WASHINGTON DC (WSAU) – Five out of the last six living US presidents are descended from slaveowners, according to a recent Reuters investigation.
The ancestors of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter were discovered to have owned slaves. On his mother’s side, Obama’s family-owned slaves.
The only former president whose ancestors were not slaveholders was Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States.
Following the end of slavery, Trump’s ancestors emigrated to the US, with his grandpa arriving from Germany in 1885, according to Reuters.
Reuters’ review of census data revealed that in 1850, Biden’s great-great-great grandfather “enslaved a 14-year-old”. According to an 1800 census, Politico discovered that Jesse Robinett, another third great-grandfather, owned slaves in Maryland’s Allegany County.
The investigation also revealed that two current Supreme Court Justices, 11 governors, and 100 members of the 117th Congress are descended from slaveowners.
Meanwhile, Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and James Lankford, as well as Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen, and Maggie Hassan, are among lawmakers whose ancestors were owned as slaves.
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