BrokeLoser
Diamond Member
NONE! Not even in old news articles about them or in other family trees of relatives that have gathered Bibles and other records of my family.... it was just like, slaves were a fact of life..no hatred spoken about them...nada!If you are from the South, like my family is....
try doing your family tree....mine goes back to 1610 so far.....coming in to Virginia.....
Anyway, I had no white guilt before ever doing my tree....none, zip, zero!
But NOW.....sigh.... I feel terrible about all the Slaves relatives owned....they were farmers...they were granted thousands of acres by King George and other Royalty that were Dukes and Earls earlier, to come to America, and farm, and send the food back home to England and given thousands of acres after fighting in the Revolutionary War in North Carolina and Georgia....
I kept thinking they did not own any slaves, because they were not on the censuses that I found for family members....but then I found these records called slave schedules, which was separate from the national census....and boy oh boy, did the early grandparents own slaves and uncles as well....
Plus, reading their wills in probate that are State records available, where they left their slaves to my other relatives and children.... what a sickening feeling....none was done in a harsh way, which was a little soothing.....like my relatives in their wills would say, keep the family of slaves together, DO NOT SPLIT families! But still...... sigh....
I probably have come across with great x 3 or 4 grandparents and their brothers, at least 25 relatives that served in the CSA, Confederate States of America, and the Civil War....but believe it or not, those relatives did not own any slaves by that time....they were all small farmers, a few hundred acres each, only now in Georgia and Alabama....and they had children, lots and lots of children, to run their farms and some hired labor...12 kids in a family was not uncommon!
Except 1 great grandfather, he did have slaves....and two of the slaves stayed on with him and my great grandmother after the slaves were freed....and became Domestic Servants....
and in his will, he left the home and land this couple lived on to this couple....
Anyway, the girl in the video was kind of funny and refreshing....but ... I'm still conflicted....though I have no hatred for other whites because of what their ancestors did....that's silly to do....
I’m curious...did you find any proof that your family abused their slaves?
But my relatives were not tobacco farmers, they farmed food like corn or different greens....and eventually Nuts (Walnuts) and Fruit like peaches....
So, I don't know if it was different in the Tobacco farms?
Super scary for most to admit but it sounds like your family may have done some good deeds by owning slaves. They probably saved many from dying a terrible death in their homeland.