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Many wealthy members of Congress are descendants of rich slaveholders − new study demonstrates the enduring legacy of slavery (theconversation.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Garibaldee@lemm.ee to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Seems that they only counted slaves from the South. I bet that including New England slave owners would take it from "many" to "most", if not even "almost all".

While not on an industrial scale like in the South, there was still a lot of slavery in the original colonies and their successor states, which played a big part in enabling generational wealth for any family rich enough to buy a slave at the time.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

add in the NYC (i think that was the main hub, wasnt it?) elites who may not have owned significant number of slaves, but built their wealth on the slave trade