Looking for people whose families were involved in slavery

[Gadget]

"Did you have to"

Yeah, he had to.  He ain't Mr enlightenment, you know.

Quite. No Mr empathy either.

[Gadget]

I believe my 4x great/grand uncle must have been involved. I found him on the 1820 census in New York City recorded as having a number of slaves. I tried to investigate further but have not found very much apart from his being involved in trading various products (sugar, tobacco, etc. )  from  Philadelphia to NYC.

I'd be  happy to help you.

[coombs]

Are you going to include the thousands of black lives saved by slavers or just going to jump on the woke bandwagon of slavery is wrong.

Given the choice of having their head hacked off over possibly half an hour by a child hardly old enough to wield the hatchet, slavery was a good option, but then most history books hide the real facts about early slavery
Cheers
Guy

Did you have to Guy, This is a new poster asking for honest opinions on peoples' thoughts on their backgrounds connected to the slave trade.
I would hate the poster to be put off 

Carol

Guy often replies with his psychological reply to opinions, and goes into unnecessary details that is not really relevant.

The OP was just asking for advice and opinions. I cannot find any known ancestors who worked in the slave trade but found a slave owner in the US or Jamaica with a rare French surname once which is a surname in my French Huguenot tree, but whether there is a connection is unknown.

[Erato]

None in my family except one first cousin four times removed who almost certainly was involved.  At the very least, he fought in the Confederate Army - the only person in my tree who did so.  Why he moved from Maine to Alabama in about 1855 is a mystery.  On the English side, I know of no direct involvement; no one was connected in any way to shipping, ship building, banking or cotton weaving.  But, let's face it, a lot of people benefited indirectly in the United States, in Britain and elsewhere.

[susieroe]

GRL, you have asked specifically for British examples. i would take a punt that most British people of the times either didn't have a clue about it, or were very pleased to sign the many petitions which helped the campaign to abolish it - which we British were the first to do, and enforce. I.m thankful we did that, and saved many lives in the end.
However, that point wont get a pass on this project; nor will an examination of the primary sources of slaves, the many Irish slaves sent to the Caribbean, the Cornish slaves captured by the Barbary pirates and even the workhouse children who were literally sold into slavery to work in the mills up North. I know that you have to slant your findings one way only. So do it, in order to get those grades. But might I very respectfully ask, that when you've done that you will keep an open mind and look carefully at all angles of this huge subject?
Good luck with your studies, and I hope that you will return here, not be put off by what some of us have written on this rather sticky subject, as all of us should be allowed to put our point of view freely.

[Guy Etchells]

Are you going to include the thousands of black lives saved by slavers or just going to jump on the woke bandwagon of slavery is wrong.

Given the choice of having their head hacked off over possibly half an hour by a child hardly old enough to wield the hatchet, slavery was a good option, but then most history books hide the real facts about early slavery
Cheers
Guy

Did you have to Guy, This is a new poster asking for honest opinions on peoples' thoughts on their backgrounds connected to the slave trade.
I would hate the poster to be put off 

Carol

Many have asked "Did I have to?"

The answer is yes!

The reason is very very simple, there is much said about slavery and how disgusting the trade was, which on the face of it I am sure we all agree, but when you dig deeper into the history of slavery and African slavery in particular you will understand that life in slavery was actually a good outcome for those early slaves.
In addition you might want to look into the Slavery also existed among Native Americans of both Meso-America and South America and how laws protecting native Americans led to the use of Africans as slaves.

Slavery was not an European invention it was rife worldwide, but many, ignorant of the truth behind the slave trade, seem to think it was mainly to service the cotton fields and the tobacco trade, while that was true there were also other considerations.
To learn about Britain's role in slavery, I would suggest GoldRimmedlamp needs to understand how the slave trade existed at the time and how Britain's slave traders took advantage of situations that existed at the time. That included giving prisoners of wars a value other than being sacrifices to the gods.
Cheers
Guy

[Guy Etchells]

GRL, you have asked specifically for British examples. i would take a punt that most British people of the times either didn't have a clue about it, or were very pleased to sign the many petitions which helped the campaign to abolish it - which we British were the first to do, and enforce. I.m thankful we did that, and saved many lives in the end.
However, that point wont get a pass on this project; nor will an examination of the primary sources of slaves, the many Irish slaves sent to the Caribbean, the Cornish slaves captured by the Barbary pirates and even the workhouse children who were literally sold into slavery to work in the mills up North. I know that you have to slant your findings one way only. So do it, in order to get those grades. But might I very respectfully ask, that when you've done that you will keep an open mind and look carefully at all angles of this huge subject?
Good luck with your studies, and I hope that you will return here, not be put off by what some of us have written on this rather sticky subject, as all of us should be allowed to put our point of view freely.

Sorry but you are simply wrong.
The Spanish protected native Americans long long before Britain even thought about abolishing the slave trade.
Cheers
Guy

[Erato]

"which we British were the first to do"

The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 was hardly the first effort to outlaw slavery.  Slavery was abolished in all of the northern states many years earlier:  Vermont [1777], Pennsylvania [1780], New Hampshire and Massachusetts [1783], Connecticut and Rhode Island [1784], New York [1799] and New Jersey [1804].

[coombs]

My English 4xgreat grandfather was in America from 1775 to 1782 fighting in the American Revolutionary War, not sure if the war had any effect on slavery. He returned to England in 1784 after a time in the Caribbean, and returned to Northern England and wed in 1786.