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Home Front: Politix

DNC oops shocker, Obama's relatives owned black slaves

2007-03-03

Obama's white ancestors owned slaves. So says the research of William Addams Reitwiesner, "who works at the Library of Congress and practices genealogy in his spare time", and who is featured in this morning's edition of the Baltimore Sun.
Hat tip: NewsBusters.org

Many people know that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.
But an intriguing sliver of his family history has received almost no attention until now: it appears that forebears of his white mother owned slaves, according to genealogical research and Census records.
To many potential jokes, fighting to hold back...

According to the research, one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 Census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.

An Obama spokesman did not dispute the information and said that the senator's ancestors "are representative of America."
Right

Posted by:Icerigger

#10 Ima kinda liking the GGGGGF name: George Washington Overall. Reminds me of the Indian joke where the baby is named after the first thing seen by the father: Golden Sun, Rising Moon, Two Dogs....,
Least he wasn't looking at the privvy.

Posted by: USN, ret. 2007-03-03 22:31

#9 Fortunately I'm not in politic. My ancestor was a Cro-Magnon!

Posted by: SwissTex 2007-03-03 22:10

#8 No this came up with Reitwiesner in his genealogy hobby. The article explains that. Something it turns out he does with a lot of DC folks.

Ironic as in being stupid enough to expect fresh seafood with your overprice meal at Gwennies when you could have gotten a better fish sandwich at the McDonald's down the block. Big schitting deal.

The point was looking at what the Clintons might try and throw up in the air while looking at what facts Obama decided to leave out in his book.

Posted by: Icerigger 2007-03-03 21:50

#7 I: Obviously an attempted smear, now who would do that? (Hint Initials are Hillary Clinton)

I suspect we're going to find out shortly that Hillary Rodham Clinton's ancestors owned slaves. As did Bill Clinton's forebears.

Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-03-03 20:41

#6 We're all Americans, except the creeps in the political parties that make a big deal about digging this stuff up. Nice try at being a 1st class a$$hole. Congradulations, you've succeeded.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-03-03 17:19

#5 Some of the African-Americans were slave-owners, too. And plenty of Kenyans, even recently, both as owners and suppliers to the Saudis and such.

Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-03 15:52

#4 As I understand it, the average African-American is partially descended from Euro-Americans -- and more than a few of those Euro-American ancestors were slave-owners.

So this article is pretty much a "so what?" combined with a "what else is new?"

Posted by: Threrens Guelph6205 2007-03-03 15:08

#3 Obviously an attempted smear, now who would do that? (Hint Initials are Hillary Clinton)

Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-03-03 14:57

#2 Nope you're right. But it's still a water-cooler giggler.

Posted by: Icerigger 2007-03-03 14:55

#1 This is just as meaningful as the revalation that Mitt Romney's great grandpa was a polygamist--that is to say, it doesn't mean a damned thing.

Posted by: Mike 2007-03-03 14:41

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