Presence of descendants of America's slave owners in important political roles in this country

Among the US political elite, 5 presidents, two judges of the Supreme Court, 11 governors and legislators had ancestors from among the slave owners.According to the Reuters agency, which conducted a genealogical study, former presidents of the country Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and current chief of staff Joe Biden are direct descendants of slave owners.

All living ex-presidents of the United States, with the exception of Donald Trump, are direct descendants of slave owners.According to him, former US presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and current chief of staff Joe Biden are direct descendants of slave owners.

Also, the direct descendants of the slave owners are at least 100 American legislators, 8% of members of Congress from the Democratic Party and 28% from the Republican. As the agency notes, this group also includes such well-known politicians as the leader of the Republican minority in the upper house of Congress Mitch McConnell, Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (Democrat).

Slavery in the United States was ended by the 16th President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The document, however, due to the resistance of the southern states, did not enter into de facto force until the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865). In December 1865, the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution was adopted, effectively abolishing slavery throughout the country.

On June 19, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed in Texas. He was the last of the Southern Confederacy where this happened. Liberation Day, June 19, is now celebrated annually in 47 of the country's 50 states.

Slavery is still practiced in some countries of the world, of course in modern forms. The International Organization for Migration previously reported to the UN that in 2021, at least 50 million people worldwide lived in modern slavery, of which 28 million were forced laborers and 22 million were forced into marriages.