Descended from Slaves?

[SRP76]

I thought about this the other day, while half-watching some civil rights thing on tv. We had the typical "man on the street" interviews with a bunch of people, and they naturally talked all about how "black people in America have been striving..." and blahblahblah. Predictably, there were about a thousand references to slaves. How everyone supposedly spawned from slaves, and on and on. Got me wondering: how many do you think actually descended from people who were once slaves? I think it's a whole lot lower than the 100% of black people that some people want us to believe. Think: most people can trace their line back to maybe the late 1800s...and find immigration at that point. Many can't even trace back that far, at all. I find it hard to believe that there has never been a black person who immigrated into the United States from somewhere else since 1865. In fact, I'd bet there have been millions. A huge percentage of the black people in the U.S. today would have spawned from them. So, has anyone actually ever done a study? Is there any way to find out the true percentage?

[Philly_SWAT]

I am sure if you googled it you could find some info about it. I would say obviously that it is NOT 100% (for example, Barack Obama is not decended from American slaves) but I suspect that the number is very high. I would not be surprised if the number was 90% or higher.

[Chic Freak]

Who said 100% of African-Americans are descended from slaves? I imagine that they only put people on the news who say, "I am descended from African slaves, and now this same country has a black president!" because it sounds a little more poignant than, "I only moved here last year, but still, yay!" It's just clips to make the news more entertaining, not a survey.

[krakenslayer]

I find it hard to believe that there has never been a black person who immigrated into the United States from somewhere else since 1865. In fact, I'd bet there have been millions. A huge percentage of the black people in the U.S. today would have spawned from them. So, has anyone actually ever done a study? Is there any way to find out the true percentage? In addition to the above points, I'd add that although you are absolutely right in what you say, it's important to remember that between 1865 and now a lot of those non-slave black immigrants and their offspring are likely to have married and interbred with others SOMEWHERE along the line whose ancestors WERE slaves. Therefore their antecedants are still technically descended from slaves. So I think the number of black people descended from slaves in the US is still probably pretty high, but by no means anywhere near 100%.

[Marie]

Not to be argumentative, but I think it needs pointing out that Angles from England were taken as slaves by both the Greeks and Romans, in fact nearly every group have been enslaved at one point or another. M_

[AcesandEights]

Stop right there, SRP76! If not all black people are descended from slaves, then all white people might not feel guilty when race is brought up. As you know, such is verboten!

[Mike70]

Not to be argumentative, but I think it needs pointing out that Angles from England were taken as slaves by both the Greeks and Romans, in fact nearly every group have been enslaved at one point or another. M_ erm, a bit of correction: the angles were not taken from england as slaves by either romans or greeks. the angles orginally came from an area of northern germany that is now called Schleswig-Holstein, which was never a part of the roman empire. the angles, along with the saxons, migrated to england after the romans had left in 410AD. the ancient people of britian, a celtic people known as the "britons", were used as slaves by the romans but to try to connect them to the people in modern britian would be, well sort of ridiculous. the people who inhabit modern britian are a mixture of celtic, roman, german (angles/saxons), viking (from the people who settled the danelaw) and finally norman blood.

[MaximusIncredulous]

I'm a descendant of a wage slave. Does that count?

[Cody]

I really don't see alot of black people coming over to America from Africa after slavery was abolished. The place is really just to poor to afford the trip and expenses. I would say over 90% are descended from slaves. I'm sure when the Haitians came over and made babies with the African American population that lowered the percentage.

[Philly_SWAT]

I'm a descendant of a wage slave. Does that count? We ALL are decendants of wage slave, I'm afraid.

[Marie]

erm, a bit of correction: the angles were not taken from england as slaves by either romans or greeks. the angles orginally came from an area of northern germany that is now called Schleswig-Holstein, which was never a part of the roman empire. the angles, along with the saxons, migrated to england after the romans had left in 410AD. the ancient people of britian, a celtic people known as the "britons", were used as slaves by the romans but to try to connect them to the people in modern britian would be, well sort of ridiculous. the people who inhabit modern britian are a mixture of celtic, roman, german (angles/saxons), viking (from the people who settled the danelaw) and finally norman blood. Nonetheless, Angles, Britons and probably Saxons were slaves of the civilized world of the time. Your little history lesson dosen't change the fact that virtually EVERY race has had a period or two in their history where numbers of them were enslaved. M_

[DubiousComforts]

Nonetheless, Angles, Britons and probably Saxons were slaves of the civilized world of the time. Your little history lesson dosen't change the fact that virtually EVERY race has had a period or two in their history where numbers of them were enslaved. Golly, you'd figure as descendants of slaves and all, we'd actually have a clue by now about how to treat people properly.

[Publius]

I'm sure the vast majority of black Americans are descended from slaves at least in part. Less than 1 percent of non-slave immigrants to the U.S. before 1970 were from Africa. The number has been higher since then, but there are only about 800,000 first-generation African immigrants in the U.S. now.

[Marie]

Golly, you'd figure as descendants of slaves and all, we'd actually have a clue by now about how to treat people properly. You have a higher opinion of people than I do M_

[DubiousComforts]

You have a higher opinion of people than I do Well, why would you want to make slaves out those that you don't hold in high regard?