The Living Consequences

The Washington Post has a delightful story this morning about the reactions of older black citizens, particularly those in their 90s, to the possibility that Barack Obama may be elected president on Tuesday.

The article highlights the story of Ruth Worthy, who is 91 years old and grew up in a middle-class household in Boston. The daughter of a doctor, she was the first black to work at the post office in Boston and attended Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts.

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This post addresses the fact that the families of both Barack Obama and John McCain owned slaves. This week, I’ve encountered a number of questions about that slave-owning past and its significance today.

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Barack Obama appeared for an interview on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show on Wednesday night, and I thought the following exchange about the Bradley effect was particularly funny.

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There are polls this week suggesting that McCain may be gaining a bit of ground nationally, and even that the presidential race may be fairly close. This is true, but also misleading, at least in part.

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I said it yesterday, in a slightly different context, and I’ll say it again today.

This election is historic, in that a black candidate is making a serious run for the presidency (and is favored to win, no less) and that should mean something to all of us. This is true, regardless of which presidential candidate you believe can best lead the nation.

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I don’t think it matters which presidential candidate you believe would best lead the country. This story should move us all, and illustrates why this election is truly historic, regardless of who wins (or should win).

Amanda Jones lives in Bastrop County, Texas, and is 109 years old.

She’s also the daughter of a slave, and has just cast an early vote for Barack Obama for president.

“I feel good about voting for him,” Mrs. Jones said.

Her father herded sheep as a slave, and she has now lived long enough to vote for a black candidate for president.

The judicial body of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has issued a landmark anti-slavery ruling in Niger.

The court ruled that Niger failed to enforce its anti-slavery laws with respect to a young woman, Hadijatou Mani, who was sold into slavery there at the age of 12, and awarded her about $19,000 in damages.

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The U.N. General Assembly, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, has approved a resolution calling for the erection of a permanent memorial in New York to commemorate the slave trade and its legacy.

The resolution stresses the importance of raising awareness of the history and “lasting consequences” of the slave trade, and calls on all member nations to develop school curricula and other educational programs to teach “the lessons, history and consequences of slavery and the slave trade.”

Representatives at the debate on the resolution also raised the issue of an apology, called for reparations for slavery and the slave trade, and stated explicitly that the foundation of much of the world’s wealth and poverty lies in the history of slavery.

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Recent news reports have publicized the fact that John McCain’s family owned slaves in the pre-Civil War South. As Douglas Blackmon related on the pages of the Wall Street Journal last Friday, Senator McCain’s great-great-grandfather owned a 2,000-acre plantation in Teoc, Mississippi where about 120 slaves labored in bondage.

Today at the Huffington Post, Abby Ferber explores the parallels between McCain’s story and that of the slave-trading DeWolf family, as chronicled in Traces of the Trade and Inheriting the Trade.

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There are persistent reports that the McCain campaign is focusing on Pennsylvania as the key to a come-from-behind victory on Election Day. In essence, this strategy acknowledges that the senator now has few paths to winning 270 electoral votes, and assumes that the most realistic approach involves winning all of the remaining toss-up states and engineering a surprise victory in Pennsylvania.

This strategy makes sense to me, given my reading of the state-by-state electoral with just under two weeks to go. Here’s why:

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