I am female. I was born in 1984. I have very pale skin coloring which in generally called 'white'. I was born, raised and still reside in California. Each of my four grandparents' families moved to California from other states in the East, usually called Southern states or the South. My maternal Grandmother's family moved a lot and left Arkansas to settle in California. Her husband was born in Oklahoma but his family was previously from Missouri some generations back. My paternal Grandfather's family moved from Missouri to California (their forefathers having left Maryland to settle in Missouri many many years before). His wife's family was from Oklahoma. Both my parents and my two siblings were all born in California and as three of my four grandparents are deceased it is doubtful my nephew will ever pick up the old Missouri/Oklahoma speech patterns I annoyed my mother with from spending so much time around my paternal grandparents.
I and my siblings have never owned another human as a slave nor is such a practice legal anymore in the country we live in at the time of writing this.
My parents never owned slaves nor did their parents or grandparents or great grandparents.
I suspect that most 'white' people don't know their family's history as far back as the Civil War. If this is true they would have very little knowledge if their ancestors had ever owned slaves or not.
I could make assumptions about strangers ancestry but instead I will use my own real known ancestry via my paternal line as it is the most researched and I feel more connected to it since those ancestors share my last name.
As stated I have never owned slaves, my father has never owned slaves, my paternal grandfather has never owned slaves and his father (my great great grandfather) never owned slaves.
So that's me, my father, my paternal grandfather, my great grandfather and great great grandfather who never owned slaves.
My paternal grandfather, who is deceased, was Maurice Glen Bradford (1926 - 2012) was a son of Glen James and Clara Mae (Foster) Bradford. (Maurice - we pronounced it as 'Morse'.)
Glen James Bradford (1891 - 1974) was the son of James Andrew Bradford (1848 - 1932), my great great grandfather.
James Bradford never, on paper, owned slaves. James was never the legal owner to my knowledge of any slaves. James was a son of Isaac Neely Bradford, Sr. (1805 - 1872), my great great great grandfather. That's five generations from I. N. Bradford to me the author.
Isaac Neely Bradford like his father Adam (1775 - 1849) and his grandfather (Samuel Bradford 1744 or before - 1811/12) before him - owned slaves.
In the 1850 slave census I. N. Bradford owned 13 humans as his personal property. One of which Louis Bradford was bought from the estate of the deceased Samuel Vance (Isaac's father-in-law) at the age of about 6 months with his 30-ish year old mother Hannah. After the law of the land required all slaves to go free, Louis Bradford - note freed slaves picked their own last names and Louis' parents picked a different last name for themselves than he did according to his death certificate - Louis stayed in the same area his former owners lived in and was good friends with the grown children of his former master (I. N. Bradford). Louis himself was quoted as saying that his former owners were good people. And other accounts from slaves born into slavery and raised as slaves did not automatically think well of their masters so it should not be assumed that Louis said these things only because he was born and raised as a slave.
I personally do not approve of slavery. This is because of how I was raised, which factors in that the practice is illegal and has been for many generations now.
Isaac Neely Bradford, Sr. was not just a slave owner. He was a well respected member of his community in Missouri and his father Adam was one of the brothers which Brafordville, Kentucky was named after (the other being Adam's older brother Peter).
Isaac Neely Bradford was a hard working business man and he, also with his close friend Lindsely Coppedge, had a school built and hired the best teachers from back East to teach in it.
Isaac also had a mansion house, but so did many others of his position in those days.
Isaac Neely Bradford was named after his maternal grandfather Isaac Neely who along with his wife was killed and scalped by an unspecified group of Native Americans. Isaac Neely was noted as a redhead in the news clipping about his death. His son was also with Isaac Neeley and his wife at the time and fought back killing one of the Natives and getting away with his life. (Interestingly my father's sister was born with red hair.)
Adam Bradford the father of Isaac Neely Bradford was a settler and he drank too much. He also owned slaves.
Samuel Bradford, Adam's father, was a Private in Squad 6 of Captain William Purnell's Company in the Sinepuxin Battlion of Worcester County Maryland during the Revolutionary War (the American Revolution). He was born roughly between 1730 and 1744 possibly in the colony/state of Maryland. His date of birth and place of birth are unknown. It is not know who his parents may have been either or when his family first came to the New World. Samuel fathered 13 children. Sam is no relation (DNA says so) of Governor William Bradford though his eldest was named William.
John, Deliah, Lida, Comfort and Mary Bradford were all minors and unmarried (under 18 for the girls and under 21 for John) when their father made his will in 1811.
Samuel Bradford died sometime between August 24th 1811 and February 11th 1812. Sam is known to have owned at least one slave and, given that both his son Adam and grandson Isaac owned several slaves, it is not a big stretch to think that Samuel may have owned several as well though I only have proof for one slaved owned by him and it is from a second or more hand account.
It is unlikely that Sam ever saw battle and at one point it was rumored that the group of men he was with were among those that sympathized with the British. If this is true Sam at least stayed with the Colonial side and never to my knowledge sided with the British publicly. However his great grandsons through Isaac joined the Confederates during the Civil War. (Not the grandson through which I am descended as he was too old to fight compared to his half-brothers who did serve).
I've yet to find a Union man in my ancestry.
(Edit: Found a Union man - on my mother's side of the family. Still none on the Bradford side).
Getting back on topic, I am white and the first three earliest known generations of my paternal line owned slaves. If you count the children of slave owners as part owners of their parents' slaves even if they never legally owned any themselves as slave owners then that makes four generations.
That is five generations back from me and six from my nephew who was born earlier this year(he's not even 'white' he's a 1/4 Chinese - culturally he's somewhere in between the two).
My thoughts:
Did my ancestors own slaves?
Yes.
Is slavery wrong?
Yes.
Am I ashamed of my ancestors for owning slaves?
No.
I'm not crazy about Adam Bradford for being a drunk, never going to Church with his wife and kids and being a nut in his older years riding about the countryside on his favorite horse Rachel in his bathrobe while drunk or not so sober and generally being a pain to the point his wife split time living with her kids and not with him.
I am proud of Isaac Neely Bradford for building a school and being a respected man so many people though highly of.
I am proud that Samuel "Sam" Braford (sic) was willing to fight against the British for America's freedom (even if he never fought anyone).
I am not proud nor ashamed of any of these three men for owning slaves. It was wrong of them to do it and nothing much can be done to change what has been done. (I do not have a time machine nor the talent to talk someone into changing their world view so much even if I did have one).
I am not responsible for the actions of people I never met who died centuries before I was born. Their actions do not carry down to me as if they left debts unpaid that I was expected or required to deal with.
I have not as yet found anything to strongly suggests that any children were born between my ancestors and any of their slaves - which I am glad for. Should I find this to be so at some later date either in this line of the family or another line I would be a bit upset but not surprised as such things did happen in those days - they were not right but they did happen.
Most white people back in the day did not own slaves. Less than 10% if I recall correctly owned slaves, my ancestors just happened to be in that minority - most of my ancestors so far have not and did not to the best of my knowledge own slaves - they were too poor or too living in Europe and poor (most likely) to own slaves. I've read that the German when they came over (in the 1700s - 1800s at least) were very against slavery.
This was more venting than anything with a little genealogy mixed in.
