|
Only about 6% of white southerners owned slaves in the south prior to the Civil War which is part of what made so many poor white non-slave owners fighting to keep slavery around completely ridiculous. The "free" labor slave owners got made it harder for non-slave owners in the American South to make money. It would be like people making minimum wage today fighting a war so that the Kochs, Waltons and Mercers can keep their corporations.
Since slave owners made up such a small portion of Americans in the mid-19th century (1.5% of all Americans in both the North and the South owned slaves) its not a stretch to believe you could be white, have family that was here then and didn't have connection to slave ownership.
Caveats to keep from getting in trouble. No, this does not absolve the US, especially the South, of any culpability. Slavery was never a good thing and bringing people here against their will can never be justified. Reparations are still required.
This is all to say that along with slavery being a crime against humanity it was also a issue of class struggle.
|