Know, if you don't 'remember', that James Monroe – statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825 – enslaved all of Latin America, the entire Western Hemisphere, the whole of THE AMERICAS, the infamous U.S. 'back yard' in perpetuity, bringing South American liberator Simón Bolivar to declare that the 'United States of North America' was "omnipotent and terrible and with tales of freedom will plague us all with misery" in 1826, a scant three ears after the imposition of the imperious Monroe 'Doctrine'.
http://www.atelier-rc.com/Cuentos.html
8
I'd like to point out that "slave ownership" wasn't limited to European individuals. It was not unusual for First Nations people to own slaves as well, particularly in the Carolinas. Unfortunately, with the complicated history of the Cherokee, "passing" as white to avoid being forced off original lands, avoiding registration on Cherokee Nations rolls, I can't imagine how difficult it might be for people enslaved by First Nations people to determine their ancestry.
12
“It is an incredible discovery to find the evidence that an enslaved person was finally able to live free.”
It's interesting, but hardly incredible, because our Afro-American populace is descended from people who did just that. What _is_ incredible is that Dr King and President Johnson managed to steer us away from a devastating race war despite the indignities and outright slaughter visited upon blacks by whites.
While I understand the author's passion and rage, these really don't belong in a Times historical article. Slavery was bad, and it was wisely abolished.
Racism is equally bad, and we must somehow 'abolish' it as well, for it has cost our nation, our people, and our environment trillions as whites continue to flee in terror from blacks who mean no harm.
But whites, having somehow convinced themselves for the last 175 years that safety lies in ethnic homogeneity, have abandoned our cities to ravage forests and farmland for their mini-mansioned enclaves.
The archaeologists are doing very important work. We have much to learn from it.
10
thank you for this article. I appreciate the researchers and the Monroe family efforts to understand the history.
14
A wonderful historical account of a dark world history. The Monroe’s have been part of history and have helped us make a better country. I hope they are proud as to being a foundation of a country that continues to strive to be better for all! Reflection of our past is considerable and necessary to move forward what is a promise of a better life. I thank them.
8
Our country’s collective conscience will never forget the history of slavery. It is wonderful that all of the Monroe’s, who once were clustered, but have been scattered, will get to meet each other.
We are a country who has found pride in a fight for human rights-in other countries. Yet we can recount African Slavery, Japanese Internment Camps, and other institutionalized intolerance as our own. It may be argued that the injustices have not been equal, but they were all heinous. And today we are making a confirmation of our recurring tolerance of mans’ indignity to man, as we watch and tolerate thousands of people being crowded into cages on our southern border, because, well- just because.
America has stood with a puffed chest declaring itself a bastion of human rights. The time is now to ask, who are we kidding?
I am glad the Monroes have found a voice, and an audience ripe to hear their story. I am waiting for a voice not just to shout how bad things are for the border prisoners, but to scream ‘let them be free’ That’s it. Nothing short of equity and freedom, will begin to right this wrong.
9
There are online sites where people can send a sample of their spit and have their DNA listed. They can find out to whom they are related.
1
To express that being a slave is never a naturally occurring state but the result of someone's action, the word ' slave' is now replaced by 'enslaved'. This usage is blowing over to the Netherlands (as American pc terminology usually does) baffling newspaper readers: 'To enslave' is 'tot slaaf maken' (make into a slave) in Dutch, so now you have articles where every single occurrence of 'slave', 'a slave', or 'the slaves' is replaced with 'tot slaaf gemaakte', 'een tot slaaf gemaakte', 'de tot slaaf gemaakten' etc. It is quite a job to keep up with the latest trends in pc language use!
14
Historical correction: Monroe did not enslave anyone. People(s) of Africa were enslaved by other Africans, warehoused and sold to anyone who would buy them. By the time they arrived in the Americas, many have been slaves for quite a long time.
This in no way alters the fact that Monroe participated in the practice of keeping slaves. A despicable practice, made even more despicable by the fact that it is still practiced in a number of countries. It is easy to learn which are those countries.
It is great to know history and remind ourselves of past sins. It would be even better if we also talked about contemporary slavery and worked to elminate it.
10
@boroka
This like the drug debate: markets don’t grow up where there are no consumers. In many cases—I don’t believe it was all cases—Native Africans were in the business of dealing slaves; however, I doubt their definition of slavery was anywhere near that of the traders that hauled the people or the owners at the other end. In my readings, the practice of slavery, in many places that kept “slaves,” was not the back-breaking and degrading institution that it became in the “new world”
14
Since slavery was common at the time of the US founding, so go the apologists, the fact the founding fathers exploited slaves isn't as egregious as it seems. But slavery in the US wasn't like anywhere else. This is the only country in history where slavery was integral to the founding "ideology" - no other nation was like that. Slavery was common in the rest of the Americas, but it was there as a matter of economic practicality, not part of the founding ideology. Will Americans one day come to accept that their country was founded by hypocrites and really bad people? Not very likely.
27
A lot of slavery apologists in these comments. I really don’t understand people who are offended after reading an article like this.
27
More stories like this one are needed to allow America to heal! So deep is the pain and long-term damage of slavery, Jim Crow, mass incarceration of Black youth and adults, economic red-lining and more in America, that every effort to speak "truth to power" is necessary! Truth and its acceptance will lead to freedom for all.
17
Forgive me if I've read and/or interpreted American History wrongly, as regards the attitudes and actions of successive Presidents, right back to George Washington.
Household names, such as the revered 3rd President Jefferson, 5th President Monroe, much-admired 7th President Jackson ("Sharp Knife" to Native Americans, by the way), and many of their successors up to 16th President Lincoln all endorsed slavery, actively or by failing to confront the issue.
It's also worth noting, surely, that there's almost 100 years between Lincoln, and 36th President Johnson's Civil Rights legislation of 1964.
And, one must fairly ask, for all that we pride ourselves on being far more enlightened to-day - so willing to criticize, denigrate and deride earlier Presidential Office Holders from previous centuries - as we hear the words, and observe the actions of the 45th President, how far has America actually come on racial issues?
22
@Ireland's Eye
Abe Lincoln was OK with slavery as long as it didn’t cause hostilities in the country.
3
The politically correct phrasing that Monroe "enslaved" hundreds, likely is not correct. More likely he purchased people who already were enslaved, in most cases having been enslaved by other Africans who captured them and sold them to European slave traders. Arguably Monroe did enslave those who were born to persons purchased by Monroe in an "enslaved" condition. This is a small error in an article that otherwise is very worthwhile, but it is an intentional error--the politically correct language is used in order to heighten the negative impression of Monroe created by the article. This is a problem in an article whose entire purpose is to correct the historical record. Unfortunately, it is currently fashionable to make all kinds of exaggerated or simply false statements about historical figures who were slave owners, racists or otherwise flawed by contemporary standards. Once a person has been disclosed to have been so flawed, it has become acceptable to talk about him or her without regard for the whole truth. It's a bad trend, that will lead to ever bigger problems if not unchecked. If any flawed person can be slandered simply because he or she is flawed, none of us will be free from being slandered.
12
@CitizenJ
By purchasing the slave for labor not emancipation, a person enslaves. It may be a continued state, but it is also a conscious choice to perpetuate a hideous tradition; thus, Monroe enslaved merely by not emancipating. This is act of enslaving holds for those who seemingly supported abolition or, like Washington, claimed he wanted to free his slaves—after he died. I believe the slaves were not freed.
13
I would like to know more about Monroe's decision to return
some slaves back to Africa (Monrovia, Liberia). How did he
decide which to send back. I have lived in Liberia and have
seen the southern plantation like homes which the returnees built in Liberia and how they took over the country from the natives until Samuel Doe took over and shot the decendants
on the beaches years later
9
Please. Can we give this a rest?
There were slave owners. Yes! It was part of the times. Part of American history. Take it in. One story after the other including reparations has hit a wall for many.
Take it in and let's move on to issues that affect the lives of Black, White, Asian, Indian, Gay and Transgender. Today. Today.
Enough sobbing about slavery and American presidents, generals and all who bought and owned slaves.
"Madison ENSLAVED human beings. Such outrage from commenters. I have not read one post originating from the Mexican Border. WHERE ARE YOU, the outraged who are venting against the 5th president. He's long since dead.
Get on a plane and get yourself to the border. Vent there. Protest there. Put the Times and your coffee down and go where tragedy is in the moment. In the Here and Now.
The hypocrisy of your outrage is truly outrageous.
21
I am assuming the enslaved were not your ancestors.
22
They are not mutually exclusive, I can do both.
12
@miriam summ
It’s not just that slavery affected those who were enslaved but also how black people were thought of (ironically, these laborers that produced prosperity out of dirt were no-good and lazy); how society dealt with them post-war (40 acres and a mule; lynching; northern migration from one hostile community to another, only to find the same poverty and similar danger; red-lining; structuring an educational system that tilts heavily toward white children; segregation). With a history like that, would you be able to shrug it all off? Particularly when a lot of the traditional social structure has not changed and everything is an uphill climb or deadly?
16
We must immediately change the name of all cities, counties, and towns named for founders who owned slaves. The names must be changed to the name of that perfect human being.....wait, I cannot find the name of that perfect human being, unless it is Jesus, but then he said to render unto Caesar what is Ceasar's. What shall we do?
7
This narrative is what I’ve had to search for because it isn’t fully taught in school. The Triangle Trade was lucrative business and made many European nations and the Americas extremely wealthy. It is a varied story and all too often the nameless, faceless Africans are left out of that story. Many Americans and Europeans were aware of the suffering of the enslaved and uneasy about it but there was too much profit to be made. “I own I am shocked at the purchase of slaves..but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?” William Cowper, Pity the Poor Africans
In researching my family history I have found names and places and the use of DNA has helped me see a more fleshed out story of my African ancestors. I am 58 years my gg grandparents were slaves in South Carolina and my family has been here from what I’ve found since at least 1780. And yes we are blood related to the slave owners and in some cases both white and black families know about it. This is not ancient history it is a large part of the American tapestry that should be taught so that it’s obfuscated by those who are in denial that American heroes were also flawed human beings.
21
Monroe needed his slaves to provide wealth for himself and his family. His private views regarding abolition or the evils of slavery were subordinated to economic greed.
One wonders how many of today’s African American Monroes have James Monroe as an ancestor. Economic exploitation was generally accompanied by sexual exploitation.
17
Slavery was an abominable institution. However, many of your readers are guilty of “presentism” or trying to project our values and mores on people who lived two centuries ago. Founding Fathers like Monroe and Jefferson were truly great men and did truly great things. They were slave owners in an era where slavery was an accepted norm. To remove names from schools or remove statues from public places reminds me of the book by George Orwell 1984 and party members throwing unpopular facts down the “ memory hole.” We shouldn’t erase history because it doesn’t fit our politically correct narrative.
23
Bravo. Finally someone who understands historical perspective.
3
@Art Hudson
If history were truthful and balanced, it shouldn’t be erased. Unfortunately, since accepted history has always been written by the victors, “facts” aren’t always as they seem. I congratulate the historians—professional or not—who are discovering more about our past through contemporary newspaper articles, letters, diaries, record books, Bibles, and other written documents. Piecing the information together has produced what some call revisionist history. I believe it should be better described as correcting the revisionist history we have been fed for so long.
9
Not to excuse slave owners for their moral atrocities (like many of the barely-concealed confederate revanchists in the comments), which in many instances were recognized for the grievous sins they were in their own time - including Monroe himself - but the word "enslaved" is used throughout this article in a way that is either very misleading, or (less likely) true but unsupported by what would be the most shocking information in the article were it to be included.
To enslave a person is to make them a slave when they were not previously a slave. It seems very unlikely that Monroe enslaved anyone; rather, he purchased already enslaved people, profited from their enslavement, and perpetuated a moral horror built on their enslavement or that of their ancestors. To say he enslaved the people he bought in slave markets is akin to saying that everyone since 1863 has emancipated all the slaves that aren't.
Quite apart from the moral reality that there are degrees of evil here that must be recognized, it is important that we continue to study this period and its history with nuance and accuracy, and abusing the English language is not a good place to start.
11
Slavery until 154 years ago
Segregation until 55 years ago (but still visible today)
Incarceration until today (and still going with no end in sight)
When is equality going to be achieved?
20
I would run a 23andme to find relatives. Then you would know if you were descendents of Munroe or simply those who took the name Munroe.
I don't think an abolitionist would sell slaves.
And he sold them to a cane plantation. Cane is a terrible crop for people who work it. Even if the parents were skilled and should have good jobs, the children were in danger.
A person might act decent in the drawing room and he evil elsewhere.
7
I think it would be pretty cool to learn that I was a direct descendant of a U.S. president.
2
@Thomas
It would be pretty cool to know all of my family, including the ones who were sold, tortured, left at the bottom of the ocean. I’d like to know what they looked like, what they dreamed of at night, what they hoped for their children the moment they knew they would never see them again, how they surmounted and buried a pain so deep inside that I am alive today. Now that would be really cool.
21
Thank you JP
6
This story is yet another reminder that this country was founded by slave owning, indian murdering. misogynists.
14
It’s a very sad story; I am in tears.
3
Reading this article (simultaneously inspiring and horrifying) leaves me with the hope there is a whole lot of DNA testing currently being conducted in these two communities. Perhaps, with the help of science, these families, separated so tragically and inhumanely so long ago, can at last be reunited.
7
How could the people running the house not have known about their near neighbours? In what kind of community were they living. Growing up in the rural south, we knew who lived where, and even as a white born nearly a century after the Civil War, I knew about freed blacks who had returned to their birthplace. The amazing thing here is to link the Floridians to their possible Virginia kin, but I bet that fifty years ago the people running the house knew exactly where the descendants of slaves who carried the Monroe name still could be found.
5
Interesting, the commentary on the term “enslaved”. The entire thirteen colonies depended on slavery in some respect. No, Madison did not go over to Africa and personally enslave people, but yes he is morally accountable for using foul means to live. However, there is no blameless person of non-colour (?) in the entire history. The story of every Virginia Founder is so well known I can only assume that this story’s main purpose is to promote new terminology. Just fine, but also an article on the death rate of caucasion apprentices, and the death of Indigenous people, and the forced marriages and death in childbirth of underage women, and the whole darn shebang has to be told alongside of the story of officially enslaved people imported to this country. It was a nasty old world and those who could dominate did.
6
This nation was born out of slavery from the thirteen white English original states. To redeem itself is to seek humility and welcome immigrants, documented and undocumented. Ellis Island had demonstrated such history.
2
...during the colonial period 2/3 of whites arrived in the New World as 'indentured servants', having to pay off their passage, often taking a decade or more....
13
Slavery is the way of the world and of human nature. Today it manifests as the people in foreign counties sewing masses of clothing for nothing a day, miners, brick makers, gold salvagers of electronics, entire countries that are garbage disposals for the west, I could go on. Power struggles are still happening today and being PC and astonished at the past when everyone in america is guilty of allowing the same to happen elsewhere is arrogance, hypocrisy, and narcissism I have never thought could be possible.
9
While it does nothing to make slavery anywhere at any time anything less than repugnant, we have to acknowledge that the Africans sold to Americans as slaves were originally captured, enslaved and sold to European traders by other Africans. They were as, if not more, guilty than people like Monroe. Slavery is as old as so called civilization and it still exists. American slavery was distinguished only by it's mind boggling hypocrisy.
12
I think many people today primarily vote for people that they think will bring prosperity of some kind into their lives. The prosperity can be more jobs to choose from or higher paying jobs.
Many of our ancestors determined that having slaves was one way to have wealth and success. Most of the people that wanted slaves happened to live in the south as that was the easiest place to immediately benefit from cheap labor.
Monroe was not any different from anyone else living in an area where cheap labor made life better for him.
I think that this is just part of the human condition and unless our desire for wealth and success is met some other way we will find a way to justify taking from the less able to satisfy our own needs.
For some of the lucky ones wealth and success is met by helping others.
3
No. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 passed by Congress under the Articles of Confederation prohibited slavery in the territory northwest of the Ohio River and States organized from such territories. The States organized from the Old Northwest are: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. These states contain some of the best farmland in the United States and would have been well suited to plantation agriculture. This Ordinance was the high water mark of Congressional abolition until the Civil War. However, despite the prohibition of slavery, these states were not welcoming to free blacks. None of them allowed free blacks to vote until after the ratification of the 15th Amendment (1870).
1
Seems to me """Progressives""" are really only interested in looking back into history, seeing how people were victimized and then appropriating those peoples victimization based upon their immutable characteristics. Then they seek to use that victimhood to get social (or real) currency "reparations" for ills done hundreds of years ago.... all while slavery is still being practiced TODAY in the Middle East and Asia... we can not change history but we can change the present... pick you battles """Progressives""".
7
@Mystery Lits, 'Then they seek to use that victimhood to get social (or real) currency "reparations" for ills done hundreds of years ago'.
Quite correct. The great irony is that the more 'social currency' is demanded on behalf of the misfortunes borne by century old ghosts, the less willing modern civilization is to pay the bill.
2
Loving history means facing history facing history that is messy, complicated and at times contradictory. I'm fascinated by the idea that some people are in denial that our founding fathers and yes, some of their own ancestors owned slaves. That our country could be founded by such high minded men and women with such high ideals and fail so miserably on such a personal level is one of the great mysteries and tragedies of this country. That we've managed to move along and progress forward at all and broaden our view of history is proof that we can improve as a nation.
My own ancestors date back to New England in the 17th century. I thought that meant that I was safe when it came to slave owners. Nope! I'm descended from the Estabrooks of Concord/Lexington MA. One of whom was the owner of Prince Estabrook - a hero of the American Revolution but also an enslaved man owned by the Estabrook family and he wasn't the only one. And that's just one branch of my tree. I was disappointed but that's also just the history of this country and millions of other families.
We can't go back and fix the past but we can move forward and create a better more inclusive society. And that starts with stories like this one that give us a fuller picture of then men and women we have put on such pedestals. This nation was built on high ideals of life, liberty, freedom and equality and just because the men and women who founded this country failed doesn't mean we have to.
30
What nonsense. Saying that President Monroe "enslaved" people because he owned slaves is the worst sort of debasement of language. Wealthy property owners purchased slaves to work on their farms because they needed the labor, and slaves were what were available in the South. IMHO, slaves were treated better than the "free" workers in the North precisely because they were valuable property. If a laborer got sick, an employer hired a replacement.
10
What revisionist apologia!! Better than the free workers of the North?? Was this before the war of Northern aggression?
12
No, that's pretty much an important part of what "enslaved" means. If the worst thing you have to worry about is someone's accurate choice of words, you've got it pretty good.
4
How do you think you get people to work for free? How does that work, exactly? If someone kidnapped you and said, “OK, you have to work 12 hours a day for a plate of beans. I can sell you at any time, and I can take whatever you manage to acquire, including your children.” They beat the living heck out of those people to make them work, because terrorism was the only way they had to induce them to work. They weren’t paying them. Abuse was all they had left.
12
Monroe kept slaves. The Native Americans kept slaves. The Jews kept slaves and we kept as slaves. Slaves kept slaves, too.
There's a point in there somewhere about those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The point that's missed is that it's too late for the dead to learn what's politically correct now.
How dumb can we be? Stay tuned. This will get worse.
20
Wow. Monroe was a human being who was neither all good nor all bad, but complex and sometimes contradictory. What a shocker, and how unlike all of us today.
17
@O'Brien
Another slaveholder excused; box checked. MAGA!
18
@Victor, am I to deduce from your comment, that you honestly believe that Trump supporters condone slavery?
2
@Mike S
The flavor of MAGA is to embolden a belief that Trump can protect you from a black uprising.
Obama was frightful point in America's. He place fear into the hearts and minds of red-liners, world-leaders, and white privilege [ers].
What comes mind when you think of the good old days? Was it the colonization, slaves break down stations, Slavery, Civil War, reconstruction, or segregation periods?
4
Let the truth prevail!!! History should never be doctored up...just let the facts speak for themselves!!!! Amen!!!!!
6
I think that before anyone comments, they should look homeward and test whether or not they would like to be measured by past deeds reflected in the mirror of the present.
16
this is our shared living history at its poignant best! though it scratches the surface of our country's legacy of racial slavery, and all of its horrors, injustices, and personal/familial tragedies, it is already a work full of wonders, and offers up a universe of questions, past, present, and future -- including how to make amends. i, for one, am in awe of Ms. Burnett and Mr. Violette -- and most of all, the Monroe descendants. thank you.
a grateful citizen.
10
This article is important, since (seemingly) many white citizens of the US feel that reparations for the work of slaves should not be recompensed, in some way.
11
Well, there goes another statue.
7
History obviously is always wrong and that's why it continues to be changed including the details in this article about James Monroe and the many Monroe's surrounding him. If I look back at my high school history classes (50 years ago) every single fact of for instance who was King or how did he treat the people who served him or who was blood related to him or who was his slave was constantly redefined - each new story then always became more believable in facts and figures but always still wrong thus changed again. Same will happen with this Monroe story.
4
Writers frequently note with apparent astonishment the fact that people like Monroe could be abolitionists while still owning slaves. One hundred years from now, others will be amazed that so many US citizens could call for action on climate change while still driving gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks.
38
Slavery is not something American, it is something human. There have been many, many societies all over the world and in all ages where slavery was part of the way the culture survived and succeeded, and if we are truthful, there are lots of people who are living in slavery today in the USA and elsewhere. They are enslaved to the sex trade, to legal and illegal drugs, to money lenders, to traffickers, to social media, to porn, to gangs and for many other reasons. Criticising a person or society with the mores and rules of a different time is too easy and too judgemental. We certainly need to reassess how we look at the past, where people were enslaved for their labour. But we need to remember that slavery was only abolished when steam engines and then oil power became available to do the work, and not just because it was immoral. Looking at the past through today's lens is a good idea but vilifying slave owners of the past means we would also need to vilify the Romans, the British, the Maoris, the Indians, The Incas, the Mayas, the Chinese, the Russians, and hundreds or thousands of other civilizations who kept slaves because it enabled their society to carry on and survive. By today's standards, when we use oil instead of people power to do the work, it is wrong but humans are still being enslaved right in front of us and we don't want to see them.
20
While I agree it is hard to judge the past based upon current values, during the late 1700s many people were already fighting against slavery. So to imply that value did not exist is incorrect. It just wasn’t convenient.
17
@Robin
By their own standards they knew it was wrong. In one of the drafts of the Declaration of Independence they tried to blame the King for forcing them to keep slaves. The Declaration borrowed heavily on the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment.
They were students of the Enlightenment, Latin, Greek and honor. Yeah, they knew better!
The keeping and selling of slaves was not so that the greater good could survive. It was so that they could live off the fruits of someone else's labor. Slaves were ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-treated and denied the basic of all human rights - the right of themselves.
Happy Independence Day Everyone.
12
Ah....we are/were all human. But here in America, and only in America, do the righteous citizens subscribe to the notion of “American Exceptionalism “ By God, we are preordained to be better than everyone else.
But there in is the lie: we are the same as everyone else.
Who’d a thunk it?
5
So what. Who cares.
That was two hundred years ago, long before the Civil War and very, very long before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Those days are long gone, aren't coming back, and no one alive today can claim any resultant ill effect.
9
People care.
9
History always matters.
Even the inconvenient, unpleasant ones certain people don't like facing.
Perhaps because it doesn't fit with the we're the ones that are good and all others are bad narrative?
11
There go all the "Monroe Avenues" across the USA
7
News flash: Slavery was bad. Many of our revered Founding Fathers and subsequent Presidents were hypocrites. Nominally-freed slaves did the best they could; some stayed where they found themselves for generations, while many others sought opportunity elsewhere. I found this story mildly interesting but not exactly revelatory or insightful.
15
Good for them. They built this country, and we need to know, and remember everything that happened to them, while they were doing it. It doesn't mean we should denigrate Monroe's contribution to the founding, it means that these slaves were every bit as important to our founding, and their descendants to today's fellowship, as any other.
21
@ChesBay--I should have said: "stewardship."
4
It's really hard to make excuses, even after the fact, for a fellow who ran a forced-labor camp. Somehow, "well, all my friends were doing it" just doesn't seem sufficient. Only explanation is that Monroe didn't consider slaves to be fellow humans.
23
Henry Lewis Gates Jr. states that the average African American possesses a 25% European genome. This largely due to gender bias a well recognized demographic fact. When the freed slaves became citizens they got to choose their last names (ref. Slaves in the Family). The mortality rate crossing the Atlantic was high on all immigrants especially slaves. 15% is probably a low number. The slaves were sold to European traders by the rulers of powerful West African kingdoms based on tribal affiliation. Racism goes beyond complexion. The fact that many descendants of Monroe’s slaves live nearby is not surprising at all. Records from his times are sketchy. DNA analysis of the whole genome would answer a lot of questions (ref. Who We Are and How We Got Here). Passing judgement on individuals from deep time takes a particular type of arrogance.
9
People back then knew slavery was wrong.
7
Being sold into slavery and shipped elsewhere is not "immigration".
6
The headline to this article is very strange. And confusing.
1
Sounds like an easily solved case for reparations, no? Perpetrator is known. Victims are known. Damage can be assessed. This violation was done by the individual, but supported by the State.
Haven't similar cases of Holocaust families also received reparations?
13
@Cee--holocaust "families" did not receive the reparations. Holocaust "survivors" received them. Big, big difference. There have been no actual slaves in this country for generations. We've had a president of color, there are many many people of african american descent who have managed to raise themselves up and have great lives since the days of slavery over 150 years ago. Pay reparations to people whose great, great, great, great, great grandparents were slaves? Well, my family wasnt even in the country when there was slavery and we came cover as dirt poor immigrants living in nyc slums. Should I be expected to contribute to reparations? Maybe I should also be entitled to some reparations for my dirt poor grandparents.
14
@bored critic - aren't the descendants survivors of slavery? Could this not be determined by DNA or records or both? Do you not understand that the misappropriated labor and confiscated property has wronged the descendants? Did you receive an inheritance from your forbears or intend on leaving one for your issue? What if a third party took that out of your family tree? What part of this do you not understand? You yourself admit that neither you nor your family were slaves so how are you injecting living in NYC slums into the discussion? By your logic, since I didn't suffer from the Holocaust, a Jewish family that did should just deal with it?
6
@Cee, if we're using DNA and historical data to begin a forensic analysis of the institution of slavery...then let's not pick and choose our timeline. Let's take this all the way back to the source. Surely the same investigative techniques and biological evidence can help determine who profited from the slave trade, both outside Africa and within. Anyone (thanks to Wikipedia) with an inclination can scrutinize written and oral records of Africans who derived wealth from the slave trade. If one were to use modern science to trace one's lineage from such tribes and native peoples, then an objective observer should expect that claimants for remuneration from among descendants of African-American slaves should be prepared likewise to compensate others who their ancestors had wronged both pre and post European involvement in African history.
3
It's laughable to think that because Monroe favored abolition and yet held slaves and didn't become the only equal opportunity employer in the county, the state, the south even, that he didn't pay a living wage to his workers and allowed them to seek employment elsewhere, when he was surrounded by a sea of slave owners and slaves treated like animals, then he must have been some sort of hypocrite.
7
@David Score funny. must be an inside joke.
4
For non-Americans only.
The discussion should also explain why some African American Monroes are lighter skinned. That aspect of slavery is often skimmed over.
14
Reparations. William and Mary should offer scholarships to all the Monroes for work their forebearers did in making the fortune that enabled the school's existence. There should be more that could be done but, in this instance, some reparation is clearly required.
9
stop your nonsense...the college was bequeathed the property in the 1970s from a wealthy Pennsylvania transplant Jay Johns...who bought it from someone else... among other historical Va properties like the Stonewall Jackson house in lexington .. Monroe only attended the college before joining the revolutionary war...the house is in Charlottesville and the college in Williamsburg.....facts over fantasy please!
15
I think it’s great! The truth is usually unpleasant and uncomfortable to say the least, but it will “set you free.”
This blind hero worshipping must stop. It undermines the moral integrity of our social fabric. So many clutch those tarnished idols hoping to be spared a clear eye judgement from the future. Recently the US has imprisoned children in what amounts to animal feedlot condition. Will there still be some people looking back and saying this was a product of the times? There are people protesting this and working hard to save this children as there were people who protested slavery and refused to own slaves and worked hard to free slaves and end slavery.
Sneer all you will at the ‘bleeding heart’ liberals, lefties, and radicals; historically, the path of compassion and kindness and protecting the vulnerable is the path of the heroes and heroines and righteous fighters.
15
@Morgan What "moral integrity?" You forget that we currently have a malignant parasite in our White House who is worshipped by millions of Americans who hold the same values as he.
9
Monroe was a slave owner. Did he capture people and create slaves from them, thereby enslaving them? No.
The author of this piece has created a stupid diversion because of sloppy word choices.
Monroe had his demons. The journalist is mislabeling them.
8
@Jeff Bowles He kept people enslaved, so he enslaved.
14
@Jeff Bowles Did you read an exclusive article not available to the common public, in which the author claims that Monroe captured these people himself? Or are you just engaging in knee-jerk defensiveness over some latent, extraneous Caucasian guilt?
8
So what? The distinction that you’re making doesn’t make Monroe any better. Saying he had his demons is the only diversion from the truth. The man was a slave owner and his policies do not change that fact. They make him all the more wicked since he knew the institution was so established that he could go against his self-interest in public.
7
We're all connected. We're all in this together. We must rise above the past. My Native American ancestors lands were taken and the survivors forced to live on a reservation. My Slavic grandfather was taken by the Nazis and never seen again.
I don't have any answers. I don't know what is fair in life. We all have neighbors who appear to have been given a free pass in life but behind closed doors are enslaved to alcoholism, depression and forms of abuse. Every American family has a history to overcome and if they say otherwise there pretending to be someone they're not.
38
@Bruce Savin but of course we want all boats to rise. Confronting the past ( and the present) is the only way to understand and deal with it. And help those, like the people of Monroetown, your ancestors, and anyone else who has been hurt by brutal institutions like slavery.
6
@Bruce Savin
Alcoholism, depression and abuse are terrible things, but have nothing to do with slavery. Slavery is the deliberate ownership and exploitation of another human being. And excusing it by saying these people are better off.
2
To call the truth "PC" - consciously or unconsciously - when it becomes inconvenient to one's 'historical narrative', is despicable.
That our 'founding fathers' were hypocrites is well known to those who read history - and to question with skepticism the common narrative taught in our schools is worthy, I think.
However, I'd like to approach the discussion here from another viewpoint.
What have americans been doing since the founding of this nation: are we not continuing our hypocritical ways?
1- Killing naive americans and taking their land, placing the few remaining on reservations- to this day.
2- Enslaving black people
3- Jim Crow and other economic and social 'red-lining' to ensure white supremacy.
4- Taking Mexican lands by force of guns and calling the land California and Texas.
5- Invading Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people.
6- Supporting despicable regimes in the middle east and south america, while they slaughter thousands more.
7- Modern enslavement of americans by allowing huge economic inequity, with many unable to afford to live on their paychecks.
8- Economic enslavement caused by the devastating 'Great Recession' - taking family's homes (foreclosing on mortgages) and throwing them out of work, often refusing to offer financial support while doing so.
What americans have condoned since 1776 is much more important than whether one of our founding 'saints' enslaved their fellow human beings.
18
@Ph
Just two corrections:
1. Disease, by far, killed the most native Americans. Their genetic make-up could not counter European smallpox. Then, infected Native Americans spread it to other native Americans. Horses helped taking distances. Europeans were responsible, but not guilty. Read "1491". Xlnt book, and don't worry, Howard Zinn endorsed it.
4. Mexican lands?! What a convenient way to think about it. Those 'Mexican' lands originally belonged to Native Americans and were taken by force by Spain/Mexico. Y'know, the Euro way. Nevertheless, the Mexican-American War ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo. The US paid Mexico 15 million dollars in reparations and the settlement included a lot more land than Texas and California.
4
@Teller
OK, I stand corrected.
But you get the gist of my message...
Philip
1
Slavery ended in America 157 years ago. It is still going on in the world almost exclusively in Muslim countries. Could we get a few stories about that? Since it has been going on throughout history there is a very high chance almost everyone has ancestors that were held as slaves at one point. Isn't it about time for people to take responsibility for their own lives and stop pretending they are the MOPE's? Most Oppressed People Ever. You can't change the past but you can affect the future.
74
If you have ever read about slavery in the South you would realize that plantation slavery was extreme in its cruelty and inhumanity. We still live with it’s legacy.
45
@deimos - For the record, slavery officially ended, but the oppression and exploitation of black citizens continued, and ramped up, in a very serious way, well into the 20th century. The wealth gap in this country can traced to discriminatory practices in most of our lifetimes. Yours was a nice narrative, but patently untrue.
39
@deimos
No, YOU can affect the future. Descendants of slaves in this country are still being systemically oppressed and discriminated against. Until we really get that and until that really ends, it will be very difficult for "people to take responsibility for their own lives."
26
Monticello, Florida is an economic backwater. The area along the northern Gulf coast was once the state's economic heartland with an economy based on growing cotton, which collapsed, and nothing much replaced it. Tallahassee keeps busy by being the state capital (but the Florida has a tiny state government) and its two state universities.
7
To say that "as president, Monroe supported abolition" is misleading. He took no steps whatsoever in his official capacity to support the abolition of slavery. Like Thomas Jefferson, he worried that slavery could lead to rebellions, and thus, vaguely and unofficially, looked forward to its gradual disappearance. Monroe supported "colonization" as the ultimate solution to America's racial problems, i.e. shipping freed blacks back to Africa. Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist. William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist. Monroe was a slaveowner with qualms. Important difference.
577
@wide awake
John Brown was ' The Abolitionist '.
2
I was in C’ville the day we are all trying to forget. I saw unarmed people huddled on church steps (counter demonstrators)...I saw well armed white demonstrators also. Sensing danger I thought it a good day to visit the home of James Monroe. The guided tour started with a self introduction....identifying myself from Northern VA...the guide, a very “pleasant” looking white woman responded....Oh, we refer to Northern VA as Southern D.C......chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. Being a white male, I guess I was supposed to listen to that coded white language and chuckle also...I didn’t. That day I felt surrounded by old Virginia values.
29
@Vincent Trinka: Having been a longtime resident of NoVA, and now (after a break north of the Mason-Dixon line) a longtime resident of the Shenandoah Valley, I believe you're reading *way* too much into that comment.
I knew residents of Northern Virginia that went back generations there who were commenting in the 1970s and early 1980s that the area had lost all of its Virginia character due to becoming a massive bedroom community for the federal government.
When I lived there from the mid-1980s through the late 1990s most of the people I knew were not natives of the area, but transplants from virtually any part of the country you can name.
That's what I think was being observed in that comment.
25
@guyslp
All of us slip up from time to time, and see sometging bad, that isn't there. It is one of our human weaknesses that we have to work at overcoming. Some people want to be offended, or wallow in self pity.
6
Kudos for your comment. I have never lived in Va., but I know enough about the Greater D.C. area to have figured out what was meant by that comment. Nothing racial about it.
3
Americans put too much emphasis on racial issues and slavery. My ancestors in Ireland were slaves too - slaves to poverty and famine, slaves to rich feudal landowners who sold their land and the people on it, slaves to rich young men who would hunt for poor young girls to rape. And then, a few lucky ones sold themselves as indentured servants, making it to Boston, where they were demonized, discriminated, abused. The past has been harsh for many people on earth.
47
@Sandy M.
Actually, the past has been harsh for all the people on Earth.
9
@Sandy M. yes and we Irish can tell our stories separate and apart from this story. this story has nothing to do with us. Let the descendants of slaves have agency over their stories and inclusion in a museum in Virginia. That has nothing to do with you and your family's story, which can be told (and probably is) in a museum in Boston.
28
@Sandy M. As a descendant of McCarthy, Healy, Doyle, Cummiskey, Walsh, and Collier immigrants to Boston, I acknowledge that their road was hard and their path blocked with discrimination. But two generations in they were not being lynched or shot or whipped or incarcerated for their Irishness. It is a mark of shame on the legacy of Irish-Americans that government officials such as Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy--who embraced a curse by becoming Republicans--show so little feeling for the less fortunate among us. Great-hearted empathy is the most valuable inheritance wrought from a saga of suffering. We honor our ancestors when we recognize their plight among people in need. Never forget.
44
I did not understand the rage Trump supporters have until I read this. I now think I understand the anger that has been shown over the centuries by American Indians & African Americans & English Americans & French Americans & Dutch Americans—the five main groups that laid the foundation in the 1600s that all other immigrants got to build on top of. Imagine living in this country for 20 generations and having little to show for it. What I still don’t understand is why Trump supporters who have been here since, say the mid-1900s, have to be angry about. They just got here.
19
@Nicholas Balthazar
Why do you think all of President Trump's supporters are angry? He has some legitimate goals that they support:
1) gain control of our borders and population
2) procure fair trade deals
3) regain manufacturing in this country (for national security, as much as jobs)
3
@Raz thanks for responding. It’s just that every time I see them, they sound angry. I think to myself, those of us who can trace our family’s time here back centuries get angry sometimes too, but we’ve learned to manage our expectations a bit. What I don’t get is the people who’ve been here 50 years or less. What do they have to gripe about?
2
@Raz
And, unsurprisingly, he has failed at all three of your goals.
Don't forget his tax-cuts for the super-rich, his cuts in healthcare, his continue graft of public fund for his own businesses. He is hurting his supporters.
I haven't heard him speak out against slavery.
7
Several years ago I attended a family reunion in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, which was held in a church pavilion next to the cemetery where my parents are buried. Just above the cemetery is a small patch of woods and, curiosity haven't gotten the better of me, I walked up to see what was there. Among the trees and fallen branches were a number of small headstones, many broken or crushed, with inscriptions mostly weathered away. However, the word "slave" was still visible on some stones and, insofar as readable, all of the people had the same last name-- that of my own family. It was emotional, the feeling of connection and the realization that the precious souls lying beneath the broken rocks were the same as those lying a few yards away under the polished granite. We are all family!
5
A shameful reminder of our past. What I also find sad and hurtful: Mexico, Central America and South America still speak the language of their European oppressors.
1
@Teller The majority of people in those countries are mestizo--mixed--"new" races that evolved after conquest through rape and marriage. In addition to the indigenous languages, Spanish and Portugese are also languages of their ancestors.
2
@Gustav Aschenbach
Spanish and Portugese are NOT the languages of their ancestors. Their ancestors were millions of mesoamericans who had their own advanced cultures and languages. European conquest brought European languages - still spoken today. I mean, since we're all really determined to re-live the wrongs of the past, let's get to it.
2
The number of people on this comment board justifying slavery by blaming Africans who sold the slaves to whites is just breathtaking...newsflash...the buyers and sellers in this horrific transaction were equally wrong! What a concept!
10
@AR people who think talking about inconvenient history is "identity politics." cause, you know....it's not *their* identity.
7
Maybe someone could write a true history of "Make America great again". It would make sense given our history and what this administration and our history has in common - Howard Zinn...thank you!
1
One of the worst and most immoral aspects of slavery was that owners often used slaves to pay off gambling and other debts by selling or “renting” them to their debtors. They had no scruples when money was at stake. I had ancestors that worked as civil engineers on the James River and Kanawha Canal in Virginia. As the progress in building it proceeded westward to Lynchburg and beyond, the financiers of the canal became increasingly worried that the project would collapse because digging was going so slowly. The Irish workers that came to dig the canal could not stand the heat and bugs and quit. So, the project owners and supervisors asked local plantation owners if they would “rent” their slave field hands to continue digging in the heat of the summer before harvest time rolled around. Ultimately, the canal was never finished and during the Civil War much of it was destroyed. My ancestors left the canal before the war for southwestern Pennsylvania to work on building railroads which eventually made the canal obsolete and helped the Union defeat the Confederacy.
5
Now, if Chris Kobach were to oversee an election anyone named Monroe in Kansas and another in Va would disqualify both from voting in the interest of GOP voter fraud evangelism.
Good luck at the poles, Monroes!
It seems that James Monroe wanted to have it both ways. He may have identified himself as an abolitionist; but owning 250 slaves, some of whom he was forced eventually to sell for his own financial sake, does not accord with that moral label. Doing is different from talking. It would seem that Monroe, at the end of day, viewed slave ownership as personal bank account. Calling this on his part a “flaw” is insufficient ... a “deep, constitutive flaw,” maybe. America suffers now from not knowing how to apply justice to this history that surely involved many more than Monroe then ... and perhaps some of us in hidden ways now. And this doesn’t even include what is in the heart of descendants. That Monroe was a president though makes the problem worse.
3
Are you continually fanning the flames of racial division, in order to prevent the working classes from uniting and insisting on economic justice for all, so that trump will be re-elected and you can write more op-eds about how racist the past was? Ick.
4
@American
How can you expect people to truly unite if they do not learn, understand and come to some form of acceptance of the past?
5
The past is never past.
We are all Americans- whether our people were sold by fellow Africans or sold themselves in indentured servitude or survived the ravages of European smallpox or hacked their way through wilderness and made a civilization that was a great melting pot.
We all built this country, with our hands and our hearts and our notions and our blending and breeding one with another.
Russian psy-ops may be ripping us apart aided by oligarchy and a media industry more interested in clicks and likes than in informing the citizenry- but we all got here one way or another, to make a better life, and we are all part of what this country is.
Slicing and dicing us for victim points, will not solve our socioeconomic inequities, which are the root of all of our unrest. It might build some folks social media profiles or land them a book deal- but calling the opposition racists, even when they deny the charge, is not going to change hearts or minds and certainly won’t bind us together for the important work of ousting trump and rebuilding our democracy to purpose-= as a great melting pot for us all in which we all rise together, as Americans.
4
Just a note on language. To enslave means to make someone a slave; to take away freedom from someone. Did Monroe take free people and make them slaves? Probably not. The people were already slaves. If so, it seems to be a misuse of language to say Monroe enslaved people. I suppose this is now new PC language about slavery.
4
Nope, it comes from academia. It is a way to speak of my ancestors with respect as human beings. Instead of just calling them “slaves” as if that’s all they were, we say “enslaved” as a way to acknowledge that this was an act done to human beings.
4
I'm grateful that my cousins worked extremely hard to make the connections and to tell the story the "right" way. For so many years the story was untold by our family and of course in the history books. Another step in the right direction to learning our history.
Why is anyone surprised. This country was set up for land owning white men. Every right blacks and women recieved was a long drawn out struggle, which is still going on today. How we call this country a democracy is really quite a joke.
12
Racism today, right now, this moment, every practice - confederate monuments, confederate flags, white nationalist rallies, crime statistic comparisons between neighborhoods, tribalism, police violence. All morally repugnant!
3
"Enslaved"? Or "held slaves"?
5
Better late than never, but this 'mystery' could have been solved 150 years ago if whites had demonstrated a little humanity about black people and black history instead of creating a New Confederacy out of the Old Confederacy.
This is what white obliviousness, cluelessness and privilege looks like, Trumpistan.
A little more humanity....a little less white supremacy.
8
Can we please stop with hating on all the old statues?
5
The Constitution of these United States has to be a bogus slavers document then, since many of its farmers owned slaves! If Kate Smith can be tarred and feathered for racial insensitivity back in the 1930’s, and Joe Biden has to get on his knees begging forgiveness for associating with known segregationists back in the day, then the Constitution must be burned and trashed for its questionable past. It’s out of date anyway!
3
The founders had slaves. Ancient Europeans had slaves. Medieval Europeans had slaves. The Chinese had slaves. The ancient Greeks and Romans had slaves. The even more ancient Egyptians had slaves. The Huns and Ghengis Khan had slaves. African civilizations had slaves (and sold some to Europeans). Native Americans had slaves. I'm NOT trying to justify slavery, but it was around WAAAAAAY before Monroe. Why, I'll even bet that the ancestors of some of the staff of The NY Times owned slaves. History and facts are frequently politically incorrect.
12
So they shouldn’t talk about Monroe because enslaving people is old news? Your comment doesn’t make sense. This was an article about particular people in a particular place.
3
@Regina Giddens - of course they should write about it! But, they might also want to put it into some perspective. Almost everyone in the world is a member of a society that practiced slavery at one time or another. And, almost everyone in the world had ancestors who practiced slavery.
Monroe was a Republican a bully GOP who should have an aterick forever by his name. To have had all those slaves was a disgrace and keep it hidden for all these centuries. How the churches can support such a sick party is beyond understanding. The people must be small brained can’t fully grasp right from wrong.
3
(Mon Cheri) My dear, yes it happened, right here
(Monroe) Our nations fifth President, he owned slaves, you know
(Mon Dieu) My God, so many innocent lives, scarred
(Mon Ami) My friend, let us hope and pray, the institution of slavery, will forever go away. Amen
1
In 2200 I boldly predict that they will be talking about tearing down monuments which depict people who ate other animals and people who owned SUV's. Maybe fish eaters will be spared, maybe not. All those nasty meat eating SUV driving politicians like Obama and Bush will need to be scorned and not celebrated for their vicious habits.
Slavery was part of human culture for thousands of years. Thanks to research and rationality we've put that evil behind us. Nevertheless, we put up monuments to celebrate not a particular person, but the achievements of that person. It's always going to be a balancing act. No statues for Hitler, that's easy to work out. Where the bright line should be drawn is a difficult matter. History isn't about individuals with perfect track records in human rights.
6
Such blatant dishonesty to describe James Monroe as having "enslaved" hundreds. The truth is the black kings of Africa "enslaved" millions including the slaves that were sold to America and all over the world. Newsflash, world wide civilizations and economies were once run on slave labor. They continue to "enslave" humans in Africa and Asia and maybe the NYT should do a story about that. Oh, the NYT would rather rewrite history with the notion that the founding fathers sailed to Africa under the confederate flag and just started rounding up people at gunpoint. Just more ignorant lefty America bashing.
8
I feel like I'm subscribing to Ancestry.com.
1
"A small African-American community". Do they have "African" citizenship also?
They are just Americans! Elon Musk is an African American!
2
"We might be cousins." Indeed. We're two decades into the DNA era. You know what should happen next. Also, let's get some DNA from known white descendants of President Monroe.
1
It is wonderful that we are finally looking at History as everyone’s stories, not just white male soldiers (which seemed to be the only stories that made it into the history books when I was young). America is made up of all its people and their histories.
The lives of slaves in this country is as much a part of our history as any battle won for independence.
However, as we reclaim the stories of those omitted, we cannot fail to recognize old prejudices that we have repurposed into our own communities. Many of the descendants of slaves of Monroe bear the last name Monroe. It was a common practice for slaveowners to name their slaves with their own last names to show their claim of ownership (Jefferson, Washington, Winfrey).
Women discarding their own last name and bearing their husband’s has the same roots of ownership. This practice was born of Coverture laws we adopted from the British who adopted them from the Normans’ femme covert (covered woman) laws. A husband, in law, owned his wife, and upon her marriage, a woman ceased to exist as a person under the law.
As we repair one injustice, let us not be hypocrites and continue to celebrate another. We cannot honor the election of the first black male president without admitting that even he renamed his wife with his last name (turning Michelle Robinson into Mrs. Barack Obama) to lay claim to his covered woman.
We cannot pretend that one is a symbol of ownership of one human being by another and the other is not.
6
This is the equivalent of historical doxing of our founding fathers based on today’s moral relativism on racism. While it’s ok to look back and learn important lessons based on our new understanding, I think tolerance should be applied to historical figures that go back 200 plus years, understanding it was a different time when the rules where also different.
5
Come on, Kev, this isn't a "doxing" -- everyone knows that Monroe enslaved people. And it's not "today's moral relativism," and it's not mere "racism" that's involved. The article makes very clear its subject: the enslavement of people. Which was viewed as a sin at the time, was legally banned in some places, and was opposed vehemently by large numbers of Americans. The article even mentions Monroe's vague abolitionist sentiment -- do you think that should be erased because it happens to jive with somebody's present-day view of slavery?
3
No thanks.
@Kev what about this article makes you think that? what is the tolerance that you seek from those written about that you don't find in the piece?
from my reading the plantation is doing just want you mentioned, looking back and learning important lessons .. also, learning more about the lives of the enslaved beyond the brutality of the institution... it also discussed the decenants being able to connect and learn more about thier history.. im confused as to what makes you think those written about don't understand that it was a different time with differnt rules.
The article omits discussion of the horrific laws of manumission (freeing enslaved peoples) in Virginia during this time. This removes focus from the systemic nature of the institution of slavery.
Manumission laws prevented freeing enslaved persons in almost all cases - especially if the slave owner was in debt. If an indebted person (like Jefferson or Monroe) freed the enslaved, then their creditors could re-enslave the freed persons - potentially to worse conditions. Freed persons were required to leave the colony/state and the owner was required to pay for travel. Freed persons were also recaptured and re-enslaved (or worse).
Overall, freeing slaves in Virginia was virtually impossible until after the 1780s.
Manumission - google this before you judge too harshly.
6
I am truly thankful to NYT for not only writing that Sally/Jefferson article (6 '19) but now bringing Monroe's contradiction to general public's notice.
The path between Monticello and Highland is littered with the well-trodden hearts of slaves & their human dignity... doubly painful as it is one of nation's founding father & lead president doing this.
It esp. bothers me when people openly deny Sally-Jefferson connection. Anyone in doubt should read John Adam's letters, the indirect references. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-adams-out-thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-180960789/
I did what I call my Southern-slavery tour more than a decade ago, Savannah, Charleston, the nearby slave plantations, & Charleston's American museum.
I remember seeing these large iron rings, chains & shackles. I asked the curator giving me a tour, which animals were they used for... I recall him giving me a side look, and said quietly, "not animals, ma'am... these were for slaves."
I just walked around in a daze.
I went to slave quarters in the many mansions, & lastly the Fort Sumter-- the canon used in civil war. That is when the cruelty, the unimaginable cruelty of it all dawns on you.
Every American should be made to visit Highland, Monticello and Charleston as a necessary part of their education.
Stand on those grounds, look at the evidence and just imagine... it is stifling, it shakes your belief in the good of men and... it is all so gut-wrenchingly heartbreaking.
8
I am working on the history of the African diaspora, notably from the socio-economic side for years also through tracing the ancestry of slaves through their artefacts and their traditional skills.
I may be able to offer some clues to the research, which may not have been taken into consideration so far.
Perhaps one of the researchers may wish to get in touch with me under my email below.
Karin-Beate Phillips, London
info@bedgorg
1
Slavery of African Americans was so awful that our nation fought its deadliest war to end it, 150 years ago. But, now is the time to stop fighting that war and move onto other things.
We have slavery TODAY in the form of human trafficking and we have crippling economic inequality TODAY. Endlessly mining the past for more and more sins by dead people gets us nothing but a feeling of smug moral superiority. It does nothing about fixing today's problems, which is probably why this endless worrying about monuments to the past is being encouraged by those in power today.
I personally don't care if James Monroe owned slaves or beat his wife or was gay. He's gone. Ditto the statues of Civil War generals. They're gone. Can we please start trying to solve today's problems?
3
@DWS
is someone advocating that we don't address the problems we have today and only talk about slavery? is there no one trying to solve today's problems because we are too caught up in the past?
you may find it impossible to both discuss history and it's impact on the present while discussing the present but most people can do both just fine.
what exactly is it that you want? no more discussion of history in general or just of slavery/jim crow/reconstruction/ civil right etc? do you ask the same of the jewish holocaust? native american genocide? the horrible treatment of asians in the states? where exactly do you draw the line and why there?
2
The government should track down descendants of American slaves and admit that made a mistake and compensated their former owners for lost property, take that money back, and pay the slaves.
Compensation for lost property? Slavery was abolished. You no longer own people AS property. You get no compensation.
Slaves didn't anyway. President Johnson should have been tarred and feathered for his role in subverting reconstruction.
My family also is Eubanks
Monroe seems to have been in a similar situation to Thomas Jefferson. He inherited slaves but did not participate in the trade. Washington did but later repudiated the practice and called for its abolition. This doesn't matter to the Left since slavery is an unforgivable sin. Since America allowed and its founders participated in it, the Left demands erasing the memory of even people who later changed their minds, regretted what they did or even opposed slavery even though they may have owned them. Leftists are remarkably silent about Third World countries (like Libya) who, to this day, still practice this evil trade.
2
"Enslaved"? The article uses this term incorrectly. The enslavement took place well before Monroe. There is no need to mislead what is already acknowledged as an evil.
7
No, Monroe enslaved people. If you don't consider keeping an inherited slave or purchasing a slave to be "enslaving," then what about the children born to people whom Monroe owned? Was it "the system" that enslaved those children, not the man who put them in bondage?
2
@Steve
isn't enslavement a state of being? you may have been intitally enslaved on monday but in 3 weeks if you are still someones property then you are still enslaved no?
how is someone being mislead by the use of the work?
1
I believe slaves north and south constituted the largest asset class in the US at the time. Manumission meant bankruptcy for many plantations.
3
i think one of the vulnerabilities with slavery is that people forget, take things for granted, or demand things be granted to them..
in just my own recent history my mother's father was thrown into a jail and died there in russia after it annexed him and others in lithuania for not turning to communism.. and another, a uncle who is not too far down the line was sent to siberia and chained to a wheel barrow just for have books.
there are many many people that are not black, and are in the us, and are more recent slaves,
why haven't they voiced themselves?
perhaps it is more than just 'deepening historical interests', perhaps it is just the media interests.
stalin killed way way more people in siberia than the holocaust from hitler ever did.
yet, it's never spoken of.
guess, it's more than just a time line historical thing.
to who controls what and how it is presented, thru the media.
2
Can’t help noticing from other comments that, slavery being no longer justifiable in itself, (at least in NYT comments) the new excuse is that the Africans enslaved them first, so that washes the hands of all slaveowners who bought, sold as property, and mistreated them (forget the rose-colored notion that there were ‘good’ masters, since no human being ever wants to be enslaved).
The far right is alive and well
5
I'm grateful to see that Highland is becoming more true to its history. When I visited there a few years ago, slaves were not a part of the story. Yet Mr. Monroe and others of his generation who enslaved people profited from their labor. These people cannot be ignored as though they were simply property, even though that's how they were treated.
1
Thank you for this important story, we must continuously remember and be reminded of the founding fathers and how our country was established. Thank you for bringing to light that Monroe was a horrible racist and remind us that our very founding fathers were walking contradictions and thank you to the researchers who are helping heal a traumatic past and just goes to show that no matter the time, the truth will see the light.
2
The frightening thing is that the slaveowners were genetically the same as anyone alive today. With a different environment, the same people could be either slaveowners, slaves, or abolitionists.
1
Great story. I am glad these people were able to reconnect with their long separated cousins. Ironic that their shared history was both unexplored and right next door. If we are going to make our national history truly more inclusive, we should include all of the country. History is far more complex than the simple versions we are commonly taught. Here's a good place to start about slavery in America: https://www.theroot.com/slavery-by-the-numbers-1790874492
Sadly, the practice of slavery is still global. Here are some numbers you should be aware of: https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/highlights/
3
Where are all the regressives claiming that anything critical and /or negative of America throughout the course of American history is hating on America?
1
Of further interest would be to trace the DNA ancestry of former American slave descendants from the slaves settled in the American colony of Monrovia, Liberia, the West African country's capital. It's named in honor of President James Monroe -- the owner of 250 slaves. And the present Monroes seem to proudly bear the Monroe name as part of their heritage.
1
James Monroe did not enslave anyone.
Africans were enslaved by other Africans in Africa as they had been since prehistory. Europeans did immorally join the African slave trade by purchasing salves, bringing them to the Americas and continuing the practice but to obscure the African history of enslavement is to misrepresent the facts so to racialize the history of slavery which in truth was about class abuse not racial abuse.
5
It's your objection to racializing the history of slavery (!) that lets me know you're serious.
2
I'm not sure what the point of this as we already know that the ancestors of most current African Americans were brought to the US as slaves. Can we all agree that slavery was wrong and move on?
5
No, we can’t move on. Happy now?
3
@AR
It is up to you if you want to keep living in the past and claiming to be a victim.
2
The slaves were enslaved by competing tribes in West Africa.
4
No, Monroe's slaves, including children born at Highland, were enslaved in the 18th century in the United States.
3
As a descendant of slaves, "doing the right thing" would mean much more than just telling the history. Not only were those slaves wrongfully held, brutally overworked, and denied any shred of personal agency, the value they brought through their work, aptitude, creativity, and ability was exploited for the benefit of others. I believe much more has to be done than simply "honoring" and "getting the story straight." The value of the labor and loss experienced by those slaves must be repatriated. Start with the Monroe plantation itself -- sell it and use the proceeds to the benefit of the local black community.
9
Reparations to women, All women.
We are nothing and would not exist without them.
How about a government pension of $50,000 per year for any American woman who gives birth to and raises an American citizen?
There would be some respect for their role, if we actually attached a value to it, instead of acting as though children are expensive pets for the wealthy and near elderly to ‘create’ in a lab with a fertility expert to the tune of $350,000 a crack!
1
Monroe held people in slavery. He didn’t “enslave” them.
6
"As president, Monroe supported abolition, but he enslaved up to 250 people in his lifetime. Daily tours and the Highland website note the contradiction." Indeed.
Is that sort of like observing that Ted Bundy donated generously to the Salvation Army bell ringers at Christmastime?
The article would have done well to clarify in some small detail the history of James Monroe's commitment to "abolition". Many, if not most, abolitionists were racists and supported "back to Africa" schemes - among them - "the Union, free or slave" Abraham Lincoln.
The only serious abolitionists, in my opinion, were people like John Brown.
5
There are at least two distinct narratives and realizations for those who feel threatened by the inclusion of the slave experience to understand: the realities of being a slave before the end of the Civil War and the racially superior attitudes and practices since that time. The KKK, Jim Crow, and Charlottesville are not aberrations. Adding context and new scholarship to American history by including “African American history” does not eradicate or supplant “real history”, it enriches our understanding of how we’ve arrived at this point in time and better informs us how best to continue to move forward as a country.
4
To me "enslave" does not mean to own slaves. It means to take a free man and make him into a slave. When did the apparently transitive verb " enslave" come to be an intransitive verb meaning "to posess slaves"?. That usage is at odds with all other verbs beginning with the prefix "en".
8
Why is that even important?
3
It’s usage, I think, arose from academia as a way to speak respectfully of my ancestors. Instead of calling them “slaves” as they were things, Using enslaved speaks to the act that was done to them, acknowledging that they were human beings first.
3
It's unlikely that Monroe "enslaved" anybody. Rather he bought slaves who had been enslaved by others. It is unclear whether these others were Africans, Europeans or Arabs.
6
@Juvenal451
no, he just 'kept' them enslaved. or 'sold' them to others...
2
It has always been immoral to "own" another person regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or religion. This disgusting practice was once worldwide. Unfortunately it is still actively practiced in parts of the world, including the US in the manner of sex slaves. We need to focus our attention on that vile, illegal practice of today! It is ridiculous to suggest reparations as those who owned and those who were owned are long dead, IMHO..
6
Keep in mind that we wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t once been there.
3
@From Where I Sit
We weren't here first. Learn about US history before posting...
1
Slavery is sooo complicated. Two interesting facts --
1. Freed black men could and did own slaves. https://www.nps.gov/natc/learn/historyculture/williamjohnson.htm
2. There were laws against the emancipation of old/sick slaves, because they would not be cared for.
The enslavement of black people was deemed questionable by the end of teh 18th C -- and in 1807, the importation of slaves from Africa was abolished.
Unfortunately, people continue to be bought and abused in all sorts of ways.. and suffer while being nominally free.
We can do nothing about suffering in the past but just maybe we could do something about all kinds of suffering in the present.
6
Yes, “free” black did own slaves. The vast majority owned family members. You need to become informed on the terrible emancipation laws in the south. Essentially, emancipated slaves had a year to leave the state or go back to being slaves. Free blacks would purchase family members not to profit from them but to protect them.
6
Such hardships you might survive but they change you forever, and the repercussions transcend generations. We must be united by a paramount mutual and indefatigable fire to seek out the truth, to recognize both unendurable pain and unbreakable agency, to make right, and to do better. The wrongdoings of centuries that transcend generations will not be rectified in less than an era. President Monroe participated in a great wrong. He might have been a good person who made a terrible mistake. We see such a terrible mistake everyday among the supporters of Mr. Trump. We have no choice but to acknowledge that they are principally moved by the demagogue's promise to return to the racist ideals of the time of slavery.
10
This story of rediscovering suppressed parts of our history is good, but spectacularly incomplete even with its implications in the brief mention of Sally Hemmings. Where is the DNA side of the story? Are the families described descendants of slaves of the Monroes, or are some of them also descendants of the Monroe family?
The histories I was taught growing up in the 1960's implied such things almost never happened, but we now have many reasons to know better. Some interrelationships may have been from cruelty or affection, but they happened and have been a part of slavery since prehistory. The more we learn of the truth of our various
ancestories, the more we will learn about who We the People really are.
6
I do not understand how any American can say that the history of slavery has been suppressed or that the horrors of slavery are "just coming out."
Have people been living under rocks? How is it that anyone here is surprised?
But then, I know an educator, my age or even a bit older, who said after a school workshop on the Holocaust, "How awful! How can such things be!"
Really? I've known about Nazi experiments on Jews since I was 12. But then, my dad made sure I did. And we're not even Jewish.
3
This article reminds me of one of the best books I've ever read: "Slaves in the Family" by Edward Ball. It's a documentary about how Edward Ball, a descendant of a huge slave-owning family, owning perhaps thousands of human beings on several gigantic plantations, found the lists documenting the names of his family's slaves, and searched for their descendants, meeting many of them. I think Edward Ball single-handedly shows us what real reparation means, not financial in this case, but moral.
10
It was always implied to me that Thomas Jefferson owned, maybe 6, slaves. When I learned at Monticello that it was actually 600, I walked away feeling somewhat sick and angry for having been lied to for 50 years.
But these are the facts, and we can now understand our nature better, the nature of ambition better, the complexities of our psychology when we try to balance cooperation vs. competition in our relationships. These facts, if we are strong enough to accept them, can make us better. Isn't that what strong cultures should do?
9
@Gustav
It was 130, at any given time. Not 600. 600 slaves is more than enough to take over the plantation.
1
An amazing story of history bringing the past literally to life before our eyes. I sure hope that Burch and Barnes are able to attend the upcoming Monroe reunion for a followup.
We should all remember that the past is still there, present among us, even if sometimes there is little that seems written down. Usually, it just needs to be discovered through connections to stories we think we know, but we don't.
The respect and dignity that comes from knowing your past is priceless. It's also hard to come by for so many Americans who are just now discovering the details of their own past, which means the rest of us are even more ignorant than we ever imagined.
This is one of the more important stories of the year, which are often dominated by famous people. For the story of ourselves, there can be few if any that are truly more important than this one. Great work and thanks so much to the people of Monroetown, Ms. Burnett and Mr. Violette for working together to bring this vital story of our past to light.
2
I like how to this day, many of the descendants of enslaved people are still living nearby this plantation that their great great grandparents had to work for the former president. It infuriates me when, although the history is coming to light, that "erasing" history isn't going to help understand or change the racism we still see today. Even though many descendants of enslaved people shining light to what has happened in the past, it still scares me that today in this modern world, where we as humans, no matter race, color, ethnicity, or culture, many people use Charles Darwin's theory of Social Darwinism to set a standard for everyone else. The condition is that Morne isn't the only one who had slaves to help them but many of our founding fathers did.
A truly shameful and sad part of our history.
African Americans and Native Americans deserve redress for the tremendous harm inflicted upon them... if we pay reparations for internment of Japanese Americans for a few years of WW2 these groups are entitled to a lot more.
I hope we do that in the right way with goodwill.
3
@Rudran, most of those Japanese Americans had their homes, businesses and bank accounts expropriated. Those who received reparations were the victims or the victim's children.
The slave issue is very different, the slave owners and those who were enslaved are long since dead. The two situations are not comparable.
2
Since the media is digging into the subject so thoroughly now, I look forward to an exhaustive & vigorous historical analysis of the thriving pre-Colombian slave trades that existed throughout North, Western and Central Africa. These slave trades intersected with Kola nut trade networks in West and Central Africa, the great engineering & construction endeavors of the Egyptian empire in Northern Africa and then later as part of the Silk Road linking N E Africa and the Mid East.
An ironic, if inconvenient, historical detail is that should a exhumation of past archeological and genetic data be carried back far enough, both in time and distance, we would learn that some number of African-Americans who trace their lineage back through the terrors of the Atlantic slaves trade, indeed also descend from participants of slave trading that occurred throughout Africa millennia before Europeans stepped foot in North America.
7
@Mike S
This is about the enslavement of Africans in the US. If this was about World History then I would say "Yes, let's discuss".
Your deflection is not working!
5
@Mike S - is your guilt assuaged now? Feel better?
1
The biggest slave traders of Africans were the Arabs. The European and American slave traders combined don't even makeup half the figures of the Africans the Arabs enslaved!
2
I just finished reading ‘400 Years of White Trash in America’. It is both fascinating and depressing. I have also read how rival African groups would kidnap one another to sell to slavers. The world was, and is now, full of evil and those who are always ready to exploit their fellow humans. It is worth researching and learning as much as we can about the motivations of all our ancestors. Armed with as much knowledge as possible, we may be able to avoid repeating their mistakes. In America, blacks were enslaved, and large segments of the white community were treated as subhuman. It is all too depressing. In spite of everything we see and hear today, I believe we have made much progress in the realm of recognizing human rights, but we must keep pushing ahead and always remain vigilant.
5
This country was supposedly founded on the idea that all men are created equal, but during the late 18th and early 19th centuries at least 12 or over a quarter of all American presidents—were slave owners during their lifetimes. Eight of whom held slaves while in office.
Let the truth come forth. It is past time for this scourge on America's founding and the original source of its wealth be revealed. Thank you NY Times.
3
Very important story. The article does not mention if there is any shared DNA between President Monroe and the slave descendants who carry the Monroe name.
3
Perhaps William & Mary, Monroe’s alma mater, will take the lead from Georgetown University and offer admission to the descendants of the slaves he sold to a plantation in Florida. It would be magnanimous under the circumstances since Monroe was enriched by the sale of human beings.
4
@PMD, Georgetown University sold slaves that it owned, so it is appropriate for that college to make reparations for the pain it caused. Why should William and Mary make reparations for the actions of an alumnus?
1
When researching my ancestors I found out the Cherokee of Oklahoma (to whom I am not directly related) owned slaves and fought on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War! I also found out that if you are descended from a Cherokee ancestor you probably know it as they are extremely proud of their heritage and they don't hide it. They have detailed genealogies at their reservations that can be used to prove Cherokee ancestry if needed. One of the most common ancestry myths in America is that of having a Cherokee ancestor and it is found in white and black families. The legend goes that some ancient ancestor married a Cherokee "princess." I found this out after researching a cousin from six generations back, Turner Belt Brashear, who actually did marry the daughter of a Cherokee chief in 1787 in Mississippi.
3
It is important to portray history with it's positives and negatives. If one looks back far enough, everyone is related to slaves, and owners of slaves. Slavery exists today in many countries around the world.
I'm glad that those that go to this property hear not only about President Monroe and how he lived, but about the slaves and how they lived and their ancestors live today. However, I am tired of the constant articles on race and angry about the current stand that many dem candidates take on reparations. This stand only divides us further; again, if you go back far enough, we are all descendants of slaves and owners, regardless of our appearance or color of our skin.
10
@Ma
"if you go back far enough, we are all descendants of slaves and owners"
That may be true. But it isn't relevant to the history of THIS country. Only black people were classified as non-persons subject to the laws of generational race slavery. And if THAT unpleasant truth can divide us because some people don't care to be reminded of it, then we don't deserve to stand as republic.
2
My ancestors enslaved no one. My ancestors WERE slaves.
11
My alma mater high school, Monroe, in St. Paul, Minnesota had its name recently changed by the Saint Paul Public Schools Board of Education after the student body requested the name change due to their education about President Monroe’s involvement with owning slaves. The new name Global Arts Plus is now caught up in something people stuck on keeping the name Monroe believe to be revising history, but to me it is truly revealing history. I saw a photo of one of the Monroe High School White graduates of 1966 holding a sign saying “We are Monroe’, protesting against the name change at the Board of Education meeting, and I shuddered inside my soul to see the racial misunderstanding, and lack of empathy for black history. To me, changing the name of slave owners on schools, parks, is not to say we erase you, it is to claim, as history reveals the truth about crimes against humanity, the name will no longer carry the torch of recognition, and furthermore, we claim our true right to grieve, and acknowledge the painful legacy of being held as slaves against our will.
212
@Juliana James Well said. I, a St. Paul Central grad, sent a note telling of the Monroe school change and also the Lake Calhoun change in Minneapolis. I do know a few Monroe grads who are scandalized by the name change. I would only suggest the name name is terribly unwieldy; in fact it sounds like a brand name or website.
2
@Juliana James Inclusive history is not just about whether or not we remove the names of the obviously flawed figureheads, it's also about acknowledging the subtle ways, people and places we differentiated each other, long after the Emancipation Proclamation, but also how we came together with a shared sense of place, culture and destiny. http://www.mnopedia.org/african-americans-minnesota
6
@Juliana James It is easy (for me) to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of our (white folk) continued complicity in white-washing the past. I am sorry.
Furthermore, everyday I seem to learn more about practices that continue to prevent the flourishing of fellow citizens- shame on us. It is imperative that we work for equity. White folks, we need to do some heavy lifting.
12
This inforamtion has always been in plain sight, but the English WASP descendants have always kept kept it hidden (or destroyed dis-remembered) in logs, diaries, letters, receipts, business correspondence and local records. Why? Because they are ashamed of what their ancestors did to other human beings: enslaved, sold, tortured, raped and murdered other human beings for greed, and stole the land from the native peoples.
14
Monroe's slaveowining has had an effect in faraway St. Paul, MN, my home town, where the Monroe school has undergone a name change. Ditto in Minneapolis where Lake Calhoun no longer honors John C. Calhoun and now has an Indian name.
7
I am astonished at the illogical and simply wrong comments from far more people here than seems possible. For example, stating that current African Americans would be much worse off had their ancestors not been forcibly removed from family in another continent, shipped as freight across the Atlantic Ocean, then forced to labor for their entire lives for the profit of landholders. The argument is that life in American today is superior to that in the African bush. Do you who make this argument ever think how absolutely irrational is your position? If these people had not been enslaved and relocated, their descendants would not be the same people existing today. This is so obvious that your lame effort to somehow suggest that it could be worse should be deeply embarrassing. Humans are individuals, not anonymous representatives of a concept.
Also, to those who note that slavery has a long history worldwide: Chattel slavery differs from other types. Families were forcibly broken apart in the American model. Other societies have done this differently, allowing families to stay together, allowing slaves to earn their freedom, among other features. None of this excuses slavery, but the American version was unusually cruel.
And: Suggesting that we are doing things today that will be seen as equivalently evil to future generations seems to deliberately avoid the reality of what slavery was in this country.
These arguments seem to be attempting to gloss over our common heritage.
22
@aoxomoxoa I agree! Consider this: families are now being separated again at our border. Even newborn infants have been taken from their mothers - I just read about that today.
2
@aoxomoxoa, good points. What can’t be lost here is the tremendous economic dependence there was on slavery in the South and also in the North (much of NYC was built with slave labor). It was not simply cruel, inhumane, and narcissistic to own another human being and consider them an inferior being in order to rationalize that ownership, it was an ideology which put capital above all else.
Treating the histories of slaves as co-equal to the histories of their owners also broadens our understanding of what we are capable of (all humans) if we consider economic gain, growth, and success (at least for the few) as justifying the means to acquire them.
For the past several decades the divide between the wealthy and everyone else in this country has grown exponentially as capital has become synonymous with democracy (freedom from taxes, freedom from regulations, freedom from accountability) - a corporation is a person; money equals free speech.
Learning the fact-based, detailed, and personal histories of slavery teaches us what can happen when success is the only metric; when “how” doesn’t matter, only “how much.”
As we are currently sliding down that same path of no accountability and turning a blind eye to egregious and cruel behavior from the most privileged among us, we would be wise to take the lessons learned from slavery. Rationalization in the name of greed could make powerless slaves of anyone.
1
Great story. I cried too when I read about the research librarian discovering proof that one young enslaved man ( sold with his parents to the Florida plantation owner) lived to gain his freedom and cast a vote. I wonder if his parents were alive then? How transcendent a moment that would have been for them.
9
Monroe, Jefferson, Washington all had slaves. They were part of the imperfect Constitution, built on compromise and self interests. Our belief in the purity of these "founding fathers' is a another part of the American myth. The Puritans, a small minority on the boats, killing and cheating the Indians, Less then10,000 people supporting the revolutionary war, the systematic killing of the buffalo so the Indians would starve, the make up excuses for wars in Mexico and Cuba and Viet Nam , Iraq, etc. and the list goes on. We Americans need to face out real history and accept who we came from and try to make amends rather then continue to tell each other fairy tales of how great we are. This is the first step to change.
21
@RichardHead
Agree with you 100% - but what parts of the world have done better? Certainly not Europe, with its savage wars or parts of Africa with indigenous slaveholders and human sacrifice of these slaves from time to time
There is a myth that adherents of certain religions exchew violence, but one look at the newspapers today - from every continent except Australia, which has had its own troubles in the past - tells us that isn't at least currently the case.
Do we need our myths? I think not. Every country seems to have a group of citizens that believe that country is the best and most favored by god(s).
Maybe it's time to get rid of those myths worldwide.
3
The second to last sentence, a quote, raises the idea that the Virginia and Florida communities have the same roots and maybe the same bloodline. What about the relationship between the current Monroes of the article, and the pale/pink/beige-colored descendents of James Monroe (who apparently do not share his name)? They, too, share a history. They, too have the same roots if not the same bloodline. Their ancestors lived intimately with each other, to the point of the Monroes of the article acquiring the name of Monroe. You would think that everyone could now be invited to the next reunion of James Monroe descendents held in Fredericksburg. Not to diminish the complexity and violence of the past, but to acknowledge the intimacy and relatedness and interconnectedness and interdependance of everyone.
3
I do hope that descendants of both President Monroe's family and the Monroetown residents are making use of autosomal and YDNA testing. I have met one descendant of an enslaved couple who turned out to be a third cousin via autosomal results.
At minimum, DNA helps bring home how connected we all are -- something we could probably use more of in these divisive times.
9
Is "enslaved" the correct word to use re Monroe's slaves --i.e., "enslaved by Monroe"? Enslaving a person is when you take a free person and reduce his/her status to that of a slave (enslavement) -- but slavery was firmly established in Virginia in Monroe's day and he was dealing with persons who were already slaves or born into slavery so I'm not sure this is a correct sentence "As president, Monroe supported abolition, but he enslaved up to 250 people in his lifetime." This implies Monroe was personally going out and capturing free persons and turning them into slaves. More than likely he was purchasing slaves on the capitalist free market and also having some who were born into slavery on his plantation. It was indeed a peculiar institution.
9
Unless you have research to back up your statement...the last ship with slaves in it arrive in AL in 1860. And does it matter whether Monroe purchased a person from a European or West African slaves or had his overseers purchase a person from a slave market? Monroe chose to continue the enslavement in every manner rather than release them from property status of pay them wages in some manner. He enslaved them.
1
I am not surprised that a Republican was involved. All the campaign money they raise from donors not paying taxes should be paying the former slaves families back from the injustices of yesterday and today their bully party has caused. Us taxpayers should not have to.
1
Sure would like to see a five letter name on that gravestone.
2
Similar to Jefferson, Monroe was of two minds and thus he was a moral failure, just like Thomas Jefferson. On the one hand, he favored abolition, in words only. On the other hand were his deeds: he kept hundreds of human beings as slaves his whole life, profiting from their free labor and profiting even more by selling them. So much for Monroe.
10
If we are going to be seeing more of this type of story to support the growing reparations talk, I am done with the Times. Slavery was a dark part of our history, but is in the past and will never return. In addition, I am not going to hold myself responsible for it. In most parts of the country African Americans have an equal opportunity to succeed. There will always be evil in the world and, therefore evil people.
5
@Richard E Fleishman
"I am not going to hold myself responsible for it. In most parts of the country African Americans have an equal opportunity to succeed."
If you really believe this you are sadly misinformed or deluded. There continues to be widespread discrimination in housing, employment, access to credit and capital, and in the criminal justice system.
3
@RE.Fleishman
Shutting down the conversation and disengaging... Classic move. Take a moment and read "White Fragility" by Robin DiAngelo. It'll give you some insight into all the ways your comment to this article is emblematic of the great difficulty many White people have in just *talking* about racism. We gotta start somewhere if we want to finally have a nation that lives up to its ideals. Shutting down the conversation certainly won't get us there.
1
But the U.S. Government continues to pay benefits to the daughter of a civil war veteran?
I think if more of us really researched our ancestry, we'd find that many of us have ancestors who owned slaves, and that most of those people were not wealthy or powerful. When I dug into my own ancestry, I was saddened and surprised at how many of my own ancestors, who lived in Viriginia and Missouri, owned slaves. These people were not wealthy; they were small farmers for the most part. They did not own plantations. One of them, my 3rd-great grandfather, came over from the Alsace region and as an immigrant in Missouri is shown in records as owning one ten year old boy, who is unamed in the 1860 slave schedule. My ancestor's neighbors listed on that schedule also owned slaves; some only one, others had what appear to be families, including small children and infants. The story of the common, small farming slave system needs to be told. What finding this about this particular ancestor told me was that slavery was so indemic, so pervasive, that even a newcomer bought into the system. It troubles me to learn that many of my ancestors owned slaves, and more so, that so did their contemporaries.
340
@kmarker "many of us have ancestors who owned slaves" Really? The overwhelming number of peope did not. Such loose language helps no one
30
@kmarker
I agree. I too found that an ancester owned a slave - in Manhattan in the late 1700. My ancester was not affluent. Slavery was endemic, in both the north and the south. This story must be told.
57
@kmarker
Remember that owning a slave isn't always what it looks like. Sometimes a person was bought to protect them (couldn't marry or live with except as master/slave). Sometimes people wound up with a slave without buying one. (the artist Peal got some slaves that were use to pay a debt. He made them servants, had them taught trades, and then freed them). These cases are exceptions but they are real.
34
My great great great grandmother was Catherine Monroe Keller who was a first cousin of President James Monroe. They were descendants of Andrew Monroe who came to Virginia in the 1640s and was awarded property “for the transport of persons” to the colonies which was code word for the indentured servant trade, which was a precursor to the slave trade Slavery didn’t begin in earnest in the Virginia colonies until around 1700. Then records show that several of my Virginia based relatives bequeathing property including furniture horses and slaves to their heirs. By the early 1800 the Catherine part of the family had moved to Fairfax City on their way to migrating to Ohio except for my great great grand mother whose Strasbourg family was shown to have in the 1850 and 1860census a mullato living with them, no doubt a slave. The civil war thankfully ended slavery but no doubt records of family slave history were lost in the years following the war.
12
We Southerners take pride in elements of our past. Fair enough. But that means that we are also liable to shame and guilt as well. Too many of my neighbors want the one, but not the other. We're connected and those connections matter.
44
Can we please put an end to the rhetorical gymnastics employed within the comments in Monroe's defense with respect to the verb "to enslave?" The fact that the initial act of enslavement (the capture and sales of people) was committed by some other agent doesn't in any way mitigate Monroe's participation in the continuation of that enslavement. In his ownership of enslaved people (however they came to be enslaved), he perpetuated the state of enslavement - that is, he denied them the intrinsic freedom of personhood, he subjugated them. Monroe didn't free those enslaved people upon his purchase. As far as we know, he didn't "employ" (pay for the labor of) the enslaved persons he purchased. Any child born to an enslaved person whom he had purchased was also enslaved and he sold enslaved people to others, thereby continuing their enslavement! He made them slaves ("enslaved" them) every single day that he continued the practice of slavery. Monroe's purchase of humans who were initially enslaved by someone else's actions doesn't magically limit his participation in the system of slavery. And why fuss over how to appropriately apply the verb "to enslave?" Slavery was an atrocious economic system and back in the day, many of our founding fathers participated in that atrocious system. It is hardly a meaningful distinction that none of them committed the first instance of enslavement. Suggesting otherwise is a troubling oversimplification of a complex issue.
35
@BABenson Yes, the issue is complex. But it is also simple: either people were slavers or they were not. There's always a choice between good and evil. Don't tell me they were men of their times and therefore didn't understand the difference between good and evil; they most certainly did. Monroe, along with Jefferson, and many other famous American men, chose to be a slaver. There's no way of getting out from under that. After all, he didn't release his slaves and profited off their free labor his whole life.
8
@J.Sutton -I absolutely agree; my point was to admonish commenters who want to blithely diminish Monroe's role as a slaver simply because he didn't capture his slaves himself. What I think is complex is that Monroe was in favor of abolition whilst enslaving humans. This implies that he surely understood the evil and wrongness of slavery but somehow was able to continue the institution. Also, the 'long history of slavery' argument doesn't make it somehow kinda okay for Monroe, et al, especially given the abolitionist sentiment of the day (however unpopular or small a movement); there was, even then, at least some awareness the slavery was wrong. We are absolutely correct to call out and discuss the injustice of the times.
105
@BABenson Thank you very much. I certainly agree.
Slavery was not an invention of the American Revolution. It was an economic reality of that time. It has been a reality as far back as human history extends, and probably before that. It is a reality today, even in the United States. We just call it human trafficking. I doubt the victims care which term is used.
Were Washington, Jefferson or Monroe somehow more evil than the unknown plantations owners next door, or the small farmers down the road?
If you own a home today in the United States, the land was first claimed by Native Americans. Are you ready to turn it over the title to their descendants? After all, that was a government backed genocide.
There is not one fact from the past that we can change. We can only learn. Thanks to all those involved in this project. With enough light and air, maybe we can finally kill the infection in our national psyche.
40
@Maureen Steffek - 'There is not one fact from the past that we can change. We can only learn.'
Thank you for the powerful reminder.
1
Maybe it's time to get rid of all the monuments to the founding fathers and other slave-holders. Choices were made, even in the deep South not to have slaves - but these individuals chose to have them.
While we have no monuments to Queen Elizabeth (the first) it should be noted that she profited handsomely by her investments in the slave trade prosecuted by Captain Jack Hawkins. His protege, (later Sir) Francis Drake went on one voyage in a slaver and was sickened. He never took another.
7
Uncovering the real truths of American history is not erasing or whitewashing. Scholars & theater artists cojoin in the Playwrights Sanctuary. This is a tri coastal theater foundation directed by Dr Larry Myers. After 40 years as university professor this group investigates, researches, activates, dramatizes real issues. When the Robert E Lee statues were covered in Charlottesviille Myers journeyed there to write "Black & White." One of his mentors (Tennessee Williams) had told him to write plays close your eyes & see images. Myers was drawn to the archaelogical dig at the Monroe site which was uncovering the real structure. There is a higher truth which informs the arts with symbols & imagery. A global apocalype is afoot with climate,culture, consciousness. Primal wisdom is not PCinformation.
5
It is a mistake to judge the actions of our forbears, by our current ethics. Life is an evolution. The fact that Monroe had slaves, but favored abolition, is not ironic. Perhaps he saw that things had to change.
By the way, we are still dealing with slavery in the modern world.
26
@Raz
It's weird that you do not want a historical accurate account of Monroe's connection to slavery as it helps develop a fuller understanding of our 4th president. You do not have to be part of whitewashing history.
Thanks for the nonsequator to human trafficking. It's an attempt to justify continuing historical revisionism and dismissing talking about the effects of chattel slavery.
You do not have to choose to be triggered.
4
@Raz
"It is a mistake to judge the actions of our forbears, by our current ethics."
what does that mean practically though? that we shouldn't teach that slavery was an evil system. That we should say, ah well.. it was normal in their time? Please clarify what you mean exactly. I don't understand what to do with that statement.
also, american chattel slavery was understood to be evil and abhorrent in its time as well.. that's not a new sentiment.
and yes slavery still exists in the world it is is still an evil institution.
5
@ASC
Yes, it was normal for the times.
Even Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation didn't free the slaves. It, supposedly, declared freedom for the slaves in the rebellious states, but did nothing for the Northern slaves.
It was a political ploy to create disruption in the southern states and undermine their government. The northern slaves weren't freed until passage of the thirteenth amendment.
So, are you going to call Lincoln names?...or call him a coward?
1
I grew up in California and never related to the history of slavery since it occurred long ago and in another part of the country. As I grew up I was swept up by the Civil Rights movement because to a young idealistic person it was so obvious who had been wronged and who was on the dark side of history. Reading the slave narratives helped me understand a great deal more about the humanity of those who were enslaved. All people, most especially whites, would be better off if they learned as much as possible about slavery, the slaves, the slave system, etc. I thought slavery was not part of California until I started reading about the 1840's and how slave owners were hungry for new territory to exploit with their slaves. The gold rush stimulated many slave owners to entertain ideas of taking their slaves to the gold fields in CA and have their slaves do all the hard work. While this is all in the past and we shouldn't wallow in it I know from my own experience that connecting with my ancestors in America, who have lived in every region since the 1630's has helped me no end in connecting with the nature of the society and freeing me in a way. So it matters the nature of experience your family had here. So it should be a collective project to make sure all people are connected to the society through generational narratives, especially slave narratives. If I were a black person I would be absolutely proud of my slave progenitors who sustained themselves and persevered with grace.
17
@David
California belonged to brown Natves before it belonged to white Spaniards, white Mexicans and white Americans and their enslaved black African property.
Prison is the carefully carved colored exception to the 13th Amendment abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude. And 40% of American prisoners are black like Ben Carson.
Because the 13% of blacks are persecuted for acting like white people do without any criminal justice consequences.
The first black African and brown Native American President Vicente Guerrero abolished slavery in Mexico in 1828.
4
Perhaps this is not political correct but I am going to ask anyway, from someone who has no skin in the game (interpret it whichever way you like). Was it slavery in name or in practice, granted that they are not mutually exclusive. And we know the complicated relationships between Jefferson and his.
To put it in another way. we know what Oskar Schindler did. In Schindler's List, director Steven Spielberg, has followed the book to portray the man as a savior, and not an enslaver of Jews.
The point is that people should think more expansively, within historical context as well as in the realm of human relationships, as Ms Eubanks points out, “[w]e have the same roots, and we might even have the same bloodline. We might be cousins.”
2
@Bos
“Perhaps...you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.”
1
@Bos
Think of it this way: if you're a slave how do you consent to sex? Can you really say no? This is an article about descendants.
@Bos Yes, you might be cousins but not out of some mutual attraction between master & slave. As a slave, one was at the mercy of pretty much any white man and subject to physical and sexual abuse by them with no right to resist. Would you want a relationship with the descendants of your ancestor's rapist?
Makes one wonder how acts of today's culture will be looked at as reprehensible exploitation or vile misanthropic behavior by later generations. Further, if people of past times we now judge in modern terms found themselves in different societal roles would our judgment now still stand? Anyone who knows even a little history will quickly come to the conclusion that every monarch and cultural icon of every age has reason to be so vilified. All we can do now is understand and make things better based on lessons learned.
7
Descendants of slaves-brought-to-America, for the most part, have it pretty good compared to their ancestors: they can vote, they get paid for their work, most own a car, most have air conditioning, most have a TV, many own their own home, many are obese from too much to eat.
Has anybody researched the current standard of living of descendants of slaves who were NOT brought to America, or descendants of Africans who were not enslaved at all?
How do the current standards of living compare?
Would descendants of slaves-brought-to-America be better off if their ancestors had not been enslaved and brought to America?
5
@99percent
Thank you for your comment. It really gets at that you're not truly interested in even hearing the experiences of your fellow countrymen and that you're looking for any reason to justify dismissing those experiences. Thank you for trying to take this conversation off topic.
17
Interesting comments. Have we also looked at how blacks that escaped American slavery and made it to Canada fared versus those in America post emancipation? I’m assuming the blacks in Canada, although dealing with prejudice, did not deal with lynching and Jim Crow and the hypocrites in the North USA that were also highly prejudiced. I would bet that they had far successful lives.
Just because of emancipation did life become unicorns and fairies for black Americans.
The argument that blacks are better off here than in Africa is also misguided. Don’t forget that white colonialism stole natural resources and created hate from within by pitting tribe versus tribe. We don’t have a “control” population that was left untouched by the cruelty of slavery and colonialism.
36
@99percent
Most likely they would be had their homeland not been plundered.
8
I’m amused by all the people beating the “slavery was so long ago; let’s forget it “ drum. If this story was about descendants of immigrants during the potato famine, they would all be misty-eyed and fascinated. We’ve heard their story; they can listen to ours.
26
I think “your” story was way before “their” story so maybe it’s time to let both go as you seem to not have enough sympathy or empathy for anything beyond your own interests.
Where is any mention of the people in Africa that captured their own people and then SOLD them into a life unimaginable?
There are plenty of bad things that occurred in the past (some still happening in parts of the world today).
You can’t change the past but you can change the present and the future. Yes it’s good to examine the past to learn from it but wallowing in it is unhealthy after a point.
Look forward, one’s future is not written yet.
2
@SYJackson ... I completely agree ... we should be telling more and more stories. The more we share experiences, stories and histories, the better off we will all be as Americans today.
5
@SyJackson: The descendants of immigrants during the potato famine? Heck, those folks now believe they and other offspring of relatively recent immigrants, who came here stowed away in steerage, fleeing poverty and hunger, desperately seeking asylum, are now the only true, patriotic, ‘native Americans.’ Now they loudly demonize and despise others who only seek the same chance at survival and a better life here.
Their baseless defense is ‘we did it the right way’ — too ignorant of their own history to know, or too hypocritical to admit that ‘the right way’ until the racist quota system imposed in the U.S. in the 1920s was to just show up here by land or by sea. They are too ignorant to know that as a result of that racist quota system, hundreds of thousands of refugees from fascism were turned away in the 1930s and 1940s and condemned to die under Hitler and Mussolini’s rule. They do not want to hear that refugees from wars we started in the Middle East are dying today because we refuse their pleas for asylum.
Now these same grandchildren of the potato famine, or of refugees from poverty and rampant crime in Italy, or from military conscription in Germany, many separated by no more than about 100 years from their impoverished, uneducated, illiterate immigrant forbears, yammer on about ‘strong borders’ and ‘building the wall,’ while smugly offering ‘respect for the law’ as a pretext for the brutal internment and incarceration of today’s immigrants.
2
But don't you all remember the TV-Serials, the "Roots" from 1977 that went worldwide and the book of same name?
If you don't know your history you will have a hard time with the future, some wise man said.
9
This is a great story and I hope it inspires more
16
In 1974, the genteel docent at Monticello kept referring to "the servants" and I snickered quietly. Today, they do a creditable job of emphasizing the value of the labor of the enslaved people there.
Ashlawn/HIghlands actually beat Monticello to it in their guided tours. I'm glad they are finding actual living connections to another of our Founding Fathers.
14
As with the Jefferson descendants, what is the likelihood that some slaves of the Monroe household carried the Monroe gene? Surprised that there is no mention of DNA testing and searching through the genetic trees.
35
@Observer The 'likelihood' is pretty high-just guessing. What would be really interesting is a large-scale DNA testing of southern communities to determine racial make-up. Actually I'm not sure DNA can be used to show racial characteristics-since 'race' is not a biological fact but a 'social construct'. (Not only 'southern' since people move-everyone might benefit from such testing.)
1
@pat You're refuting your own conclusions.DNA does ,very most definitely define race ,which is in effect biological.
1
@pat
What testing can, and should do, is see if the Black and White Monroe descendents share the same DNA, as do the Black and White Jefferson descendents.
1
Congratulations to Highland for their incredibly important work! The days of reconciliation are long overdue and Highland is leading the way. Bravo to all. Thanks to the NYT for publishing this.
15
The cult of worship around the founding fathers has got to end. It was an elite club of mostly slaveowners and should only be looked at with the normal modicum of historical interest, not pride or reverence.
14
They weren't all slaveholders. If you remember your history, there were great debates as to slavery, and those opposed to that institution thought that a United States could revisit that question later -- which it did, again to no avail.
Almost a hundred years later, those opposed to slavery spilled a lot of blood to end that practice.
I don't rely on today's politicians to get anything done, much less found country based on an enlightened proposition.
14
@Ryan Butler Or better yet, reveal them to be products of their time and not infallible. All humans are shades of gray. I do agree that deification of them should stop.
5
'I don't rely on today's politicians to get anything done, much less found country based on an enlightened proposition.'
Sadly, amen.
Excellent story! I find the semantic debates over the meaning of "enslavement" amusing and quite revealing! In the end, what we know is that Monroe owned other people. That's right. OWNED other people! They did not just "work for him." And no, Monroe did not invent slavery, but he did practice it. What is your point? Because slavery was commonplace, slave owners should not be held accountable for their role in perpetuating its horrors? Can historical greatness only be achieved in the U.S. by lying about the means through which such greatness is achieved? In my view, the real American success story lies in the perseverance of the ancestors of the horrible institution of slavery (by any classic and modern standards) who have survived. Who are your heroes, now?
22
This is great evidence of the ability to clearly identify direct descendants for reparations. And of course the need.
10
I have researched my family history, the Queens. Beginning in the early 1600s, they were the earliest setters of Maryland and include the a governor of MD and Piscataway Indians. I have found many stories and records of their slaves. The slaveholding began in the late 1600s and early 1700s. There were liaisons with slave women, mulatto children who were educated and granted freedom, and a branch that became known as the Black Queens.
In recent years I have come to know, through DNA and Facebook, many of my mixed race Queen cousins. A couple of years ago I attended a Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Washington D.C. This Church is also known as Queen's Chapel, and is the continuation of a congregation that was started by my 4th Great Grandfather, Marsham Queen, in the 1720s. The congregation is now mostly African American. It is the longest continuing Catholic Congregation in America.
I was welcomed and greeted with real joy. One old woman came up to me and said "We are always so happy when a Queen comes home".
This is America, and I am proud to know my family and my history. The good and the bad.
43
@bq
I truly appreciate and admire your willingness to acknowledge the horror of American slavery. Most people refuse to do so. However, please reconsider your choice of language. Slave women didn't have liaisons. They didn't have romances, love stories or relationships with those who owned them. Slave women had no choices, no right to consent, nor any dominion over their own bodies. They were raped in every sense and every meaning of that word. So, put accurately your sentence should read:
"There was the rape of slave women, mixed-race, enslaved children were born who were educated and granted freedom, and a branch that became known as the Black Queens".
Coming to grips with our collective history MUST include the end to whitewashing the language used to tell our stories.
5
This is our history and most black people, in this hemisphere, have these stories. They were told to us by our ancestors who wanted us to know our full histories. Why some white folks find this so objectionable is a true mystery to me. I don't get the fragility. This is history. It happened. It's real and it's relevant. We don't hate white people--to the contrary--even with knowledge of this history. Why is that so hard to believe? We were told of this horrific history at the same time we were taught of how to love and live lives of grace. Accept that!
36
@kim
No mystery. It's fear. Fear of Nat Turner's rage (they'll kill us in our sleep) being aroused by recollection of repressed dark history.
For those white folks at the bottom of the economic/educational ladder it's the desperate need to feel superior to somebody, anybody. The easily identifiable marker of black or brown skin is all the trigger they need.
5
Kim,
I agree it’s history and we should embrace it and not hide from it.
2
It is vastly different to live in a time than to look back at a time. In truth, slavery was ubiquitous in both North and South. De Tocquewille noted that though there was more actual slavery in the South, there was more racism in the North.
In the North, a slave was often called a " life long servant" and , for some, the evolution to a " free man". Many of the founding families in the North ( Adams , Franklin ) had slaves .....but the institution , per se, included Europeans as slaves ....
We are all glad that things changed ...but not as we imagine. Grant was the most important President in this regard. Lincoln emancipated only those who came under Union control and was avowedly racist most of his life....( read his letters about Blacks )
We have to be far more careful than we are in telling the American story. It is one of evolution and social progress...but we must accept that slavery was of the fabric...indeed, 60% of the entire US GDP was due to cotton ...all had a stake in it...
36
@Joel Levine A well-worded rationale for the basic idea: they were men of their time. Bah humbug! They knew perfectly well the difference between good and evil and chose evil. That's the raw undeniable truth about the men who chose to own other human beings for their own profit. Take those slave holding founders off their pedestals; they were men who consciously chose evil for profit. Let's honor the Abolitionists who were their contemporaries.
3
@Joel Levine
John Adams did not own slaves.
1
People are way to focused on the past and not enough on the future. Americans are paralyzed by the past which limits our future for our children. Look at the Democrat debates in which the largest focus was talking about busing from 45 years ago. No one talks of future plans and actions
16
@greg True, perhaps, but it is important to remember and learn from the evils of our past, as well as from our praiseworthy history. That is, in part, how we become a better nation and people.
13
Then you didn't listen closely enough. There were multiple plans for the future put forward.
8
@greg
No, they did speak of the future. I do wonder at the defensive undertones of your comment. I can only assume that you are uncomfortable with our nation's past and therefor were deaf to the majority of the debates which did, in fact, focus on the future.
4
Sad that so many will see this as an elitist attack on Authentic American Culture.
7
I am happy to see that the term "enslaved" is used, not like in many books, not too long ago, in which "slave" is used like it was a condition or a profession, or a nationality...Every time I remember of the sin of slavery I ask for forgiveness in case there is a God or karma...Only man can be so brutal and criminal..
19
@Julius Caesar
Actually, there is a huge fight on what to call it going on now inAmerica
PS. If you are really from Rome, then remember, the Romans made slaves of everyone they met (my ancestors and most of Europe included)
4
@sjs No, I am not from Rome, it is just a joke. I used to feel that my family was largely free of the sin of enslaving, because I was born on Country with no plantation economy, largely a cowboy Country in South America. Some years a go I read a book that mentioned one of my ancestors 4 or 5 generations back in Brazil, and I discovered that he had enslaved people in his holdings.. I also discovered via genetics that I have 1% percent native indigenous blood and 0.4 African blood. Yes, the Romans enslaved people, but the evilness of the skin color factor as a tool to make that condition perpetual is remarkable. The Romans also mixed with the populations in Europe and other regions and shared their knowledge with them.
1
My great grandmother was a Monroe but I never researched the ancestry connection until recently. I am white, with ancestral roots back to a ship that sailed to the colonies in 1636. This research into the African families of slave owner James Monroe reshapes everything I thought about my ancestors. By the way I am also related to the Browns of Rhode Island, many of whom were involved in the slave trade. What a transformative journey for a liberal Democrat from a western state. I feel, have compelled to do more than research ancestry.
22
@Kathy
Also, the history of Oregon.
I was born in North Carolina and lived there until age 18,
when I left for college in Massachusetts. I was really surprised to learn this about Oregon (paste from wikipedia):
Statehood
"In December 1844, Oregon passed its Black Exclusion Law, which prohibited African Americans from entering the territory while simultaneously prohibiting slavery. Slave owners who brought their slaves with them were given three years before they were forced to free them. Any African Americans in the region after the law was passed were forced to leave, and those who did not comply were arrested and beaten. They received no less than twenty and no more than thirty-nine stripes across their bare back. If they still did not leave, this process could be repeated every six months.[70] Slavery played a major part in Oregon's history and even influenced its path to statehood. The territory's request for statehood was delayed several times, as members of Congress argued among themselves whether the territory should be admitted as a "free" or "slave" state. Eventually politicians from the south agreed to allow Oregon to enter as a "free" state, in exchange for opening slavery to the southwest United States.[71]"
6
Johns Hopkins was a Quaker. When the Quakers opposed slavery they didn’t just oppose it in the abstract but they divested of their slavery holdings. Hopkins father did so when he was a young boy.
So Monroe had a choice an example to go by, he could have let his slaves go, all at once or gradually. Instead he kept them and sold a few. His anti-slavery stance had limits. He was a hypocrite.
26
Having lived In the South 50 years ago, I needed the picture to clarify what was meant by a “tiny white church.” I realize that a capital letter would change the meaning of white, but i admit I read it the wrong way the first time ‘round.
It was so moving to read of the growing acknowledgment of the Monroe family and their part in history. I am fascinated by this sort of research.
9
This article’s title, which uses the term “enslaved” (forced into slavery) is peculiar and misleading.
James Monroe did not walk down the street, run into a group of black people and then enslave them (force them to become slaves).
The blacks owned by Monroe and other Americans (and Brits et. al) were actually enslaved in Africa, frequently by black Africans of other tribes, who captured them, sold them to slavers (people who traded in slaves), who then transported them to America and elsewhere to be sold as property.
This is in no way meant to justify Monroe’s and others’ ownership of slaves. However, it is important to note that the historical record clearly shows that black Africans were not just victims of slavery but some were its perpetrators and preyed upon their fellow Africans.
Slavery is not just the story of what whites did to blacks, but what blacks did to blacks. This information may be shocking and distasteful to some, but it is definitely part of the documented history of slavery.
32
@Mon Ray
First, importing slaves from Africa ended in 1808. Monroe's slaves were probably born in this country and perhaps descendants of generations of slaves.
Our country, not Africa, chose to keep their descendants forever in slavery.
Second, he didn't have to go down the street to get slaves - he just had to step out the door of the plantation where he was born.
Third, our country, not Africa, chose to include slavery with the ideal of "freedom."
This is our legacy that we are still discovering.
Faulkner, who was from the south, said it best: "the past is never dead - it isn't even past."
14
@Mon Ray It does not matter if there were black and white people involved in enslaving people, it was an obscene crime and the victims were not "slaves", were "enslaved" people. There are no "slaves"...They were kidnapped human beings, terminology matters.
3
@Mon Ray I agree wholeheartedly about the need to learn more about the history of slavery in Africa and wish it was taught in US high schools. I wonder how many US high school graduates are aware that warring African tribes enslaved their enemies rather than murder them? Keeping slaves as your own was dangerous, so selling them abroad was often the best option from their viewpoint. It is sick to think about today. But, that was the way of the world from early civilization. Thank goodness most corners of the world have evolved from that mentality.
1
History is always rewritten to shape comfortable present day myths.
Our America was born by mostly ambitious, uneducated pioneers who wanted a new life in the new world.
These pioneers were not restrained by decency or today’s human rights. They murdered native Americans and enslaved African natives if they could afford the high purchase price.
Our founding fathers and presidents owned slaves, usually their most valuable property.
We will finally live down our ugly history by facing up to the truth and how it has affected our present day values.
Mythical heroes aren’t necessary to maintain a modern country. The truth will suffice as a more healthy way to live!
25
@Michael Kittle
Uneducated? Excuse me, but CT, MA, and RI had the highest literary rate in the WORLD. In 1690, 90% of the men and 60% of the women could write their names and books were list in just about every will or household inventory. No place in New England could become a town without have a school. It was required.
8
It never fails; talk of slavery and its ancestors make some people commenting apoplectic: "Why are we 'still' talking about it..." "Revising history..."
Funny how the same people seldom write in complaining about America's efforts to still track down Nazi war criminals. Why is this? When it comes to our own odious history; me mustn't "go there."
18
I was so encouraged by this article as I am a 39 year old, historian by career looking for more information of my ancestors who were enslaved in VA, MS, and TX. The main point of this article is inclusivity and agency. For so long and to some extent U.S. History textbooks have failed to give voice to those that were oppressed. Thank God for the WPA Oral History project on Slave Narratives in the 1930s that has helped preserve some aspects of the past. However, I am so grateful for this article and whenever I am teaching my U.S. History survey course to college freshmen and we get to the part about James Monroe, I will have something else to share on how the past is still relevant and influences our present and future.
35
@TisTrue
You might start teaching about slavery in the Americas a bit earlier than Monroe. Actually, the system of importing West Africans as slaves was started by Columbus' son in the 1490s, who found that the Caribbean natives made lousy workers - just sat down and died - but imported Africans actually worked. And Columbus thought that was a great idea. Read the original documents from that time. They're available in translation from contemporary Spanish observers.
1
@TisTrue
God bless you and yes the truth Does set us free.
What a moving story. Thank you for sharing this unknown history of the African-American Monroe families/Highland descendants. Their resilience is so remarkable.
25
What may have happened over two hundred years ago is irrelevant.
11
@No
It's part of US history, and it makes sense to always want to learn more about our past. We are a great experiment in democracy, and should always be striving to make progress towards being better than we are. That includes learning more about who we were.
70
@No
"The past is never dead. It's not even past. " William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun
13
@No
History is more important than Mathematics or Science. To be aware of our history is to understand who we are, where we came from. It's what makes us a SOCIETY, verses a mass of self-absorbed individuals.
I sometimes think of humanity as a single being. We are no longer in our infancy, be we have not matured all that much. Can you imagine waking up some morning, 18 years old, and having no idea of your past, what made you the way you are now?
10
How about DNA testing to see if there are deeper connections to President Monroe, his family, and the descendants of his former slaves?
29
@Shann What is really the point of that? Unless the individuals would like to know their ancestry. Slavery ended here 150 years ago, It's part of our history, not a good part for sure, but it's over. Now why don't we concern ourselves with people who are still holding slaves.
2
@Shann
When most of my white European American kin found out about their black African American kinfolks like me and mine from an age before DNA testing they were shocked and not very happy knowing the truth. DNA testing has not changed most of their minds.
4
@jacrane
If it was over, all races in this country would be economically and socially equal.
4
The use of the term “enslaved” (made into slaves) in this article is peculiar and misleading.
Monroe did not walk down the street, run into a group of black people and then enslave them (force them into slavery).
The blacks owned by Monroe and other Americans (and Brits et. al) were enslaved in Africa, often by black Africans of other tribes, who captured them, sold them to slavers (people who traded in slaves), who then transported them to America and elsewhere to be sold.
This is in no way meant to suggest that Monroe’s and others’ ownership of slaves was in any way justifiable. However, it is important to note that the historical record clearly shows that black Africans were not just victims of slavery but some were often its perpetrators and preyed upon their fellow Africans.
23
This fact is often brought up. Why? It doesn’t remove one iota of culpability from those who bought, owned, and kept other humans in bondage. What’s the point? Whether Monroe was an enslaver or slave owner, he still engaged in the evil institution and there is no excusing that.
15
@Mon Ray
While I would agree that "enslave" is generally regarded as a transitive verb applying only to the act of enslavement, past participles are frequently used adjectivally in English. "Enslaved" is frequently and correctly used in just this way to indicate a condition of continuing enslavement. Put another way, the "other persons" on James Monroe's estate became enslaved at birth.
9
@Mon Ray
It really doesn't matter that other African's were involved in another country. What matters to the United States history is that people here were willing to enslave black people for self-serving reasons and fought in a war to continue to keep their slaves.
13
My black African American Georgia and South Carolina ancestors were enslaved by my white European American ancestors with whom they lived and bred.
Until General William Tecumseh Sherman came by with his Union Army.
Whereupon my black Georgia ancestors along with several other families embarked on a symbolic and real exodus to a land they named New Canaan. They did not want to live free anywhere near the land nor the people where they had been held in bondage.
However my black South Carolina ancestors chose to stay. Due to a very peculiar relationship between a white master and my enslaved black great great great grandmother. But for the fact that it was illegal they lived as though they were common law husband and wife along with their kids both before and after emancipation.
Despite my genetic and paper documented white European, black African, brown Native and yellow Asian heritage I am all and only black African in America. While I do not run from nor shun that description and designation of who I am when asked I always proclaim my race as human and my national origin as Earth.
143
@Blackmamba
My free-person of color ancestors lived in South Carolina and Virginia before and during the American Revolution. And they fought on the side of the rebels. So did my white ancestors who also lived in Georgia.
During the Civil War my white ancestors in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia fought for the Confederacy.
And so did one of my free-person of color ancestors. Until he was captured in battle. In return for his release from a Union POW camp he had to renounce the Confederacy and agree to join the Union Army. He did so and after the Civil War was a Buffalo Soldier before returning home.
4
@Blackmamba
The conseual white man/black woman pairing was very common in colonial America and not always master/slave, many times it was indentured/poor white man and enslaved black woman, both Morgan Freeman and Muhammad Ali have this in their ancestory, as do many other African Americans.Then again the whole white men raping black women gets more eyeballs
1
I wish you would write a book, either a straight history or historical fiction based on your family. I would buy it a minute.
2
Persons who were enslaved by Monroe should certainly be able to collect damages from him but I doubt that anyone is still alive.
12
@Richard Winchester If my grandfather stole your grandfather's car, would you accept this argument as to why I would not return it to you?
4
@Richard Winchester
Just so I'm clear, Monroe's descendants who clearly profited from his enslavement of humans SHOULD get to retain the property, wealth, prestige, etc. that slavery gave to their ancestors.
However, those descendants whose families were brutalized, killed, raped, and denied basic human rights should just get over it because it didn't happen to them personally.
You are CLEARLY missing the vital point that the damage caused by American Slavery did not END in 1865. There was never an attempt to right the wrong of 246 years of slavery. Instead, new tricks ("Jim Crow laws, segregation, sharecropping, the KKK, lynching, etc.) were designed to maintain white supremacy in this country. Please reflect on the fact that it was nearly 100 years AFTER slavery, that the U.S. Government decided that civil rights laws were needed in our nation to protect the disenfranchised.
The damage done by slavery did not end when the last enslaved person died.
I’m reading this from a holiday rental apartment in Charlottesville, Virginia.
It’s a “guest house” behind a house in an old wealthy neighborhood.
Makes you wonder: guest house? Or old slave/servant quarters?
Could be either, but: how much of our past is covered over?
15
one takeaway from the article is there is still opportunity to go out and research for yourself... if you want to spend the time...
This is a really great story and needs to be told. We have never fully come to terms with slavery and the full story has not been told. We need to hear not only about their suffering but also about their contributions both during and after slavery, only then will the history of America be complete.
49
Glad to see that the entire history of these places is being acknowledged, talked about and presented. "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana.
We are repeating it by treating anyone less than anyone else.
33
The story of how slavery is embedded into our history is finally unfolding in such precious details. White First Families pretended not to have slave relatives are now openly explaining to the world their peculiar situation. The Jeffersons have a cemetery at Monticello and now both sides of the family can make their rightful claim to being descendants of a founding father. Will President Monroe have his history revealed like on a PBS show about secrets on a family tree like Dr. Skip Gates has done for Hollywood celebrities?
18
What an fascinating family history adventure! I hope NYT follows up on the research and reconnections.
19
I just read The Origins of the Modern World. In the 21st century most people agree that slavery is a corrupt moral institution. Yet, this institution existed for thousands of years before the discovery of America. Slavery helped make the US the wealthy country it is today. To criticize the founding fathers for owning slaves by 21st century standards is unjust. They were practicing the behaviors of their time. How many black Americans would trade their lives for a life in Africa?
The aristocracy of the Middle Ages practiced what we now consider morally corrupt behavior by enslaving the peasants. Today how corrupt is it that a very small percentage of the world’s population holds most of the world’s’ wealth?
American’s should be less self centered and consider a global view of the world. We need to concentrate more on the moral failure of our time.
22
@Paul,
While slavery was commonly practiced and existed long before the founding of the colonies in North America, trying to bury or excuse the excesses of the history of that practice in THIS NATION is inexcusable. We must own our history, come to terms with the choices we made and teach the true record of both the abuses and the economic benefits that arose from the labor of those enslaved.
It is not necessarily a condemnation of those who came before to teach the history correctly. We are supposed to be an ethical, moral society. This means accepting our history and pushing back against the white nationalist racism we see attempting to bring back unscientific divisions along racial lines.
198
@Paul The problem is the end of slavery didn't bring equality. Slavery helped white Americans build wealth -- but it was built on the backs of black slaves who never were compensated for that work. Slave owners were given reparations equal to thousands in today's money for each freed slave -- but what about those freedmen who had to build a life from nothing in a hostile country.
We cannot say all's well that ends well. We are not at the end. Sharecropping, Jim Crow, separate but equal, bussing -- these are all remnants of our slave history that lasted well into the last century. The ramifications still can be felt today in our systems and unconscious biases.
It's also worth noting how despicable your question is about trading a life here for a life in Africa. Arguably Africa's best and brightest were ripped from their communities and sold for the benefit of white Europeans. So while the West was colonizing and industrializing, Africa was unable to do the same. I'd argue that the political and social ramifications still are felt today, and that the NGO culture there is a weak reckoning by white Christians to assuage deep-seeded guilt about the damage done -- even though NGOs are shown to do more harm than good in the region.
I won't assert that all slave owners were "bad" people. To your point, they were living within social norms of the time. But we cannot pretend as though the historical, cultural and physical ramifications of slavery no longer exist.
41
“How many black Americans would trade their lives for a life in Africa”
Your question is totally irrelevant. Do other people’s get that same level of questioning? That has nothing to do with the treatment of human beings in this country or the impact later to come through reconstruction, Jim Crow and segregation, which lasted through the late 1960s. If Africa was a SuperPower 100 years later would it make slavery any less/more acceptable?
What is so hard about a conversation about our history? We have no problem discussing revolutionary war history or civil war re-enactments? The history of the Puritans and Jamestown? Slavery and all its moral deprivations happened and had a real impact on the nation.
40
This is the best story I've ever heard. Having the former slaves become a large part of the plantation is better than having the plantation at all! There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to have large scale implications in the founding of this country by slavery it is backwards and antagonistic to the idea of America.
3
@Willy
I understand your first sentence but not the rest of your comment - and wish I could, especially this, "it is backwards and antagonistic to the idea of America."
I am a Jew. Two of my grandchildren are members of the Wampanoag tribe of Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard. They have a Dutch family name because, I'm told, the Wampanoag intermarried with escaped slaves from the Dutch East Indies. I am expecting a great grandchild whose mother is Laotion. I am proud that my family is mingled with theirs. Others of my great grandchildren have Irish and Italian ancestors. That my family is mingled with theirs is a matter of pride, as well. That, our connections to Irish and Italian familes as a source of pride, just occurred to me because the mixing of white and black blood - and there is no difference there, is there? The differences that have been the source of so much misery and injustice are entirely visual, aren't they? Skin color is among the first thing the eye sees. And it is seen as only one part of a whole that includes gender, hair color, height, weight, clothing. It isn't what you're looking at; it's what its meaning is for you.
This has been a free, wandering, personal train of thought that has changed, a little, the way I see what I'm looking at.
L&B&L
1
For more of the history of plantation life from the slave experience, I would highly recommend a visit to the Whitney Plantation near the small town of Hahnville, LA. It tells the story of the slaves of a sugar plantation. Those who were "sold down the river", knew their lives would be short and miserable. It was a very eye opening experience and heartbreaking. Just a short drive from New Orleans and well worth it. Wear good walking shoes and a hat.
19
I can’t help but wonder whether DNA analysis might prove that some of the slaves’ descendants are actually related by blood to James Monroe?
16
I am always in favor of the truth coming out.
14
23andme? Ancestry.com? How about some free DNA relatives testing? James Monroe may live on in more than his political accomplishments and his writings.
"History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us." - James Baldwin
27
I have to admit that my initial reaction to the headline of this article was that it belonged in the human interest section, not the front page.
I was wrong.
We as a country need well-balanced essays, rooted in fact, about the realities of our country's history. The reality of our revolutionary leaders is that many of them believe in both human liberty and in the right of the former Europeans to enslave Africans for their economic benefit.
American slavery was the end result of centuries of how tribes and "nations" treated conquered people. It was and remains morally repugnant.
The civil war and the continuing aftermath of Jim Crow were direct outcomes of slavery. This needs to be taught in all school systems; the Texas history text controversy a few years ago calling slaves "field workers only exemplifies this need.
That doesn't mean that all Americans do not owe a debt to those founding fathers. Ironically, so do the descendants of slaves. The liberties enshrined in our foundational documents provides everyone with more individual liberty and opportunity than nearly anywhere else in the world today. Compare life in the US to anywhere in Africa today.
Out country has the most diverse population living in relative harmony of any nation on earth. Our core values must include the intellectual honesty to acknowledge that even brilliant and courageous men can be complicit with evil.
96
@TDurk I think most of your post is spot on. I'd challenge you, though, to think about the current state of political and social affairs in Africa as part of the fallout of slavery that you mentioned in your paragraph about Jim Crow and the Civil War.
When millions of young men and women -- arguably the best and brightest -- are ripped from their communities, how can those communities grow and advance? The physical and emotional labor they gave to the West for free would have been spent in their own homes had we not stolen it.
Your last sentence really resonates, and I think that's why we struggle so badly with an open, honest dialogue about slavery and race. Not all slave owners were evil or bad -- but the consequences of their complicity continue to impact black people across the globe.
8
Wonderful perspective! On the one hand, the ebb and flow of human evolution/revolution requires compromise in certain battles in order to cause systemic change. At the end of the day, however, the Southern Founders could not sustain their wealth without slaves working their plantations and the collective American society, particularly the South, created a convenient fictional narrative to relieve them of guilt. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Homo sapiens, when faced with a choice, will place personal interest over morality. And they will find many convenient stories to assuage their sub-conscious feelings of guilt.
74
I don’t know that a tax funded police force beating and murdering black people with impunity is considered relative harmony. Black Americans owing a debt to the founders ??? Imagine that. What about the natives that were basically eradicated ? Do they owe a debt too ? Your comments are insensitive and trivialize the experience of peoples that have been systematically victimized by this country. Why is the current state of Africa always the go to retort anytime American slavery is discussed ? Almost as if to say “ you should be grateful it happened, you could be living in the perils of Africa”. Do we not know about the Berlin Conference and the subsequent carving out and plundering of the entire continent ?! America the beautiful is a pipe dream. The comparison of our financial prosperity, upstanding morality, and peaceful existence to anywhere else in the world just serves as evidence of the level of DELUSION and DENIAL most Americans operate on. How many people have we killed, nations have we destabilized and exploited, political movements we’ve squandered ( here and abroad) for all this capital and relative harmony ?
12
What an uplifting story. I am grateful for the intellectual curiosity exhibited by Ms. Burnett and Violette. I was touched by the humanity expressed by Ms. Burnett when she told the story of Garrett Sanders reaching freedom from slavery.
I am a white child of the south. They integrated my high school in the 11th grade and my eyes were opened. I realized the promise of "separate but equal" was a monumental lie. It shaped my thinking throughout life.
I knew that if I came face to face with my creator, I could not forgive him for the suffering and pain he inflicted on people he made black at birth. My contempt would prohibit me from thanking him for making me white.
33
A lot of comments focus on whether or not this new focus on the lives and descendants of slaves is overly pc, or an act to bring down our founding fathers. To me, it is actually expanding our knowledge of the times - the awful reality of slavery, the simultaneous efforts to end slavery, and all the contradictions of both. It also reveals the lives and history of the slaves themselves. I think it’s been so hard to study the lives of individual slaves because their names were changed, their families were broken up, and there was little documentation about them. They are forever nameless, which is sad because they were humans with feelings and dreams. But at least now because of the revised tours in Monticello, Monroe’s estate and other plantation home tours, we have the opportunity to learn a more about how these people actually lived day to day. And the coming together of the estate managers and tour guides with Monroe’s descendants is a beautiful and rare collaboration.
47
I highly recommend this book: “Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation,” by Fannie Kemble, the famous British actress who unwittingly married a major Georgia slaveholder, Pierce Butler. Kemble was strongly anti-slavery and insisted on leaving Philadelphia to go to St. Simons Island, which Butler owned, to see for herself what slavery was like. Long story short: she did not like what she saw.
28
@Luann Nelson "The Children of Pride" is the collection of hundreds of letters of a Southern family at the time of the Civil war, edited by Robert Manson Myers. Some 1400 pages of amazing history. I highly recommend it.
4
@Luann Nelson
Great book.
PS. They were divorced
2
What I got out of this is admiration for Monroe, more than just saying "of course he was one of the slaveowning Founders." Although he could not live up to his abolitionist ideals, at least he did believe, in principle, that "all men are created equal" applied to slaves. He did not use his office to get rich. And when he sold the slaves, he took care to respect their families and place the three families together. I feel that learning more about the Founding Fathers's attitudes to "their" slaves sheds light on their documents.
14
A wonderful contribution which adds more knowledge to what we already know about one of the great men who help found this country. The white men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution gave the world the greatest system of government known to date. Even more important, within the Declaration of Independence, they told the world that a person's rights are inalienable. A powerful threat to the rule of monarchs everywhere. We can only glean from Monroe's writings how he balanced his beliefs about slavery with man's rights. My fear is that in today's world of feelings trumping facts and flawed victimhood trumping another's rights, that this addition to history will become a rallying cry for socialism and that foul thing called "reparations".
8
@ricocatx
Maybe for a fun exercise, try reading it again without paying any attention to Monroe.
5
@ricocatx
"that foul thing called 'reparations''?
How abut that foul thing called "slavery"?
Please explain your rights and how they would be affected by that thing called socialism?
2
@ricocatx
How self-satisfying it must be to be white, Texan, and able to so glibly slide over the inequities of history, the sufferings of other people, and to revel in the sewer that is today’s rabid, political Right by interjecting “socialism” and “reparations” as the means to dismiss a grave injustice, and to celebrate the glories of 18th Century men (though noble and wise) who convinced themselves of the immoral duality of proclaiming themselves free of the dominion of kings while they crowned themselves as absolute life-and-death monarchs of the black bodies they owned as their personal property.
Never a thought as to justice or re-balancing history by ignoring the long, hard road from slavery, Jim Crow, enforced indentured servitude, and the current mass incarceration of African-Americans. What we get instead are the splendors of white greatness and the continued complaints that the descendants of enslaved people ‘get over it’, when in fact, 400 years after the first slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, they remain socially and economically captive to the past which, in thinking like this from the Lone Star State, is but one of the many “foul things” that ever seems to curse the air south of the Mason-Dixon line.
2
Excellent article.
There is so much of our unacknowledged history buried in plain sight that is finally getting the attention it has so long merited. I have visited Highland several times although not recently. I was in total ignorance of what had happened to the people who made it function. At least this community damaged as it was by the sale of members to a likely worse slavery in Florida was not as devastated as those who labored for Jefferson and went on the block at his death.
Thank you Mr. Shankman for your citation to the recent Journal of American History for more historical context.
14
This excellent article and the addendum by Andrew Shankman are the reason we study history. To find the truth...not the myth...of who we are and how we came to be. We would do well to protect the study of history in our schools instead of relegating it to a subservient role to Maths and English..or even eliminating it entirely!
24
As a white daughter of the South, I grew up knowing race was complicated. My father, born in the backwoods of Arkansas in 1910, encountered mostly poor people in his hard-scrabble life. He believed that color and character were NOT linked. My mother, from slightly more genteel roots, was a separate but equal racist.
All too often, the “laws” of economics hem people into morally suspect behavior. All too often, the people living cheek by jowl with “others” have very complicated relationships.
Seeking the complexity makes us all better human beings.
19
I visited Mexico City a few years ago and was told that although the Spanish conquistadors were incredibly brutal toward the native population, the Mexican people realize they descend from both groups and they accept the complex reality that entails.
Stories like this give me hope that eventually we Americans can accept both the enslaved and the slave holders as our common ancestors, whether or not our actual ancestors were among them.
19
A highly beneficial program, national in scope, headed by the Smithsonian, academic in mission should be established to uncover and chronicle the family evolution of slaves and freedmen in America. A perfect model is the WPA which did similar work under FDR. Much of our folklore in music, literature and art was preserved and we are richer culturally.
Knowledge should never be feared. Ignorance is the first cousin of sin.
28
It is just one small part of the story "The African American Cultural Action Fund, an initiative led by the National Trust for Historic Preservation..." Back in the 1980s I worked for the National Trust. The public probably thinks about big, fancy houses owned by rich people if they think at all about the Trust. For a whole group of staffers it was about helping poor neighborhoods gaiing control over their housing and to understand their heritage. Reusing rather than tearing down. Helping rural communities and small town Main Streets. This effort, is for me, the soul of the Trust.
14
I believe that Ms. Burch misuses the verb "enslave" when describing President Monroe ownership of slaves (as was current practice at the end of the 18th century in America).
Africans were captured or "enslaved" by fellow Africans on the continent of the same name; then sold to middle men, some of whom were also Africans and others Europeans; and then sold to investors who had them transported to the new world.
James Monroe did not "enslave" any Africans; he bought, employed & sometimes sold slaves.
9
@Richard Huber, Your terminology sounds no less palatable.
11
@Richard Huber Wrong. Did he keep those men and women on his plantation against their will? Yes? Then he enslaved them.
5
@Rob D It's not a question of "palatable"; more like accuracy.
2
This is a very good story but written and read in the 21st century. Yes, those who were wealthy, educated, and owners of large estates in Virginia owned human beings. This was part of the history and society of the time that our so-called "founding fathers" lived. It was a horrible experience for those who were enslaved and owned. Today, we should find out as much as we can and know as much as we can so that we don't ever repeat atrocities such as slavery. Man is the only animal that will enslave others of their species-Monroe, Jefferson and Washington were slaveowners and products of their society.
11
Inspirational and confusing -- ancestors persevering through generations of the wretched hopelessness of slavery, a generation living on Emancipation Day and realizing the dream of living free. Then generations living under Jim Crow, living free but frustrated at their inability to realize the promise of freedom outlined in the Constitution.
Now a third generation, still fighting to vote and hoping their children will live in a land of economic equality.
12
Can anybody recommend a good book on the institution of slavery during the period of our founding fathers? Roots was a blockbuster when I was little, but I never read it because it was too long. Might read it this summer, but if there is something better, please name it. Not just a "bullwhips and raping" but not just another "Gone with the Wind" either.) Also, curious what would have happened to those slaves and their subsequent generations had they not been captured in Africa and brought over.
5
@99percent Note that another reader suggested Fanny Kemble's Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 earlier. Here's a link to Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Residence-Georgian-Plantation-1838-1839-Thrasher/dp/0820307076/ref=asc_df_0820307076/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312087807240&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15619985343123957889&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028727&hvtargid=pla-517965140364&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316180119&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312087807240&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15619985343123957889&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028727&hvtargid=pla-517965140364
7
@99percent I recommend the book that I am currently reading, entitled: "The American Slave Coast. A History of The Slave-Breeding Industry" by Ned and Constance Sublette. 2016. Lawrence Hill Books.
1
@99percent In 1927, writer Zora Neale Hurston helped capture the story of Cudjo Lewis, an African man who was brought over as a slave on the Clotilda, the last known American slave ship to bring African captives to the U.S. The resulting book, Barracoon, is now available. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YRWK84/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
3
One man’s “ founding father” another man’s worst enemy.
This is what America needs to reconcile if this is every American’s country.
10
@Surya
We humans are complex; our individual and collective histories reveal multiple perspectives and voices, all of which must be included in uncovering the truth. “E pluribus unum”- is that spelled correctly?
If the researchers have not explored the Whitney Plantation about 45 minutes from New Orleans they would be happy to see the work that has been done there. Wallace La. is the location and for those interested in what life was really like for slaves and slave owners this would be worthwhile.
6
Would it not be more accurate to say "Monroe purchased slaves" rather than "Monroe enslaved people"? They were already enslaved, no? And apparently, "enslaved people" seems to be preferable to "slaves", though I am not sure I see a difference.
5
@sceptic
I think the point is semantic, as was "People with AIDS" versus "AIDS victims," or "Person with diabetes" versus "Diabetic." The personhood comes first, not the condition. It might seem overly PC, but language does matter and forms an understanding.
7
@sceptic "Enslaved people" conveys the sense that these were PEOPLE, like you and me - not just some lower type of being called "slaves."
The child of an enslaved woman was enslaved from birth, generation after generation. Considering only those brought from Africa "enslaved" comes nowhere near expressing the pervasiveness and magnitude of slavery.
4
"Enslaved" is an adjective that describes a person. "Slave" is a noun that can make it harder for some to remember that there was an individual, unique, irreplaceable, complex human being just like each of us who existed under the label "slave."
3
I hope some of my trump supporting friends see this. In their defense of his anti-Muslim policies and rhetoric I have been emailed articles proving that the founding fathers only wanted our country built on Christian/biblical principles. If that’s true how do they square those principles with slavery?
10
@Ernest Ciambarella - Rlease remember that every area of the world practices enslaving humans in the late 1700's. Muslims in North Africa captured, bought and sold European Christian slaves from one end of the Mediterranean to the other! And all North and South American peoples held slaves, with some victorious groups adding human sacrifices on a large scale!
5
@Ernest Ciambarella
They don’t “square those principles with slavery”. This is known as “cognitive dissonance,” the ability to hold two contradictory concepts in one’s mind at the same time.
6
@Ernest Ciambarella Slavery was not a creation of our founding fathers and the US. It existed for thousands of years before our founding among all religions. Yes , there were slaves in the bible.
2
I was struck by the fact that it took more than 150 years for museum staff and Monroe historians to walk those few miles down the road to meet the descendants of the enslaved people who built, labored on and maintained Monroe’s Highland estate. America needs a truth and reconciliation program much like the one Mandela put together after the fall of apartheid in South Africa. Those whose ancestors profited from buying, owning, and selling people need something positive to do with all that collective shame, and the ancestors of those who had their freedom, agency, and even humanity ripped from them when they were sold into slavery need something positive to do with that collective pain, anger and shame as well. It’s time to stop hiding behind false narratives like “the Lost Cause”, and to squarely face our collective painful history dead on.
25
@Ann Lenhardt
Wouldn't it be more worthwhile to apply some of that reconciliation towards the plight of the indigenous Americans that we have for some silly reasons called 'Indians'?
1
@Ann Lenhardt
like they care?!
Re-reading my recent message, I just had another thought.
Isn't it likely that Monticello, Florida was so-named because of the slaves whom Monroe sold there? Or was there some other reason? Does anyone know?
4
A story that needs to be told and is long overdue. (Btw, very happy to see a fellow UNC anthropology PhD featured here, but shouldn’t she be referred to as Dr. Sara Bon-Harper not Ms.?)
14
When you say that Monroe "enslaved" people, it does sound like he went to Africa, kidnapped a few hundred people and kept them as slaves. A real historian would not use that out-of-context term.
7
@Andrew F
I have no idea if any of Monroe's African and American "forced workers" ever tried to escape. If so, and Monroe recaptured them, would you allow us to say he enslaved that person?
As a Virginian, an African American and a descendant of people who lived in Colonial Williamsburg, I am honored to tell my children that our family was connected to the American founding fathers. We appreciate the sacrifices of our enslaved ancestors. But we are happy to be part of America’s social and biological fabric. I cannot forget what my 17-year old said after touring Senegal and Sierra Leone with my church: “Mom, I am so glad we got to visit the land of our ancestors, but thank God they made it to in Virginia.” I cried. But did not have an answer for her.
17
I, too, am a descendant of enslaved people. In fact, I have done a lot of research and I know some of the names of those in my family who were the last generation to be enslaved. With all due respect to your teen, I don’t feel any gratitude that “they made it to Virginia.” instead I feel deep sorrow for that generation of slaves and the ones before, who endured all the suffering that came along with being owned by other people, who viewed and treated them as chattel. When I think of their day to day lives, I tremble. If not for slavery and white supremacy perhaps your ancestors and mine could have immigrated to America like others did.
107
@Charlotte S.
The term “Stockholm syndrome” reverberates in my mind upon reading about your pride in being connected to those who enslaved your ancestors; “brainwashing” also comes to mind.
As much as your child loves Virginia, I hope you explained to her that her ancestors were PEOPLE who were kidnapped, enslaved, raped (Including children), ripped of their culture/ language, forbidden to learn to read, insulted, beaten, and made to work exhaustingly long and brutal hours.
Fortunately, in addition to books, there are outstanding “YouTube” channels which can help both you and your daughter learn about Africa. These are just a few:
Home Team Africa
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12lU5ymIvSpgl8KntDQUQA
Dr. Mumbi Show
https://www.youtube.com/results search_query=+Dr.+Mumbi+Show
Wode Maya
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wode+Maya
Best of Luck
1
Deharr, you do realize that slavery was epidemic in Saharan and West Africa at the time that Europeans stopped by to make their purchases. Frankly, there is no part of the world that does not have a history of near universal slavery in their histories. Today, we live in this sliver of time free of open slavery used to build the pyramids or great wall of China (though we still fight the scourge of hidden slavery). If we blame Europeans for bringing slaves to the Western hemisphere, we must also recognize that the abolishment of slavery was led by Europeans (most notably Britain) that began enforcing it around the world.
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We moved from Manhattan to Ellerslie Farm in Albemarle County in 1950. My parents rented the antebellum mansion for $140 a month and out New York apartment fit into 5 rooms. The rest of the structure stayed empty. Across the creek was a cottage where I met Tom & Elnita Monroe and their 12 year old daughter Ada. A dignified figure of African, white and Monacan Indian heritage, Elnita took care of me, my young sister and infant brother while we lived on the farm, and Ada, when she turned 18, came to live with my family in Charlottesville to take care of my young siblings. Ada and her daughter Jennifer are still friends with our family to this day. Ada’s Family has relatives descended from both Thomas Jefferson’s and James Monroe’s families.
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@Lee Thank you for this personal addition to the story... and your tribute to those who contributed to your family and its history.
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@Lee
Our families are forever bonded with lots of love! Thank you for this memory!
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As we also read a headline to day about the suppression of intellectuals and academics in Turkey, we hope that the work of researchers such as Burnett and Violette can continue, so that we can reach a more authentic account of the nation's beginnings.
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@Boomer And so that we can move toward more justice in the present. I don't have strong convictions about reparations..... but I think that some restorative justice is in order in this country.
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Fascinating article! Nearly 40 years ago I worked for several months as a docent at Ash Lawn, as Highland was then known. Then it became Ash Lawn-Highland. I noted that only Highland now remains. Why Ash Lawn was dropped, I don't know. (I lost all contact with Charlottesville long ago.)
While I was there, I do not remember any concerns about slavery. Just down the road, people knew about Jefferson's slaves. I assume that everybody just took it for granted that Ash Lawn might also have had some slaves. (The peacocks roaming the grounds drew more attention.) Nor do I remember ever seeing a black person among those hundreds of visitors.
Anyway, it is interesting that all these facts are now forth- coming, including Monticello residents. I once had a mother-in-law who had grown up there; her ancestors may well have been slave owners too -- as were my Virginia ancestors.
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What you describe is exactly one aspect of racism- the complete négation of a people. Thank goodness this is now changing so we can struggle with the complexity of the Founding Fathers’ ideals and their personal actions. One thing that struck me in the article was that the researchers started by looking at Florida rather than right around the corner.
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When stating that President Monroe supported abolition this very good article relies on views shaped by outdated scholarship, particularly Glover Moore's 1953 *The Missouri Crisis* and Harvey Ammon's 1990 biography *James Monroe and the Quest for National Identity.* In the last decade or so historians have been looking much more carefully at the centrality of slavery to the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods, and a much stronger work of scholarship is John Craig Hammond's 2019 article in the *Journal of American History* "President, Planter, Politician: James Monroe, The Missouri Crisis, and the Politics of Slavery." Hammond's article shows that Monroe was deeply committed to maintaining and expanding slavery; in no way can be described as an abolitionist either of the immediate or gradual variety.
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Thank you. That is very interesting and I will look up that article.
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We toured Monroe’s home and grounds last summer, we learned about the president as well as the enslaved people who worked there as well as their decedents. Learned so much, looking forward to hearing more as the research continues.
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Question: when the article says Monroes 'enslaved' 250 people in his lifetime, what does this actually mean?
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The slaves were probably the owners' highest value assets. Records were kept.
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@Cathy Clift It means he owned them. And they worked for him.
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I think the article means that he kept people as slaves. I think that is not the most common usage of the word "enslave ", and I found it a little confusing.
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Wonderful story. I too am a big fan of history. It is wonderful to see the historical homes wanting to become all encompassing of their history instead of only telling the history of the white men who lived in the homes. We have whitewashed the Founding Fathers and seeing that they are imperfect does not diminish the work they did for our country; however, it allows us to see them for the flawed human beings they were instead of the one-dimensional Saints some prefer.
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@Valerie Swanson - Can one be a fan of history like a sports fan, watching as the facts uncover themselves? It started to become horrifying for me, necessitating a self evaluation as the truth began to come out. It’s a long and agonizing process. Sometimes you get a handle on it.
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@Valerie Swanson Agreed! What is wonderful is to recognize that, while our country’s founding may have been flawed, the American Ideal it inspired and declared by our school children daily in the Pledge of Allegiance, “One Nation indivisible with Liberty and Justice for ALL” remains an aspirational goal.
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@DJ
It's "... one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I remember being "bothered" by the addition of "under God" in 1954 when I was a third-grader. Until then, I didn't have much sense of Elegant and Inelegant as categories. Of course, the issue is deeper than the flow of a sentence, and today that's what really bothers me about the Pledge.
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The cultural revolutionaries of the left have come for the flag, Betsy Ross, Thomas Jefferson, the 4th of July, the Star Spangled Banner ... now Monroe. When does it end? When all history is purged so as to reflect only the PC narrative?
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@Dr. Reality Come on. How is adding to the known history purging anything? It's something unknown to most of us that's being discovered. That's how all history works.
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@Dr. Reality
It ends when the history is accurate.
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@Dr. Reality History is not being purged. It is being expanded and deepened.
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We need the history of the enslaved to understand the complexity of real life. Madison, Jefferson and Washington were rich men who had the time to devote to government in part because because they owned slaves to make money for them.
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@SAO
Great point! Easy to volunteer when you have workers being paid nothing.
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Went on a trip down into Virginia right after 9/11. Saw Madison's estate, but couldn't find out anything about the Monroe estate then, other than his law office which was closed, from which he practiced law.
Glad to ascertain that they are researching both in VA, and the FL, the Monroe connection, and its African-American connection. Can't believe this hadn't been researched earlier.
I thought it was a private estate then, and thought that perhaps less was known about it, since Monroe was a younger man, generationally, than Washington, Jefferson and Madison were, at that time in history.
It seemed that all four of them condoned slavery, and wonder why they didn't manumit their slaves, at least upon their deaths. Guess it really showed their true intentions.
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@Quandry
Washington did.
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@sjs
Yes, but he stipulated in his will that it would be only after his wife's death.
Let us accept these are flawed human beings, like all of us, but with great ideas and visions. The progress our country has made is slow, and even slower for some, but due to their visions.
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@Quandry
Washington made every attempt possible to free his slaves after his death, but there were problems with this attempt because of partial ownership of his slaves by his wife Martha Custis.
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Interesting article. Slavery is wrong and immoral but that said, different times different sensibilities and concepts of morality. The history should be preserved that all may learn from it.
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@Mike There were many people - indeed organizations - that were strongly anti-slavery at the time. Slavery was acceptable for those who benefitted economically from it.
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@Barbara B There were groups both pro and con. There were groups in Missouri, for example, the Blue Lodges, that supported slavery despite that many group members did not own slaves simply because they thought it was wrong to tell someone else what they could and couldn't do with their "property". Like I said, different times, different standards of morality.
Fascinating! What a story!
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Absolutely wonderful news! Thank you for your continued research and publishing. Uncovering the past and bringing it to the present day in real time and with real people is progress for everyone. Reuniting families who were torn apart by slavery, terrorized by lynchings and considered unequal to whites is a moment in time for all of us who want to expose the truth for what it was and is. Remember Ida B. Wells, along with all the others who stood up and stand up now for Truth and Justice for All.
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What a lovely story...roots, historical perspective and our shared experience in this country, along with all its ugliness, must be told. There is no greater path to understanding and acceptance.
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As a descendant of the early families of South Carolina my .3 percent of blackness comes from a parent in the 1600-1800 time frame.
There’s my one drop. Spit in the cup find some truth,maybe.
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America's Founding Fathers were slave-owners and traffickers in Slavery in the early 1700s. Slavery was an accepted and valued system in our Democracy from the 1600s. No doubt the Monroes of Monroetown, VA, and the Jeffersons of Monticello,FL, and all the issue and descendents of slaves in all the Southern states were related to their slavemasters. Unpalatable truth.
Cousinhood among Black Americans who lived for centuries as slaves before Emancipation Day (Juneteenth, 1865) -- will be discovered and see the light of day in our 21st Century. The family names and first names of African Americans are testimony today of their enslaved past hundreds of years ago by white slave-owners, who declared their independence from England in 1775. Truth.
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We are all connected more than we realize.
Kamala Harris is actually descendent of both of Jamaican slaves and Plantation owners, in addition to Indian.
We focus rightfully on the pain of slavery in the past, but should also focus on the survival and success of the descendants in the present.
People get mixed together, and keep moving forward.
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@Jane
Virtually all African Americans are descended from Plantation owners, their relatives, or their overseers because slaves were used for sex as well as free labor. Hence, the lighter complexions of African Americans compared to Africans.
While many African Americans have some Native American roots, Kamala Harris’s forbears are from India.
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@Jane Maybe the mixing of races will be the future of the world . It is one way to stop the madness of racial bigotry. This "I'm pure and you are not" attitude is what fuels hate.
James Monroe, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the racist presidents who did not own any slaves; it is the same historical truth. There should be no surprises.
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Good story. I am a big fan of historical houses and have visited them for 60 years. Its fascinating to watch them change over the years: adding the hidden histories, correcting the mistakes of earlier restorations (Jefferson's dinning room was not white, it was knock-your-eyes-out neon yellow), finding lost lives, and sometime, literally and figuratively opening closed rooms.
Still, all of these types of stories given the impression that until today, nobody ever talked about slavery at the historical homes and that is just not true. 58 years ago, when I was at Andrew Jackson's home, the guides talked openly about the slaves and some of their graves were on the tour. Same thing in the NE homes. Tours would go the summer or basement kitchen and we would be told that this was where the slaves slept and be told their names (if they were known).
Its an ongoing process. Truth and honesty are always worth striving for.
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Wonder when there will be a push to white out the names of any signers of the Declaration of Independence who were known to be slave owners? Or maybe just go the route of Ramses when he struck the name of Moses from every object and every scroll in Egypt.
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@DC
No, I doubt there would be such a push. These efforts are about finding out the full truth. And the truth is that some who were slaveowners were also men with immense power. This is about including more information, not about hiding information.
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I take it you don’t agree with that? Why?
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@DC
Seems to me that if there's a Pharaoh in this story, it's James Monroe. And if there's a Moses, his descendants are somewhere amongst the people of Monroetown. But in any case, no one's striking out any names, not even Pharaoh's.
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Interesting from a historical standpoint but the application of anachronistic standards to everyone who ever lived is getting to be tedious.
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I see no undue criticism of James Monroe here, but merely the discussion of a historocal truth. And a recognition of the story of the hypocritical views and rhetoric of some of the founders, which was often at odds with what they themselves practiced, is surely a critical part of any discussion of the institution of slavery..
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No one is applying anachronistic standards; we are finally facing a very real and painful history, a history that has been suppressed and manipulated to create a false, feel-good narrative of American history. Perhaps if we better understood this nation's history, we'd wouldn't be in the divided state we're in today. That this was uncovered in Charlottesville--of all places!-- is significant. Your moral relativism about history is telling; wrong is wrong: treating certain groups of people as less than human and ripping apart families was just as wrong then as it is now.
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@Linda Slavery was just as wrong then as it is now, and the contemporary "standards" to which you obliquely refer were by no means universally accepted - otherwise, there would not have been an abolition movement. In addition, basically the only thing said in this context about President Monroe was the conflict, perhaps even hypocrisy of simultaneously supporting abolition and enslaving people. This story is actually about the descendants of the black people and not the white man who enslaved them.
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@Joymars - if that phrase bothers you, think about why (other than labeling it as ‘too woke’). Is it because of the harshness? Because whether it is harsh or not, it is a true statement: a man purchased people and used then as slaves. Thus, he enslaved them. No, he didn’t take the boat to Africa himself to kidnap directly. But the phrase and context is true. Washington enslaved. Madison enslaved. Jefferson enslaved. Calling it a system and nothing more really minimizes their story and pain. Shameful to express such an opinion.
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@JM
Even if you allow these people who insist on semantics to say that Monroe did not “enslave” people but only bought/used/sold slaves, you must point out that any children born to Monroe’s slaves were not considered free. Therefore, Monroe did indeed enslave people!
Please keep posting!
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@JM: Please don’t omit the fact that Africans supplied the majority of these slaves to Portuguese and North African slave traders. It’s not as simple as a ‘white vs. black’ history.
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@Stanley Gomez
Nobody put a gun to any European slave trader's head and made them buy African slaves. The reality is they valued financial gain over compassion and human dignity.
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The article I read before reading this one was about Turkey's suppression of academic study of the Armenian genocide and its treatment of the Kurds. The contrast could not be more stark. In a way, it is a cautionary tale.
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@Michael
In the early part of the 20th century, every parent in America and the Europe would coax their children to eat their dinner by chanting,
“remember the starving Armenians”
Some of us remember.
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This article and the history/news in it is a pure joy to read. Like Rebecca (Arlington, VA), I hope there will be follow-up to this story (and others like it).
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Given that it was within Monroe’s power to free all his slaves whenever he wanted, I think the phrase is perfectly appropriate and far from an “overreach”.
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This article has important educational value, but the phrase “enslaved by Monroe” reads way too “woke.” Slavery was a system in the colonies and the U.S. — a system. One man did not corral people and single-handedly enslave them. Whatever the intended connotations of the phrase, it reads hokey. If the intention of the article is to educate, this phrase overshoots that intention.
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@joymars Surely you are aware that not everyone owned slaves. To have read the article an take that one phrase and parse it's meaning is to denigrate the importance of being the descendants of slaves owned by an early president. He had it within his power to free his slaves, but instead he sold some off to pay his debts, evidence of his conviction that they were his chattel. He may have favored the abolition of the "system" as you refer to slavery, but he didn't want to personally sacrifice his "possessions."
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@joymars
Slavery was indeed a system--a system that enslaved human beings.
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@joymars One man and/or his representatives either inherited people as property or bought them and took them home as if people were things.
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I sincerely hope there will be a follow up to this article. What a fascinating look into the past through this community. Please keep us updated!
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@Rebecca: I could not agree more. A fascinating article which shines a light on our founding history and any progress we are making. We've really got to keep on this story!
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