Democrat hopeful Beto O’Rourke reveals his ancestors were slave owners
DEMOCRATIC presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke revealed on Sunday that he and his wife are both descendants of slave owners.
The former Texas congressman said he had made the discovery after coming into possession of some old family records.
“I was recently given documents showing that both Amy and I are descended from people who owned slaves,” he wrote in a post on blogging site .
“Along with other possessions listed in their property log were two human beings, Rose and Eliza.
"A paternal great-great-great grandfather of mine, Andrew Cowan Jasper, owned these two women in the 1850s.”
O'Rourke is one of 25 candidates currently in the race to face Donald Trump in the US's next presidential election in 2020.
He also said there were records suggesting his maternal great-great-great grandfather, Frederick Williams, "most likely" owned slaves in the 1860s.
"We are not certain that the Frederick Williams who is my ancestor and the Frederick Williams who owned slaves are the same person," wrote O'Rourke.
"But there’s enough circumstantial data to lead me to conclude that it’s likely."
He added that records show his wife Amy "had an ancestor who owned slaves and another who was a member of the Confederate Army."
'WE NEED TO KNOW OUR NATIONAL STORY'
Despite having gained a lot of attention near the start of the race, O'Rourke's campaign has struggled to build momentum, and 's aggregated polling data currently has him in sixth.
O'Rourke continued: “Something that we’ve been thinking about and talking about in town hall meetings — the legacy of slavery in the United States — now has a much more personal connection.
"That those enslaved Americans owned by my ancestors were denied their freedom, denied the ability to amass wealth, denied full civil rights in America after slavery also had long term repercussions for them and their descendants.”
“I benefit from a system that my ancestors built to favor themselves at the expense of others."
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the transportation of enslaved people from West Africa to the Americas.
It arose after European nations began discovering new lands where they could establish colonies and trade routes from which they could profit.
The majority of slaves were transported along the so-called Middle Passage, a triangular trade route between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Europe traders would depart Europe with manufacture goods which could be traded in Africa for kidnapped Africans.
The Africans would then be transported across the Atlantic as slaves.
Once on the American continent, they could be sold or traded for raw materials, which would then be transported back to Europe.
It is estimated that between 1525 and 1866, 12.5 million slaves were shipped to the New World, with 10.7 million surviving the journey.
The trading of slaves was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, with ownership not outlawed fully until 1833.
In the early 1860s, the United States fought a civil war partly over the question of whether slavery should be allowed to continue.
In December 1865, the Thirteenth Amemndment to the US Constitution officially outlawed slavery throughout the country.
O'Rourke has previously expressed support for the payment of reparations for African American descendants of slaves, who still today experience lower incomes, worse health outcomes, and higher rates of incarceration.
He wrote in the post: “We all need to know our own story as it relates to the national story, much as I am learning mine.
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";It is only then, I believe, that we can take the necessary steps to repair the damage done and stop visiting this injustice on the generations that follow ours.”
O'Rourke says that if elected president he would support a bill that would create a commission to study the question of reparations, and begin “an important national conversation on slavery and racial injustice.”
A version of this story originally appeared on .
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