Census records, genealogical research show forebears of Obama's mother had slaves
By David Nitkin and Harry Merritt
Sun Reporters
Originally published March 2, 2007
WASHINGTON // Many people know that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas.
But an intriguing sliver of his family history has received almost no attention until now:
It appears that forebears of his white mother owned slaves, according to genealogical research and census records.
The records - which had never been addressed publicly by the Illinois senator or his relatives - were first noted in an ancestry report compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner, who works at the Library of Congress and practices genealogy in his spare time.
The report, on Reitwiesner's Web site, carries a disclaimer that it is a "first draft" - one likely to be examined more closely if Obama is nominated.
According to the research, one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky.
The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves.
The Sun retraced much of Reitwiesner's work, using census information available on the Web site ancestry.com and documents retrieved by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, among other sources. The records show that Overall, then 30, owned a 15-year-old black female and a 25-year-old black male, while Mary Duvall, his mother-in-law, owned a 60-year-old black man and a 58-year-old black woman. (Slaves are listed in the 1850 census by owner, age, "sex," and "colour," not by name.)
An Obama spokesman did not dispute the information and said that the senator's ancestors "are representative of America."
"While a relative owned slaves, another fought for the Union in the Civil War," campaign spokesman Bill Burton said last night. "And it is a true measure of progress that the descendant of a slave owner would come to marry a student from Kenya and produce a son who would grow up to be a candidate for president of the United States."
The research traces the Duvalls to Mareen Duvall, a major land owner in Anne Arundel County in the 1600s.
The inventory of his estate in 1694 names 18 slaves, according to a family history published in 1952.
The records could add a new dimension to questions by some who have asked whether Obama - who was raised in East Asia and Hawaii and educated at Columbia and Harvard - is attuned to the struggles of American blacks descended from West African slaves.
"The twist is very interesting," said Ronald Walters, a political scientist who is director of the African-American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, College Park. "It deepens his connection with the experience of slavery, even if it deepens it on a different side of the equation."
Gary Boyd Roberts, a senior research scholar at the New England Historic Genealogical Society who published a book on the family lineage of presidents, said he did not think the slave-holding history was "particularly unusual."
"If you have a white Southern mother, or a mother from the middle states who has ancestry in the South, it doesn't strike me that that should be very surprising," he said.
While the majority of such families did not own slaves, many with some wealth did, Roberts said.
Reitwiesner's research identifies two other presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, as descendants of slave owners.
Three of McCain's great-great-grandfathers in Mississippi owned slaves, including one who owned 52 in 1860.
Two ancestors of Edwards owned one slave each in Georgia in 1860.
It was unclear last night whether Obama was aware of any slave-holding ancestors, but he makes no mention of them in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.
The book contains many approving references to his mother's side of the family. At one point, he writes that his mother "could give voice to the virtues of her midwestern past and offer them up in distilled form."
The memoir, however, comes close to confirming the Overall-Duvall lineage - stopping a generation short.
Census and other records complete the gaps.
In a reference to his American ancestry, Obama writes "while one of my great-great-grandfathers, Christopher Columbus Clark, had been a decorated Union soldier, his wife's mother was rumored to have been a second cousin of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy."
Clark was actually Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, according to Reitwiesner's research and census data available at ancestry.com.
A 1930 census document lists Clark, 84, living in the same El Dorado City, Kan., household as a 12-year-old great-grandson, Stanley A. Dunham.
Dunham was Obama's grandfather.
Clark's wife, Susan, was the daughter of George Washington Overall, the latest known family slave owner.
Reitwiesner, the researcher, declined to be interviewed for this article. "I'll let my Web page [wargs.com] speak for itself," he said in an e-mail.
The Obama report contains a disclaimer that appears on all of Reitwiesner's work: "The following material ... should not be considered either exhaustive or authoritative, but rather as a first draft."
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[ edited by Linda_K on Mar 2, 2007 10:39 AM ]
posted on March 2, 2007 11:29:18 AM
AND, linduh insinuated Obama just couldn't know as much about war as McCain because he hadn't even been born then but what does doofus bring up? ...Obama's ancestors....long dead people who what???? Had something to do with Obama's politics today ???
WOW What a Desperation Stretch !!
LOLOL!!!
Again you prove you just CAN'T enter current day reality.
posted on March 2, 2007 11:37:41 AM
Again the DECEIVER starts being a copy cat. Or maybe it's a parrot. She repeats what I say with her own little 'twist'.
==========
The question is in the TITLE....
He's running for the Presidency. He'll be asked a ton of questions about his position on thousands of issues.
I have no doubt one of them will be to find out IF he's sympathetic to those who believe the US OWES them reparations.
One never knows....he may harbor some GUILT from the actions of his ancestors.
I'm sure someone will ask the question....in the next year and eight months.
posted on March 2, 2007 11:42:36 AM
"""Again the DECEIVER starts being a copy cat. Or maybe it's a parrot. She repeats what I say with her own little 'twist'.
==========
The question is in the TITLE....
He's running for the Presidency. He'll be asked a ton of questions about his position on thousands of issues.
I have no doubt one of them will be to find out IF he's sympathetic to those who believe the US OWES them reparations.
One never knows....he may harbor some QUILT from the actions of his ancestors.
I'm sure someone will ask the question....in the next year and eight months."""
Again...so what ??
Nobody who has a brain CARES!!!There are BIG issues facing this country and I'm sure he'll address those!
And African American "QUILTS" are selling for a lot of money!!!
Why would Obama feeling guilty or not have anything to do with the realities of today ????
posted on March 2, 2007 11:54:38 AM
No, linduh , that's YOUR selective reading....I made more statements then the one about your silly shaky handed typo....having no sense of humor must make you so attractive!!! NOT!
This thread is just another stretch and you know it....great entertainment though ....for Kiara and I
posted on March 2, 2007 11:56:48 AM
"""'posted on March 2, 2007 11:51:45 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prove positive that these fools can't EVER have a normal conversation.
They're rather talk about typos....that's about all they can deal with mentally. tks tsk tsk"""
See, if you had a sense of humor you'd find it funny that you spelled TSK wrong !!!!
posted on March 2, 2007 02:55:27 PM
Could prove difficult trying to determine who should recieve reparations. Considering there were a number of slave owners that were black.
posted on March 2, 2007 03:32:49 PM
Mingo,
LIAR_K's attempts at swiftboating these days is more like ROW BOATING UP A CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE. The cons row the Democrats just keep winning.
posted on March 3, 2007 07:33:12 AM
And the NYT tells us, yes, he was aware his ancestors did own slaves.
Obama Had Slaveowning Kin
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
Published: March 3, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 2 —
Genealogists have uncovered a new ingredient in the melting pot identity of Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who hopes to become the first black president. His white maternal ancestors once owned slaves.
Mr. Obama is the American-born son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya. The genealogists, led by William Addams Reitwiesner, studied the family history of Mr. Obama's mother and determined that Mr. Obama's great-great-great-great grandfather, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves listed in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky.
Mr. Obama's great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Mary Duval, also owned two slaves, the records show.
Mr. Reitwiesner, who works for the Library of Congress, posted the information on his personal Web site a while ago, said a genealogist who worked with him. The Baltimore Sun reported the findings on Friday.
The details emerged the same week that the Rev. Al Sharpton disclosed that his great-grandfather was owned by a relative of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, once a defender of segregation.
Historians said the disclosures highlighted the deep, though often unknown and unacknowledged, imprint of slavery in the lives of present-day Americans.
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said the senator had long known that he was related to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, and that another forebear had fought for the Union in the Civil War. Mr. Burton said the findings showed Mr. Obama's ancestors were "representative of America."
"It is a true measure of progress that the descendant of a slave owner would come to marry a student from Kenya and produce a son who would grow up to be a candidate for president of the United States," Mr. Burton said.
posted on March 3, 2007 07:54:02 AM
Again, linduh, what is the point besides....
"""Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said the senator had long known that he was related to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, and that another forebear had fought for the Union in the Civil War. Mr. Burton said the findings showed Mr. Obama's ancestors were "representative of America."
"It is a true measure of progress that the descendant of a slave owner would come to marry a student from Kenya and produce a son who would grow up to be a candidate for president of the United States," Mr. Burton said."""
posted on March 3, 2007 10:53:36 AM
Linda does have a great point. None of us were around for the "slave" years. No one alive today deserves a penny. PERIOD. It's time to move on.
And as far as the liar's mingopig and bigdopa go. Well I guess their names say it all.
.
.
.
"Unfortunately there are levels of Stupid that just can't be cured!!" The current Demomoron motto.
posted on March 3, 2007 02:10:36 PM
linduh, I knew you couldn't answer a simple question like "what is the point?"...... or "what difference does it make?".....
posted on March 3, 2007 03:59:19 PMNone of us were around for the "slave" years. No one alive today deserves a penny.
Has Obama called for reparations?
Reparations can be an interesting discussion topic, but I fail to see what Obama has to do with it. That his ancestors owned slaves is neither unusual nor in any way telling, except maybe to somebody who knows nothing about his background. Big deal.
My guess is that pretty much anybody of european descent (which Obama is, in part) who thinks he comes from a line of people who NEVER owned a single slave hasn't done a whole lot of family research.
Mingo's right, this is pathetically lame swiftboating at it's worst.
[ edited by profe51 on Mar 3, 2007 03:59 PM ]
Are YOU a Bunghole?