More than 100 US political leaders have ancestors who were slaveholders

At least 100 members of the last sitting Congress are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people, representing at least 8 per cent of Democrats in Congress and 28 per cent of Republicans.

The group includes Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.

President Joe Biden and every living former US president except Donald Trump are direct descendants of slaveholders: Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

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Governors of 11 of the 50 US states in 2022 were descendants of slaveholders, as were two US Supreme Court justices.

The Congressional slaveholding ancestors were among the richest in America before the Civil War; three-quarters were among the richest 10 per cent.

In researching America’s political elite, Reuters found names of more than 700 people enslaved by ancestors of the leaders.

Some 23 per cent of respondents to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said knowing that a candidate’s ancestors enslaved people would make them less likely to vote for that candidate, and white respondents who said they’re aware of having a slaveholding ancestor were more likely than other white people to support paying reparations for slavery.