carolina, where the Civil War began, illustrates the familial ties between the American political elite and the nation\u2019s history of slavery. Every member of the state\u2019s nine-person delegation to the last Congress has an ancestral link. The state\u2019s two Black members of Congress \u2013 Senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott and Representative James Clyburn, a powerful Democrat \u2013 have forebears who were enslaved. Each of the seven white lawmakers who served in the 117th Congress is a direct descendant of a slaveholder, Reuters found. So too is the state\u2019s Republican governor, Henry McMaster. \r\n Reuters found that at least 8% of Democrats in the last Congress and 28% of Republicans have such ancestors. The preponderance of Republicans reflects the party\u2019s strength in the South, where slavery was concentrated. Although white people enslaved Black people across Northern states in early America, by the eve of\u00a0the Civil War, slavery was almost entirely a Southern enterprise. \r\n The Reuters examination reveals how intimately tied America remains to the institution of slavery, including through the \u201cpeople who make the laws that govern our country,\u201d 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\u00a0on PBS. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n The block of sandstone displayed in the visitor center in the U.S. Capitol commemorates the \u201cimportant role in building the Capitol\u201d played by enslaved workers.\/REUTERS via Handout \r\n Gates said identifying those familial connections to slaveholders is\u00a0\u201cnot another chapter in the blame game. We do not inherit guilt for our ancestors\u2019 actions.\u201d \r\n \u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d Gates said. \u201cThis is a learning opportunity for each individual. It is also a learning opportunity for their constituency \u2026 and for the American people as a whole.\u201d \r\n In addition to the political leaders Reuters identified, \u201cthere are millions of Americans who are descendants of enslavers as well,\u201d said Tony Burroughs, a genealogist who specializes in helping Black Americans trace their ancestries. \r\n What\u2019s unclear is how the proportion of leaders\u00a0who\u00a0descend from slaveholders compares to that of all Americans. Among scholars, there is no agreement on precisely how many Americans today have a forebear who enslaved people. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr calls the Reuters examination \u201ca learning opportunity,\u201d not only for members of Congress and other political elites but also for their constituents and \u201cthe American people as a whole.\u201d REUTERS\/Demetrius Freeman\/File Photo \r\n Ancestral ties to slaveholders have been documented previously for a handful of leaders, including\u00a0 Biden ,\u00a0 Obama \u00a0and\u00a0 McConnell . Scholars and journalists have also extensively examined slavery and its legacy, including how the\u00a0 North profited \u00a0from the institution, and the role slavery played in decisions of past political leaders\u00a0 during the formation of America \u00a0and\u00a0 after emancipation . \r\n The Reuters examination is different. It focuses on the most powerful U.S. officeholders of today, many of whom have staked key positions on policies related to race. It reveals for the first time, in breadth and in detail, the extent of those leaders\u2019 ancestral connections to what\u2019s commonly called America\u2019s \u201coriginal sin.\u201d And it explores what it may mean for them to learn \u2013 in personal, specific and sometimes graphic ways \u2013 the facts behind their own kin\u2019s part in slavery. \r\n Few were willing to discuss the subject: Only a quarter of those identified as having slaveholding ancestors offered any comment to Reuters. Among the silent\u00a0are politicians who previously have spoken publicly, sometimes eloquently, about the legacy of slavery and the need for racial healing. The reticence underscores the enduring sensitivity of slavery as a political issue, an unease that genealogist Burroughs suggests is greatly amplified for many people when one\u2019s own kin are linked to the brutal institution. \r\n \u201cYou probably have a lot of people who are struggling\u201d to process the information about their families, said Burroughs. He said the granular detail Reuters provided the leaders \u2013 names, places and circumstances linking their families to slavery \u2013 makes the information especially powerful. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard for them to be in denial when they have the specific facts in front of them.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Oil painting of an enslaved person captured on African coast.\u00a0Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \u201cA slave-coffle passing the Capitol,\u201d circa\u00a01815. Many abolitionists used imagery such as this to emphasize the hypocrisy of slavery in the nation\u2019s capital and America writ large. Library of Congress \r\n \r\n To trace the lineages of the\u00a0political elite,\u00a0 R euters journalists assembled tens of thousands of pieces of information \u00a0contained in thousands of pages of documents. They analyzed\u00a0U.S.\u00a0census records, including antebellum tallies of enslaved people known as \u201c slave schedules ,\u201d as well as tax documents, estate records, family Bibles, newspaper accounts, and birth and death certificates. The records \u2013 in some cases, family wills that show enslaved human beings bequeathed along with feather beds and farm animals \u2013 provide a visceral link between today\u2019s decision makers and slavery. In doing so, they expand upon the antiseptic story conveyed by the sandstone monument in the Capitol\u2019s visitor center. \r\n The Reuters\u00a0 research was then vetted by board-certified genealogists, who reviewed each case \u00a0that linked a contemporary leader to a slaveholding ancestor. Among the examples of lawmakers and their ancestors\u2019 ties to slavery: \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Lindsey Graham \r\n U.S. Senator from South Carolina \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Joseph Maddox \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 8 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \u2018the original sin of the country\u2019 \r\n The great-great-great-grandfather of Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. After the death of Graham\u2019s direct ancestor, Joseph Maddox, a receipt from the sale\u00a0of his estate was prepared. Dated February 1, 1845, it shows the sale of eight people Maddox had enslaved. Among them were five children: Sela, Rubin, James, Sal and Green. The \u201cNegro man Sam\u201d was sold for $155.25. Their names are listed alongside items including a sorrel horse ($10.50) and a folding table ($9.87). \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n After the death of Senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s direct ancestor, Joseph Maddox, a receipt from the\u00a0 appraisal and sale \u00a0of his property shows the purchase of eight people Maddox had enslaved. Among them were five children: Sela, Rubin, James, Sal and Green. (Source: Ancestry.com) \r\n \u201cSenator Graham has called slavery \u2018the original sin of the country,\u2019\u201d an aide said in a short written statement in response to a detailed briefing on the Reuters findings about Maddox. Graham didn\u2019t respond to an interview request. In past public remarks, he has spoken about the need to focus on building \u201ca more perfect union rather than looking backward.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Nancy Mace \r\n U.S. Representative from South Carolina \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Drucilla Mace \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-grandmother \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 15 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n The great-great-great-grandmother of Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina. The ancestor, Drucilla Mace, had a son, John Mace, who was also a slaveholder. Decades after emancipation, a formerly enslaved man was interviewed, and he recalled being made to work for John Mace, who in 1860 enslaved seven\u00a0people. John Mace is the great-great-grandfather of Nancy Mace. \r\n In\u00a0 an interview in 1937 , the man, Hector Godbolt, recounted watching an overseer summoned by John Mace\u2019s wife put an enslaved person over a fence plank and whip him 75 times with a \u201ccat o\u2019nine tails,\u201d named for the nine knotted strands that ensure each lash inflicted searing pain. After 75 lashes, Godbolt recalled, \u201cBlood run\u00a0down off him just like you see a stream run.\u201d \r\n Nancy Mace initially agreed to an interview, then canceled. She later provided this statement in response to the family tree Reuters provided: \u201cI don\u2019t recognize these people named and can\u2019t confirm they are relatives, but slavery was a stain on this country and we as Americans should be grateful for the progress we\u2019ve made\u00a0since the 1860s.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n The full 1937 interview with Hector Godbolt (spelled Godbold in the interview document),\u00a0an enslaved man who was forced to work for an ancestor of Representative Nancy Mace, is part of a government collection called Slave Narratives. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Tammy Duckworth \r\n U.S. Senator from Illinois \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Henry Coe \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 4 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \u2018gut-wrenching\u2019 \r\n The great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois. Duckworth described the facts Reuters unearthed as \u201cgut-wrenching.\u201d In an 1829 appraisal of the estate of her ancestor, Henry Coe, the names of the enslaved \u2013 and their assessed dollar values \u2013 are bookended by farm animals: seven sheep and a lamb, and a bull calf. \r\n Coe left to various family members \u201cmy negro woman Margaret until she shall arrive at the age of forty years, and my negro boy Isaac until he is thirty-six years old, also my negro boy Warner until he is thirty-six years old \u2026\u201d and \u201cmy negro boy George \u2026 till he is thirty-six years old.\u201d\u00a0The will said that each would be freed when reaching the stated age. Reuters could not determine what became of three of the enslaved. But a\u00a0 Freedom Suit \u00a0 in Virginia in 1858 \u00a0shows\u00a0that Isaac Franklin \u2013 the child named Isaac mentioned in the Coe will \u2013 sought emancipation at age 36. By the 1860 census, he was listed in Frederick County, Virginia, living as a free man and working as a blacksmith. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n An 1829 appraisal of the estate of Senator Tammy Duckworth\u2019s ancestor names the enslaved \u2013 and their assessed dollar values \u2013 bookended by farm animals: seven sheep and a lamb, and a bull calf. (Source: Ancestry.com) \r\n Duckworth is a member of the\u00a0<cite class=\"term\" title=\"\" data-toggle=\"tooltip\" data-original-title=\"Founded in 1890, DAR is a non-profit, volunteer women\u2019s service organization dedicated to \u201cpromoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America\u2019s future through better education for children,\u201d according to its website. Its 190,000 current members are proven lineal descendants of veterans of the 1775-1783 war of independence from Britain.\">Daughters of the American Revolution , a service organization of women descended from veterans of the Revolutionary War. She said she hadn\u2019t known about her familial ties to slavery. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely political implications of the subject,\u201d Duckworth said in an interview, when asked if she was reluctant to discuss it. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s a disservice to our nation and our history to walk away from this. If I am going to claim \u2013 and be proud that \u2013 I am a Daughter of the American Revolution, then I have to acknowledge that I am also a daughter of people who enslaved other people.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n A Pivotal Time \r\n The new insights into the political elite\u2019s ancestral links to slavery come at a time of renewed and intense debate about the meaning of the institution\u2019s legacy and what, if anything, lawmakers should do about it. \r\n Protests over police treatment of Black people shook the United States after a white Minnesota police officer killed George Floyd, a Black man, in May 2020.\u00a0Activists pushed to remove monuments dedicated to the Confederacy, and tensions flared along partisan lines. In September 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order precluding federal funding for training that portrayed the United States as \u201cfundamentally racist or sexist.\u201d\u00a0Biden revoked the order in January 2021. \r\n Politicians\u00a0and jurists continue to grapple with a vast array of questions, such as the future of affirmative action in college admissions and how to teach about slavery and racism in American classrooms. One contentious issue is financial\u00a0<cite class=\"term\" title=\"\" data-toggle=\"tooltip\" data-original-title=\"Compensation by monetary or other means to victims of war, rape, terror and a host of other historical injustices. Such redress was never provided to former slaves in the U.S. for their unpaid labor and subjugation, nor their descendants for decades of government-sanctioned discrimination such as Jim Crow segregation laws and real estate redlining.\">reparations \u00a0for Americans whose ancestors were enslaved. In May 2022, a consortium of activist groups\u00a0 urged President Biden to create by executive order \u00a0a federal commission \u201cto study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans.\u201d A\u00a0 House resolution submitted this May \u00a0argues for trillions of dollars in reparations. Similar bills, most notably House Resolution 40 and its Senate equivalent, have stalled over the years in Congress. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n An actor \u2018embarrassed\u2019 \r\n Politicians aren\u2019t the only ones who are reluctant to discuss ancestral slaveholders. In 2015, PBS announced it had suspended a season of its genealogy series\u00a0 Finding Your Roots \u00a0after it was revealed that actor Ben Affleck had successfully pressured its producers to omit details about an ancestor who had enslaved people. The incident came to light after a WikiLeaks dump of hacked emails showed host Henry Louis Gates Jr asking a Sony executive for advice about a star who had asked to keep that aspect of his ancestry private. \r\n In the aftermath, PBS said the show\u2019s third season would not run until staffing changes, including the hiring of a fact checker. The series resumed the next year. \r\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth,\u201d Affleck later posted on Facebook. \r\n\r\n \r\n The White House had no comment on the efforts by the activist groups or on Biden\u2019s ancestral ties to slavery. The president\u2019s great-great-great-grandfather enslaved a 14-year-old boy in 1850, census records show. \r\n None of the 118 leaders identified by Reuters disputed the findings that at least one of their ancestors had enslaved people.\u00a0In a letter describing the project to them, Reuters made clear that it was not suggesting they were \u201cpersonally responsible for the actions of ancestors who lived 160 or more years ago.\u201d Even so, few leaders were willing to discuss their family ties to slavery. \r\n Reporters contacted each of the 100 current or former members of Congress and the 18 presidents, governors or justices, providing the letter along with a family tree and documents showing their ancestral link to a slaveholding forebear. Many were contacted multiple times, by email and phone, in office visits and by certified mail or FedEx. \r\n Among those who offered a statement was former President Bush. Through an aide, Bush reiterated a comment he made at the dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016:\u00a0 \u201cA great nation does not hide its history; it faces its flaws and corrects them.\u201d \r\n Of the 100 congressional lawmakers, 24\u00a0responded to the materials Reuters delivered. Another nine said they had no comment. The remaining 67 offered no reply. \r\n The reticence was true of members of both parties. For members of the 117th Congress, Reuters identified 77 Republicans, 22 Democrats and one Independent whose ancestors enslaved people. Of those 77 Republicans, 10 commented on the findings. Of the 22 Democrats, 14 commented. Independent Angus King did not respond. \r\n To explore more about the connections to slavery of each of the 118 leaders, and to see how they responded to the Reuters findings,\u00a0 click here . \r\n A Reuters\/Ipsos poll for this report suggests that a politician\u2019s links to slavery might sway some voters. In a national survey, almost a quarter of respondents \u2013 23% \u2013 said knowing that a candidate\u2019s ancestors enslaved people would make them less likely to vote for that candidate. That number rose to 31% among respondents who identified as Democrats, and 35% among Black respondents. What\u2019s unclear is how significant the topic is compared to race relations more broadly or other hot-button issues such as abortion. \r\n\r\n \r\n Candidate\u2019s ancestral ties to slavery \r\n A Reuters\/Ipsos survey asked, \u201cWould knowing that a political candidate\u2019s ancestors or family members owned slaves in America make you\u00a0 more or less likely to vote for them? \u201d The result indicates that the issue could sway some voters. \r\n\r\n <iframe src=\"https:\/\/graphics.thomsonreuters.com\/srepfiles\/2023\/K2RubQlihNC\/en\/chart-voting\/interactive\/index.html?initialWidth=635&childId=chart-voting&parentTitle=More%20than%20100%20U.S.%20political%20elites%20have%20family%20links%20to%20slavery&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Finvestigates%2Fspecial-report%2Fusa-slavery-lawmakers%2F%3Futm_source%3DSailthru%26utm_medium%3DNewsletter%26utm_campaign%3DDaily-Briefing%26utm_term%3D062723\" width=\"100%\" height=\"172px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"> \r\n Polling methodology \r\n\r\n \r\n One member of the 117th Congress with a slaveholding ancestor, former Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, questioned what the country has to gain from revisiting the topic. \r\n \u201cHopefully, everybody in America is smart enough to know that slavery is abhorrent,\u201d Brooks, who lost a U.S. Senate bid last year, said in a phone interview. \u201cSo the question then becomes, if everybody already knows that it\u2019s abhorrent, what more can you teach from that?\u201d \r\n Scholars say that establishing the grim details of the history of slavery is essential to understanding the nation\u2019s past and bridging racial divides. \r\n \u201cThere\u2019s a kind of moral value to documenting this crime and acknowledging that happened, and getting into specifics about what its nature was, and that involves saying who was involved,\u201d said Sean Kelley, an American-born professor at the University of Essex who specializes in the transatlantic slave trade. \r\n Knowing those specifics is crucial, Kelley said, \u201cif there\u2019s to be a reconciliation of some kind, racially, in the United States.\u201d \r\n The Reuters\/Ipsos survey\u00a0offers some support for that view, too: It suggests that, for some Americans, knowing of an ancestor\u2019s involvement in slavery can shape views on controversial policy questions. \r\n White respondents who said they\u2019re 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 same held true for the idea of having Congress create a commission to formally apologize for slavery: 53% of white people who said they knew of an ancestral tie to slaveholding supported it, versus 39% of those who said their families had not enslaved people. \r\n\r\n \r\n The power of knowing \r\n A Reuters\/Ipsos poll shows that Americans who said they knew their ancestors were slaveholders are more likely to\u00a0 support government reparations \u00a0to descendants of the enslaved or to Black Americans. \r\n\r\n <iframe src=\"https:\/\/graphics.thomsonreuters.com\/srepfiles\/2023\/K2RubQlihNC\/en\/chart-reparations\/interactive\/index.html?initialWidth=635&childId=chart-reparations&parentTitle=More%20than%20100%20U.S.%20political%20elites%20have%20family%20links%20to%20slavery&parentUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Finvestigates%2Fspecial-report%2Fusa-slavery-lawmakers%2F%3Futm_source%3DSailthru%26utm_medium%3DNewsletter%26utm_campaign%3DDaily-Briefing%26utm_term%3D062723\" width=\"100%\" height=\"233px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"> \r\n <cite class=\"term\" title=\"\" data-toggle=\"tooltip\" data-original-title=\"Reuters\/Ipsos asked in two ways whether the U.S. government should pay financial reparations: To descendants of those enslaved in the United States, or to Black Americans in general. The results were nearly identical and were combined. Poll conducted December 7-14, 2022, and again February 21-March 20, 2023. The credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, is 1% with a sample size of 15,740 adults. Among those identifying as white and having slaveholding ancestors, the credibility interval is 4% with a sample size of 715. Among those identifying as white and having no slaveholding ancestors, the credibility interval is 1% with a sample size of 6,891. Among those identifying as Republicans who have slaveholding ancestors, the credibility interval is 7% with a sample size of 284. Among those identifying as Republicans who have no slaveholding ancestors, the credibility interval is 2% with a sample size of 3,091.\">Polling methodology \r\n\r\n \r\n That dynamic held true across party lines: 24% of white Republicans who said they know of an ancestor who enslaved people supported reparations, compared to 12% who said their ancestors were not slaveholders. \r\n Genealogists say white people who excavate their ancestry could help Black Americans by finding information that enables them to trace their own ancestries. Black genealogy faces a special hurdle: Before 1870, census takers almost never recorded the names of the enslaved in the United States, instead listing ages and genders. \r\n In researching America\u2019s political elite, Reuters found names \u2013 almost always just a first name \u2013 of 712\u00a0people\u00a0enslaved by the ancestors of the political elite. Even with a first name, tracing those individuals forward to a census where they are recorded in full is often exceedingly difficult. But white families may have other documents \u2013 such as wills, plantation records or family Bibles that list the names of the enslaved \u2013 or know where to find them. \r\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t realize how many documents are still in the family,\u201d said genealogist Burroughs. He asked the leaders identified by Reuters to \u201cgo back and review their family archives, and see what documents they have pertaining to slavery and make them available to the public. That will help tremendously.\u201d Those documents could be shared with a university library, a local or state historical society or other archives, genealogists say. \r\n Lost Wealth, Lasting Status \r\n For most of the forebears identified by Reuters, slavery wasn\u2019t practiced on the vast plantations romanticized in works such as\u00a0 Gone with the Wind . Only a few leaders had\u00a0an ancestor whose slaveholdings were large enough to place them among the South\u2019s so-called planter elites, operators of the largest tracts. \r\n In states where slavery was legal, Reuters counted about one slaveholder for every four households in 1860, based on census data\u00a0from IPUMS\u2019 National Historical Geographic Information System. \r\n Most ancestors of members\u00a0of Congress\u00a0typified the medium-scale slaveholders of the antebellum South. An analysis of census data shows that in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, the average number of people who congressional ancestors enslaved was slightly larger than for the average slaveholder: about 15 people per forebear, compared with an average of 10 across the South. Most Southern slaveholders\u00a0enslaved fewer than 10 people, however. The average was pulled higher by a comparatively small number of landowners who held larger numbers of people in captivity. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n An overseer watches enslaved workers on a plantation field. Undated watercolor. Source: National Park Service \r\n The ancestors of congressional lawmakers were nonetheless among the richest in their communities and in America as a whole before the Civil War. Almost all of the slaveholding ancestors for whom Reuters could track assets were among the wealthiest 20% of Americans in 1860, according to census data. Three-quarters were among the richest 10%, the Reuters analysis found. \r\n Emancipation dealt a staggering blow to that wealth at the end of the Civil War. But many slaveholding families bounced back. \r\n A\u00a0 2021 study \u00a0in the American Economic Review found that the largest slaveholders sustained one of the greatest wealth shocks recorded in history.\u00a0<cite class=\"term\" title=\"\" data-toggle=\"tooltip\" data-original-title=\"The study compared the plight of families that had equal amounts of wealth in 1860 but enslaved different numbers of people. The study found those who\u2019d had more enslaved people before the war reported substantially lower wealth levels in 1870. But the grandsons of those families completely recovered in annual earnings by 1940. The authors wrote that they found evidence that slaveholder sons had leveraged social networks to aid their recovery.\">But their grandsons had almost completely recovered their economic status by 1940 \u2013 aided, the authors concluded, by elite kinship networks and social class connections. \r\n In looking at the members of Congress whose ancestors were slaveholders, Reuters found that some of these families, too, recovered financially by 1940. But limitations in census data make it difficult to track wealth after 1870. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Pete Sessions \r\n U.S.\u00a0Representative from Texas \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Richard Sessions \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 96 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n One of the wealthiest slaveholders was Richard Sessions, the great-great-grandfather of Representative Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas. A family history written by the congressman\u2019s grandfather in 1975 tells a riches-to-rags story involving the Sessions\u2019 cotton plantation along the Mississippi River: a place called Luna Landing in Chicot County, Arkansas, where more than 80% of the residents in 1860 were Black. \r\n The family book depicts the affluence of Richard Sessions before the war. It also documents the dependency of his fortune on the labor of those he enslaved. \r\n Richard Sessions owned about 770 acres of some of the most fertile land in the South. By 1860, census records show, the 43-year-old Sessions was among the richest 1% in America. His land in Chicot County was valued at $75,000. His personal wealth \u2013 measured largely in human property \u2013 was far greater: $200,000, or\u00a0 $113 million in today\u2019s money \u00a0by one calculation. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n In today\u2019s dollars, the 1860 fortune of slaveholder Richard Sessions, pictured here, would be worth about $113 million. Those enslaved on his Luna plantation in Chicot County, Arkansas, were grouped by age and sex, rather than listed individually. (Source: Ancestry.com) \r\n An\u00a0 1860 local tax list \u00a0indicates he owned $1,000 in household furniture, two \u201cpleasure carriages,\u201d and at least eight horses, 30 mules and 40 head of cattle. \r\n Sessions had 96 enslaved people working his land and tending to his family, according to the slave schedule portion of the 1860 census. \r\n Many slave schedules listed each person who was enslaved, individually, but almost never named them. The census taker\u2019s entry for those in bondage by Sessions\u00a0is even more impersonal. It grouped the enslaved by age and sex: There is an entry for three unnamed 55-year-old men, for example. Thirteen 25-year-old men. Twelve 15-year-old girls. And so on. \r\n Then the war came, and according to the family history, Union soldiers plundered Sessions\u2019 27-room house. \r\n Sessions emerged from the war as defeated as the Confederacy. About 48 years old at the time, he did not stand a chance to succeed without slavery, the family history suggests. \r\n It \u201cmust be remembered that while he had known how to manage slaves, the prospect for dealing with free-slaves was altogether\u00a0something new and untried,\u201d the family book says. He sold his land and moved to Illinois to try his luck as a farmer. \u201cHe did not understand farming, and in the course of four crops, he had lost everything he had.\u201d \r\n The Sessions family later rebounded, though, like so many others. Richard\u2019s distinguished descendants included William Sessions, a former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who is the father of House member Pete Sessions. \r\n Pete Sessions didn\u2019t respond to five requests for comment. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Remaining Silent \r\n Members of Congress often speak proudly of their ancestries, highlighting long ties to the places they serve or offering a family story emblematic of the American Dream. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Tom Cotton \r\n U.S.\u00a0Senator from Arkansas \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 John Cowger \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 6 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n One is Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. He describes his origins as \u201c\u00a0<a id=\"article-link-20\" class=\"article-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomcotton.com%2Fabout&data=05%7C01%7CBlake.Morrison%40thomsonreuters.com%7Ce63b1f3a85b0413a6c3508db3b6b8833%7C62ccb8646a1a4b5d8e1c397dec1a8258%7C0%7C0%7C638169105254250736%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BrqEsto2H7htroKeiqvNW8VYvTNdJRHNXrGs5EfSpBk%3D&reserved=0\">a sixth-generation Arkansan \u00a0who was born and raised on his family\u2019s cattle farm in Yell County.\u201d\u00a0<a id=\"article-link-21\" class=\"article-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomcotton.com%2Fabout&data=05%7C01%7CBlake.Morrison%40thomsonreuters.com%7Ce63b1f3a85b0413a6c3508db3b6b8833%7C62ccb8646a1a4b5d8e1c397dec1a8258%7C0%7C0%7C638169105254250736%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2BrqEsto2H7htroKeiqvNW8VYvTNdJRHNXrGs5EfSpBk%3D&reserved=0\"> Cotton\u2019s great-great-great-grandfather, John Cowger, enslaved six people in 1850: four women, ages 30, 22, 20 and 17, and two men, ages 20 and 19. At that time, Cowger was living in Mississippi, census records show. He subsequently acquired land in Yell County, Arkansas, which he gave to his son. \r\n Cotton did not respond to five requests for comment. \r\n Some members with slaveholding ancestors have spoken in support of racial reconciliation. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Jeanne Shaheen \r\n U.S.\u00a0Senator from New Hampshire \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Archibald Crawford \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 10 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, has said that\u00a0 Juneteenth \u00a0is\u00a0a day to \u201creflect on slavery\u2019s legacy, and recommit to confronting the systemic racism that still exists in our society.\u201d A few years ago, Shaheen told CNN that\u00a0 she can trace her family lineage to Pocahontas , who was born in\u00a0 about 1596 . Reuters found that Shaheen\u2019s fourth great-grandparent, Archibald Crawford, enslaved 10 people in 1840, including three boys and two girls under the age of 10. \r\n Presented with the findings, an aide sent a statement that included information that Shaheen was once \u201ca teacher at a Mississippi school that had recently been integrated.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n James Lankford \r\n U.S.\u00a0Senator from Oklahoma \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Edmond Dillehay \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 2 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n Another lawmaker who speaks about racial reconciliation is Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma. In his 1827 will, Lankford\u2019s ancestor Edmond Dillehay left to his wife \u201cone black boy named Peter\u201d and a \u201cblack girl named Milly and her increase\u201d \u2013 that is, any children Milly would bear. \r\n In January 2021, Lankford\u00a0 wrote an open letter to his constituents \u00a0a few months before the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre. The 1921 attack by a white mob left hundreds of Black residents dead and destroyed 35 square blocks of the city. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n In his letter to constituents, Senator James Lankford pledges to address questions and asks for help in showing \u201cwhat reconciliation looks like in moments of disagreement.\u201d\u00a0 \r\n Lankford had voiced support for creating an electoral commission to review the results of the 2020 presidential election before winner Biden took office that month \u2013 part of Trump\u2019s multi-pronged effort to overturn the outcome. The Senator expressed deep regret for the decision. Biden beat Trump by 7 million votes, thanks in part to overwhelming support from Black voters. \r\n Lankford had not realized, he wrote, that his support for the pro-Trump review would cause \u201ca firestorm of suspicion among many of my friends, particularly in Black communities around the state,\u201d who viewed the move as tantamount to backing the disenfranchisement of Black voters. \r\n \u201cI was completely blindsided,\u201d he wrote of the reaction, \u201cbut I also found a blind spot. What I did not realize was all of the national conversation about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, was seen as casting doubt on the validity of votes coming out of predominantly Black communities\u2026\u201d Lankford said he was committed to \u201canswering questions, and addressing our challenges to strive toward a more perfect union.\u201d The nation, he wrote, would soon look to Tulsa to ask:\u00a0\u201cHow have things changed in the last 100 years?\u201d \r\n Reuters made six unsuccessful requests to Lankford for comment. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Joe Wilson \r\n U.S.\u00a0Representative from South Carolina \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Stephen H. Boineau \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 16 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n Joe Wilson is the Republican Congressman from South Carolina who famously shouted \u201cYou lie!\u201d at America\u2019s first Black president,\u00a0Barack Obama, during a joint session of Congress in 2009. Wilson has at least five slaveholders among his forebears. His ancestors first enslaved Black people during the 1700s, Reuters found. \r\n Among the slaveholders was Wilson\u2019s great-great-grandfather, Stephen H. Boineau. In 1860, he enslaved 16 people, ranging from an 8-month-old girl to a 50-year-old man. Boineau also worked for another enslaver as an overseer \u2013 a man who enforced plantation rules and monitored the conduct of the enslaved. \r\n Wilson did not respond to five requests for comment. \r\n For most of his adult life, he has spoken passionately about the importance of heritage and history in both personal and political terms. In doing so, he has demonstrated a deep curiosity about his genealogy. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n From left to right: The full 1860 slave schedule listing Representative Joe Wilson\u2019s direct ancestor as S.H. Boineau; the inset listing the number of people Boineau enslaved; an image of Stephen H. Boineau, who was both a slaveholder and an overseer at South Carolina plantations. (Source: Ancestry.com) \r\n During a\u00a0 speech at the South Carolina General Assembly \u00a0in 2000, a year before being elected to Congress, Wilson said keeping the Confederate flag flying at the statehouse was \u201cvery, very personal. And it\u2019s personal because it\u2019s my family,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, it began very early in that I was named for a Confederate general, General David Addison Weisiger.\u201d \r\n In that speech, Wilson \u2013 whose given name is Addison Graves Wilson \u2013 noted that ancestor Weisiger \u201cwas not a plantation owner; he was a bank cashier.\u201d Wilson didn\u2019t mention\u00a0that Weisiger, an uncle of his great-great-grandmother, nevertheless enslaved seven people\u00a0in southeast Virginia in 1860. They ranged in age from 5 to 45. \r\n In 2009, the Congressional Record shows a statement from Wilson\u00a0 about his German heritage . Wilson mentioned the name of an ancestor, Daniel Weisiger, who he said was born in\u00a0Frankfurt, Germany,\u00a0and immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1731 before settling in Chesterfield County, Virginia. \r\n Reuters found that one of Wilson\u2019s Weisiger ancestors was a slaveholder in 1786. A tax book for Chesterfield County shows Daniel Weisiger\u2019s son, Samuel, having five \u201cnegroes\u201d on a form that also listed his cattle and horses. Samuel Weisiger gave his son the same name as his father: Daniel. In 1830, son Daniel Weisiger held 15 enslaved people, according to the census. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n From left to right, David Addison\u00a0Weisiger, the Confederate general after whom Representative Addison Graves \u201cJoe\u201d Wilson is named; the full 1860 slave schedule that lists Weisiger; and the specific entry showing that the general enslaved seven people. (Source: Ancestry.com) \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Today\u2019s History \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Julia Brownley \r\n U.S.\u00a0Representative from California \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Jesse Brownley \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 3 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n Representative Julia Brownley, a Democrat from California, spoke with a reporter via Zoom after Reuters emailed her a document about her ancestor Jesse Brownley. According to the 1850 census, her forebear enslaved three people in Portsmouth, Virginia. One was an 8-year-old girl. \r\n When the reporter pointed that out, Brownley held her hand to her mouth. \r\n \u201cI served 12 years on a school board fighting for children,\u201d she said. \u201cSo just hearing that strikes a chord with me.\u201d \r\n Brownley grew up in Virginia. When desegregation came to the public schools in her town, she said, her parents enrolled her in an all-white girls boarding school three hours from home. Her world widened when she studied political science and history at Mount Vernon College, a women\u2019s school that later merged with George Washington University, allowing her to meet a broader range of people, including a Black roommate. \r\n \u201cI don\u2019t really have many opportunities to talk about \u2026 how I had evolved into who I am,\u201d she said. \u201cI like to be able to talk about it and be proud of it in some sense.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Mo Brooks \r\n Former U.S.\u00a0Representative from Alabama \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 Thomas Ferguson \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 1 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n One of the few Republican lawmakers who addressed his family\u2019s ties to slavery was Brooks. He represented an Alabama district in the House of Representatives for 12 years until he lost a bid for the Senate last year. \r\n In an interview, Brooks said he hadn\u2019t known that his ancestor, great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Ferguson, was a slaveholder. The farmer held one person \u2013 a 7-year-old boy \u2013 in bondage in Haywood County, North Carolina, according to the 1860 slave schedule. Reuters could find no records that show what became of the child\u2019s parents. Had they died? Or was the family separated, sold piecemeal to other slaveholders? \r\n Brooks wondered whether there might be a happier story behind why the boy was listed on the schedule. \u201cIt is hard to envision what kind of labor a 7-year-old boy could do to offset the food, shelter, clothing costs of that 7-year-old boy. Which raises the issue of whether this ancestor had the boy in his possession in a traditional slavery sense, or was intending to set that boy free once he reached the age of majority,\u201d Brooks said. \r\n Manumission \u00a0was \u201chighly unusual,\u201d said historian Marie Jenkins Schwartz, author of\u00a0 Born in Bondage: Growing Up Enslaved in the Antebellum South . \u201cBy the age of 7, an enslaved child would be expected to be productive,\u201d potentially helping around the slaveholder\u2019s house, watching their children, and learning agricultural or other adult jobs, she said. \u201cThey certainly didn\u2019t have a life of leisure.\u201d \r\n When he was in Congress, Brooks was one of 14 members who voted against making Juneteenth a national holiday. Brooks told Reuters that he preferred such a holiday be on a day he considered to be\u00a0of broader national significance, such as when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. In addition, Brooks said he also was concerned about the cost of adding a federal holiday without eliminating a current one. \r\n In June 2021, Brooks co-sponsored a bill called the\u00a0 Saving American History Act. \r\n The bill directs that federal funding be withheld from schools that wish to teach materials based on the New York Times\u2019 1619 Project, a series of essays about the founding of America that argued the start of African slavery that year wasn\u2019t just the country\u2019s original sin but \u201cas important to the American story as 1776,\u201d the year the United States declared independence. The scholarship of the series has been\u00a0 hailed by \u00a0some professional historians and\u00a0 criticized by others. \u00a0The bill didn\u2019t make it to the House floor for a vote. \r\n \u201cThe Federal Government,\u201d the bill reads, \u201chas a strong interest in promoting an accurate account of the Nation\u2019s history through public schools and forming young people into knowledgeable and patriotic citizens.\u201d \r\n \u201cIt\u2019s always good to know history,\u201d Brooks told Reuters. \r\n Asked about his view on reparations, Brooks said the country has already paid one form of restitution, through a Civil War-era program proposed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. \r\n \u201cYou may remember \u2013 what was it \u2013 40 acres and a mule?\u201d Brooks asked. \u201cNow I\u2019d have to check my history on how prevalent that was. But some freed slaves were given some amount of reparations, if my memory serves me correctly, and that is the origin of the phrase \u201840 acres and a mule.\u2019\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n As Harvard\u2019s Gates\u00a0 wrote , Sherman did issue a special order in 1865 calling for liberated families under his protection to be issued land and, later, a mule.\u00a0The property in question was a strip of land down the country\u2019s southeastern coast. \r\n Had the order been followed, it would have provided Black Americans assets upon which to build new lives and perhaps pass wealth to subsequent generations. \r\n But the program ended quickly, Gates wrote. President Andrew Johnson, the Southern sympathizer who succeeded Abraham Lincoln, \u201coverturned the Order in the fall of 1865\u201d and returned the land \u201cto the very people who had declared war on the United States of America.\u201d \r\n The United States has never paid restitution for slavery. \r\n \u2018A Better Nation\u2019 \r\n Some historians and genealogists say there is a valuable reason for white leaders \u2013 and other white Americans \u2013 to explore their links to slavery. \r\n Many white families may have records that are not in the public domain \u2013 documents that could help Black Americans trace their own ancestries to before 1870, when the formerly enslaved were first recorded by name in the U.S. census. Before emancipation, the historical record bears scant detailed traces of individual Black Americans. Not so for white people: Old letters, family Bibles, or other records left behind by white Americans hold the potential to unlock mysteries for the descendants of the 3.9 million Black Americans who were enslaved at the start of the Civil War. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Nicka Sewell-Smith, a professional genealogist with the family history website Ancestry.com, said people frequently ask her what to do with such documents. \u201c\u2018My mom had this set of papers in the attic and it has names of enslaved people \u2026 Where do I put it?\u2019\u201d Sewell-Smith said. (Her suggestion is to upload\u00a0them to Ancestry.com, where others researching the same family can find them. The site requires a subscription.) More and more Americans are interested in genealogy, she said, and they think, \u201c\u2018Oh, my gosh, I might be holding on to something in my house that other people need to even make a connection with their ancestors.\u2019\u201d \r\n That shared effort might bring a divided country closer, said board-certified genealogist LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson. \r\n Garrett-Nelson, who worked with Reuters to review its reporting, said generations of Americans \u201cwere socialized to think of African-descended families as people who had no history worth remembering.\u201d She is a current trustee and former president of the board of trustees for the Board for Certification of Genealogists. \r\n \u201cWe as genealogists can play a role in helping our country move toward a process of true reconciliation, something that cannot happen until we honestly face the past,\u201d she said. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Rick Larsen \r\n U.S. Representative from Washington \r\n\r\n \r\n DIRECT ANCESTOR:\u00a0 John Wiggins \r\n RELATIONSHIP:\u00a0 Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather \r\n NUMBER ENSLAVED:\u00a0 3 \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n Congressman Rick Larsen, a Democrat from the state of Washington, learned from Reuters that his ancestor enslaved people. Among the papers a reporter shared with Larsen was an 1828 will left by his ancestor, John Wiggins. Unlike the U.S. census forms during that era, which gave only the numbers of enslaved people held by a household, the will listed names \u2013 a fact Larsen highlighted in a statement to Reuters. \r\n \u201cWhen he died in Nicholas County, Kentucky, records show John Wiggins left three enslaved persons \u2013 Gilbura, George and Agg \u2013 to his wife,\u201d Larsen said. \r\n Larsen continued: \u201cI want to honor Gilbura, George and Agg. It may be difficult to document their family tree, yet I truly hope there is a record of their lives where their descendants thrived in this country as whole persons with the human dignity they deserved.\u201d Reuters could find no record of the three in the 1870 census. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n For Representative Gregory Meeks, a Black congressman who represents a district in Queens, New York, the search for his ancestors continues. The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Meeks said in an interview that he has spent years trying to trace his family history back before 1870. \r\n Meeks grew up in New York but spent summers in South Carolina, where his parents were from. Born in 1953, he said he remembers traces of the\u00a0 Jim Crow \u00a0South during his visits. His grandfather once ordered him to hide under the bed because of rumors the Ku Klux Klan was coming through York County. \r\n In search of his ancestors, Meeks checked real-estate papers, church documents and birth records. He also spoke to older relatives from South Carolina. \r\n In an interview at his office, Meeks said he was working to \u201cput some of those pieces together.\u201d \r\n He has found the birth certificate of his grandfather, a man born right after emancipation. The information it gives for that man\u2019s father \u2013 Meeks\u2019 great-grandfather \u2013 \u201cshows that he was a slave,\u201d Meeks said. \r\n \u201cI\u2019m still in the process, actually, of trying to dig deeper,\u201d he said. \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Like many Black Americans, Representative Gregory Meeks say he has spent years trying to trace his family history before 1870. Even so, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the search for his ancestors continues. REUTERS\/Evelyn Hockstein \r\n Meeks said he has talked about family heritage with one of his white congressional colleagues, who \u201cgoes all the way back to the 1600s with his family \u2026 I\u2019m jealous of that, because I don\u2019t have any ability to do that, but he can talk about his family and have a history, a record of them \u2013 and I\u2019d like to be able to do that also.\u201d \r\n About 15 years ago, Meeks said, he took a DNA test that showed his family came from the Mende people of Sierra Leone. Last year, he led a congressional delegation to Africa. In Sierra Leone, the lawmakers stopped at Bunce Island, a former slave-trading port. \r\n \u201cIt was the most emotional moment for me on the trip,\u201d Meeks said. \u201cAll you can do is sit and pray to God and close your eyes, which is what I did, knowing that my ancestors were whipped, put in chains and put into the hulls of slave ships.\u201d \r\n Meeks said he plans to keep searching for the details of his ancestors\u2019 story so he can share it with his grandchildren and \u201ctell the truth of what took place with our family, how they made it through slavery.\u201d \r\n That way, Meeks said, they can \u201cbe proud of what we had to overcome in this country, to be a part of it and to make it a better nation.\u201d \r\n\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n Five generations of a family pose\u00a0at the plantation where they were enslaved, soon after Union forces arrived in Beaufort, South Carolina, 1863. Timothy O\u2019Sullivan\/Source: Library of Congress \r\n \r\n A REUTERS SERI \r\n\r\n "

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