Sen. Mitch McConnell's great-great-grandfathers owned 14 slaves

NBC ^ | 07 08 2019 | Corky Siemaszko

[yesthatjallen]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said recently he opposes paying government reparations to the descendants of American slaves, has a family history deeply entwined in the issue: Two of his great-great-grandfathers were slave owners, U.S. census records show.

The two great-great-grandfathers, James McConnell and Richard Daley, owned a total of at least 14 slaves in Limestone County, Alabama — all but two of them female, according to the county “Slave Schedules” in the 1850 and 1860 censuses.

The details about McConnell’s ancestors, discovered by NBC News through a search of ancestry and census records, came in the wake of recent hearings on reparations before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Asked about the reparations issue, McConnell, R-Ky., said he was opposed to the idea, arguing it would be hard to figure out whom to compensate.

“I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, when none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea,” he said June 18, a day before the House reparations hearing. “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president.”

NBC News, in several phone calls and emails to McConnell’s office, asked if the senator was aware that his great-great-grandfathers were slave owners. The office did not respond to those requests.

[cpdiii]

There is debt should read is There is no debt

[octex]

Obama must have paid big $$$ to have his Kenyan bc sealed.

Prior to that, however, it had already been on the internet along with his grandmother’s story of being at the beach in Kenya with Stanley Ann when she began labor so they went to the nearby hospital there. Granny said she saw him after he was born.

[octex]

Same thoughts here. About 20 years ago I was doing the family genealogy research.

Found ancestors that were indentured for 7 years after a sponsor/merchant paid for passage to the Colonies. They learned a trade and moved on after their “slavery”.

First of my surname came from England to VA Colony. He and wife were massacred with about 400 others at Olde Jamestown by the Uncle of Pocahontas and his tribesmen. ...However their little baby was found alive and raised by who we believe were his mom’s parents.

The boy grew up, married and had many kids. Census records show they owned slaves from the 1700s to around 1850, as they moved from VA to TN to AR.

Old census records only listed numbers and sexes by various age groups for the slaves. They were considered valuable property like cattle and horses and the owners were taxed on each one. Women usually worked in the house as cooks, maids and nannies; kids played with owner’s little kids; men worked in fields and took care of livestock. They were well fed, had small places to live as families and owners furnished clothing when needed due to wear or weather.

This crap about reparations is BS! The slaves were valuable assets and often treated like friends... with that knowledge that there was still a social distance between them and the owners.

Sorry for rambling on for so long. Way past my bedtime here at 8am and too many brews. Later.............

[octex]

There were lots of Blacks in the North who owned slaves.

As I recall from a long ago article, Abe’s emancipation proclamation concerned the Confederate States, because slavery didn’t end in the North.

[octex]

Obama = 50% white, 30% Arab and 20% black.

His Arab portion includes those who enslaved black tribes and sold them to the Dutch and Portuguese slavers who put them in chains and sailed to the Atlantic coast, where the slaves were sold to Colonists.

[octex]

There were many Black and White slave owners in the Union States.

I don’t know their political leanings because the old census data don’t show that.

[RatRipper]

Limestone Co., AL is only about 40 miles up I-65 from me. Wonder how they got to KY.

I have seen documentation that my ggggf owned slaves in SC in the late 1700’s. The Civil War and the Great Depression sent the family to the bottom of the economic heap. They had nothing by the middle of the Depression.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

“Dinesh D’Souza stands by the claim that no Republican ever owned a slave.”

But D’Souza is not a source of high credibility. Fantastic guy! - but he is not a source of high credibility.

Well, that may be so. Maybe you can cite a “high credibility” source identifying one Republican slaveholder?

It only takes one. Surely you can do that?

But remember, we’re talking about people who were Republican at the time they held slaves. Frankly, it seems unlikely that you will find such - because anyone holding slaves who espoused Republicanism would have been instantly called out as a hypocrite.

[anton]

I think one of them was Maxine Waters.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The Conscience Whigs became Republicans, but they were just a small entity in the South.

I have no idea if McConnell’s ancestors were Democrats or pre-Civil War Whigs.

Abolitionists were a small entity nationwide. Even people willing to recognize the injustice of slavery understood that to suddenly release vast numbers of seriously oppressed people was tantamount to smoking next to an open powder keg.

I venture to say that joining the Republican Party of 1956 while owning slaves would put you in the smallest minority of all. No other slaveowner would associate with you - and everyone would consider you a hypocrite. No wonder D’Sousa is able to make the claim that no such creature has existed.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Some interesting information there. Some of my ancestors came from England in the 1620s. My Scots-Irish started coming in the 1700s. I haven’t found any indentured servants. (In the discussion of slavery, indentured servanthood is scarcely ever mentioned, is it?) The ones from England were higher up the food chain, which was good for them, but also good for me because much of the genealogical research on them had already been done, and making the leap into records across the pond became much easier for me.

[jeffersondem]

“It only takes one (Republican). Surely you can do that?”

Benjamin Burton, Delaware

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

“It only takes one (Republican). Surely you can do that?” Benjamin Burton, Delaware

Slavery in the North

Looks like you have an example - in fact, the largest slaveholder (28 persons) in the state.

His position was that he was willing to dispose of them if the price was good. Thank you.

[fieldmarshaldj]

They mentioned Limestone County, Alabama as to where McConnell’s ancestors were living. A cursory glance at its Presidential voting habits for the period 1848-60 showed it was a reliably Democrat county (AL did have pockets of Whig strength). So, it probably goes with your initial conclusion that they were Democrats.