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I bet a lot of people have slave owners in their family if their ancestors are from the South. The celebrities who are on this show have a problem if they want to hide that.
I figured that for the typical Liberal Obama-worshipping celeb he'd WANT to admit it, and exploit it to illustrate the usual celeb mantra reminding us that racism is only a one-way street.
And isn't it practically a law that all whites descend from slave owners anyway?
I'd consider the revelation that blacks owned slaves and profited from the industry just like whites a more newsworthy item.
I was very surprised last year when I learned I had an ancestor who owned slaves at one time. I never knew I had distant relatives in Mississippi either.
While i wasn't shocked, my aging mother was. He father's people, 4 generations back, where the slaveowners. That her daddy's family sold them after converting to Mormonism to move west to Utah was no comfort for her, and she would be horrified if the fact ever became public knowledge… the other side of her family tree were mostly Quakers who hated slavery and did everything they could to help runaway slaves.
That knowledge was a source of personal pain for my mother. For me, it was only an interesting revelation of my family tree. On my father's side, I already knew I was related to Edwin Booth, the older brother of John Wilkes, and to an old English family that was prominent in both the antebellum North and South.
Moving west was a good way for my ancestors to cover up a lot of old sins and righteousness at the same time. How any descendent takes the past to heart, whether it be sorrow, indifference or joy, is all up to the person.
I didn't care, but I'm not a professional actor, either. I won't ever have to worry about the unforeseen consequences that might come for taking a role in complete ignorance of why my ancestors did. Folks like to pick on movie stars these days, quite often for things the stars have no control over. I can see why Ben Affleck could be upset. If I was in his shoes, I really can't say how I would feel, but I'm sure my career would color my feelings if it could be affected.
One side of my family immigrated from Germany, the other side are Cherokee.
I wonder how much land I can get back that was stolen from my Cherokee ancestors.
I don't get upset over things that cannot be changed, that I did not do and I refuse to defend myself for the actions of others.
Hence the reason I don't understand why his wanting that part taken out is an issue, he did not do it and is not responsible and honestly I don't see a reason to be upset over it.
Your friend really got upset?
Oh, you may not be off the hook. The Cherokees owned a large number of black slaves, more than any other tribe. As they started migrating west, and even during the removal, they often took their slaves with them. A few of their slaves even tried to escape to Mexico in the mid 1840's.
It sounded like they were being respectful of his wishes, he could have easily said he wasn't doing the show.
It would have been better for him not to do the show if he wasn't going to be honest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3~Shepherds
Why is he ashamed of his past, it's his grandfather's past, not his. Seems Affleck thinks his fans won't understand it wasn't Ben who owned slaves, you must know how confused the left gets things.
He didn't try to rewrite it, as Affleck is doing!
Good Lord, please follow along. I am not supportive of Affleck or PBS in this issue, which you'd know if you read the entirety of the thread, particularly all of my posts!
It would have been better for him not to do the show if he wasn't going to be honest.
Good Lord, please follow along. I am not supportive of Affleck or PBS in this issue, which you'd know if you read the entirety of the thread, particularly all of my posts!
Affleck may want to research and see what kind of slave owners his ancestors were. Just to assume it was all bad, is very progressive thinking.
Jefferson inherited his slaves, he didn't buy them. He had a hard time letting them be independent, due to some of them being born into slavery, they knew no other way.
"My opinion has ever been that, until more can be done for them, we should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed and clothe them well, protect them from ill usage, require such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, and be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, and our duties to them."
--Thomas Jefferson, 1814
"AN ABOMINABLE CRIME"
Jefferson, who called the institution of slavery an "abominable crime," was all his life a slaveholder. Successful in outlawing the international slave trade to Virginia, he was disappointed by the failure of his early efforts to end or restrict slavery, and came to believe that a practicable solution to the problem could not be found in his lifetime. He continued, however, to advocate privately his own emancipation plan, which included a provision for resettling slaves outside the United States.
Slave Life
Monticello's African-American laborers worked from dawn to dusk, six days a week. Only after their long work day, and on Sundays and holidays, could they follow their own pursuits. Music, dancing, and prayer meetings, as well as midnight excursions in search of wild honey, are mentioned in the records. It is also evident that they devoted much of their free time to supplementing their rations -- by working in their vegetable gardens and poultry yards, by fishing and trapping, and by making furniture and clothing. Jefferson paid them for vegetables, chickens, and fish for the main house, as well as for extra tasks performed outside their normal working hours. He also encouraged some of his enslaved artisans by offering them a percentage of what they produced in their shops.
"PROTECT THEM FROM ILL USAGE"
"Nothing would induce me to put my negroes out of my own protection," Jefferson wrote in 1820. Like many of his contemporaries in Virginia, he held paternalistic views of his human property, feeling responsible for their welfare while doubting their ability to succeed in a free white world. He even advanced the "suspicion," in his Notes on the State of Virginia, that blacks were inferior to whites. Jefferson had strong scruples against selling slaves, while freeing "persons whose habits have been formed in slavery," he said, "is like abandoning children."
Then he should not have signed on to do the show as the entire show is revolves around searching his ancestry. That is the essence of rewriting his history. Selectively omitting facts is rewriting it.
Maybe he didn't know before signing on...why do you care so much about Affleck's ancestry? It isn't like he is telling people his granddad invented ice cream, he is just saying he didn't want to talk about slavery in his ancestry. That isn't the same as rewriting history.
No, I have a history line.....my lines were hard working field labor, even, women who did housecleaning, not part of the special elite who owned slaves.
Some grandmothers are vocal, while some sit silent.
Did you want a cookie for that or something? It should be one's personal choice if they wish to talk about their ancestry or not. Affleck has every right to not want to talk about that part of his family history if he is uncomfortable with it.
It would have been better for him not to do the show if he wasn't going to be honest.
Did he know before hand? It isn't uncommon for someone to have a change of mind after signing onto something.
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