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dancingtongue · 80-89, M
Which tells us two things:
1. Trump is the descendent of recent immigrants (so why is he so anti-immigrant?); and,
2. Slave ownership was more the norm than unusual in pre-Civil War times, and not just in the South.
Take my ancestors. My great-great-grandmother was born to a Primitive Baptist "Messenger", and they were strong abolitionists who had to move out of Virginia and into the Ohio River Valley because he couldn't minister in Virginia despite their Freedom of Religion statute written by Thomas Jefferson. Yet during the Revolutionary War she lived on her maternal grandparents' plantation under the care of a slave mammy while her mother took supplies to her husband and the other troops wintering at Valley Forge. So am I the descendent of slaveholders or abolitionists? (My great grandfather also fought for the Union and was a POW in Richmond, if you need to weigh the scales a little a more.)
Personally, since I also have immigrant grandparents on both sides of the family, and a stream of immigrants that married into the family before that, I prefer to thing of myself as a blending of immigrants who did what they needed to do at the time to survive and build a better life for ther descendents.
1. Trump is the descendent of recent immigrants (so why is he so anti-immigrant?); and,
2. Slave ownership was more the norm than unusual in pre-Civil War times, and not just in the South.
Take my ancestors. My great-great-grandmother was born to a Primitive Baptist "Messenger", and they were strong abolitionists who had to move out of Virginia and into the Ohio River Valley because he couldn't minister in Virginia despite their Freedom of Religion statute written by Thomas Jefferson. Yet during the Revolutionary War she lived on her maternal grandparents' plantation under the care of a slave mammy while her mother took supplies to her husband and the other troops wintering at Valley Forge. So am I the descendent of slaveholders or abolitionists? (My great grandfather also fought for the Union and was a POW in Richmond, if you need to weigh the scales a little a more.)
Personally, since I also have immigrant grandparents on both sides of the family, and a stream of immigrants that married into the family before that, I prefer to thing of myself as a blending of immigrants who did what they needed to do at the time to survive and build a better life for ther descendents.
Roundandroundwego · 61-69
@dancingtongue don't pretend slave holders were ever the "norm", as they always were a well hated minority of people.
An elite privileged but brutal class of men holds power over the USA, it's no democracy. It's an authoritarian country. Even the Dems don't let Americans choose their president. Take Biden, take Hillary or take Trump.
An elite privileged but brutal class of men holds power over the USA, it's no democracy. It's an authoritarian country. Even the Dems don't let Americans choose their president. Take Biden, take Hillary or take Trump.