[Verginius Rufus]

My ancestors on my father's side didn't come to the US until after the Civil War. Half of those on my mother's side had come in the decades before the Civil War but lived in free states; the other half were dirt farmers in slave states but not rich enough to be slaveowners.

Because of doing genealogical research, I know of a couple of ancestors several generations before the Civil War who had one or a few slaves--not plantation owners sitting on the verandah sipping mint juleps but yeoman farmers who had acquired one or two slaves, presumably as house servants. Of course that makes me guilty even if I may not have inherited any DNA from ancestors so far back.

Meanwhile, some of my European relatives were enslaved by Turks in the 18th century when pirates raided their village. Attitudes were more callous when even white Europeans risked being enslaved if they lived near a coast or sailed on the high seas.

[DoughtyOne]

Interesting comments. I’m not certain how accurate this is, but I’ve heard the U. S. only took about 5% of the slave trade here.

None the less, the U. S. is treated more like it took 99% of that trade.