Ben Affleck tries to keep a secret

[Tex1001]

Ol' Ben signs up om the PBS show “Finding Your Roots”. They find out that in his family's dim past someone owned slaves. So what does Ben do? He covers the situation up. What did he hope that they would find? That he would be the 4 times great grand nephew of Thomas Jefferson? I think the fact that he was overly sensitive about a negative fact and tried to hush it up says much about the man.
BTW- Mrs Tex has been a genealogy wonk for decades. Early in our marriage she uncovered the following family facts:
1.Her mother's side: My daughters are eligible for Daughters of the Republic of Texas membership.
2.My mother's side: My daughters are eligible for Daughters of the American Revolution membership.
3.My father's side: A great, great, great uncle that rode with the Dalton gang.
I'm proud of the first two/ The third, not so much, but I don't try to cover it up.
I guess the moral here is, Don't do genealogy work unless you are ready to discover a horse thief in the family.
_______________________
I don't have Alzheimer's- My wife had me tested.

 

[arjay]

It is odd that he tried to bury it,most families have a few gems.Ive got a pair Ive reached a dead end on that I suspect my aunt wanted to reveal something about,but it's too late now.

 

[Seraphim]

He merely asked the producer not to air that information in the special. They concentrated on other relatives instead. I imagine such information could cause loss of opportunity in an acting career, or with anyone employed in the limelight, if some future employers were sensitivite to such. He might feel he could have been left out of consideration for some roles. Nothing in the articles I read indicated he was embarrassed. The producers of the show had quite an extensive email conversation about the ethics of leaving the information out of the program. They apparently decided the relative in question was of less interest than others they located. Not a big deal on Affleck's part, IMO.

 

[Roadtrash]

I've been at it for years myself and there are some that started churches and some that were drunks. If you go into it deep enough you'll find slave owners in just about everyone's family tree. If someone tells you there are none they either got here after slavery or they are lying to you.

My ancestors fought for the South in the War of Northern Aggression but they weren't fighting for slavery they were fighting for states rights.

So far I have my tree, all branches, back to the early 1700's and some of it back to the 1200's and a few spots back even further. It's time consuming and takes years to do and some of the people you will never find but it is interesting and fun to do. You don't just learn about your family you learn a lot about history that you will never find in your normal history books. I think everyone should do it.

 

[TTSH]

I'm proud of the first two/ The third, not so much, but I don't try to cover it up. I guess the moral here is, Don't do genealogy work unless you are ready to discover a horse thief in the family.

The request and the elaborate efforts to cover this up by PBS and Skippy Gates, in this situation, are worse than the original sin itself. Sorry, but I wouldn't cross the street to see a phony elite nothing like Ben Affleck.

 

[Acebow]

What our ancestors did isn't anything we need to be proud or ashamed of. Whatever it was, they did it, not me.
I've had black folks with a bad attitude try to give me a hard time because I'm not black. When I care enough to carry on a conversation with that type of person, I always mention that I had ancestors who fought to free the slaves; heck, maybe some of those slaves they helped free were their ancestors. Some get it, some don't. Who cares?
Somewhere back there, I'm a shoestring relation to Captain Kidd. Doesn't make me desirous or qualified to sail a ship. Acebow

 

[Bill_inBouse]

I guess Acebow said it all! My family is from the South, Northern Alabama, Coosa County, fought in the Northern War of Aggression, protecting their home and way of life.
Am I ashamed of them, or feel bad for myself because of them, NOPE not in any way.

 

[Muss Muggins]

Anybody else want to volunteer to have his/her family's past investigated and televised, with the goal being television ratings? Not I . . .

 

[LVSteve]

So some relative in the distant past owned slaves. So what. I don't see the big deal. This stuff (slave owning, raping, murdering, wife beating, swindling, whatever) happened in the PAST. You and I weren't there to make the decisions or stop what was going on.

Does nobody WANT to understand that because it is the perfect example of having no control?

 

[Mule Packer]

My fourth great-grandfather was a pirate who was later hanged by mutineers.

My great-grandfather, who was from Missouri, shot Frank James in the leg while on sentry duty. I guess Missouri went both ways...Union and Confederacy. Great-Grandpa wore the blue, but apparently knew Frank. That event was later documented in some movie that was put out in the late 1930's, I think.

Oh well, I guess we can't choose our family, so we just have to make the best of it. Right? Who knows? Maybe some of them wouldn't be too proud of us either?

 

[badge]

I just do not get this hyper, politically correct insanity. Ok,.. your ancestors owned slaves. Back then it was legal, accepted, and the way society operated. Do I agree it was correct. Certainly not. It isn't your fault. Does anyone remember how the Irish, Chinese, and Italians, not to mention the Jews were treated. Good grief. Get over it. Everyone had it rough but it's NOW. We must move on.

 

[Dennis The B]

I've only watched portions of the entire series. I'm personally put off by Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard professor who had a run-in with a Cambridge police officer, and gained fame far in excess of his station. He comes off as too smarmy and selfrighteous.

In doing research to my family, I finally found members who owned slaves in early-1800's Virginia, probably even further back in time.

Do I have any shame? Not a bit. I didn't own the slaves. I can pick my seat, but I can't pick my ancestors.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

In reading about our family on my mom's side we found a relative, Paddy O'Malley, who was a plantation cracker in the Carolinas in the early 1800s. a cracker being a plantation slave overseer who cracked the whip. I felt nothing one or the other about it. There's enough things to deal with in the present without retroactively being concerned about the past you had nothing to do with.
This thread can lead into dangerous territory and I just had to bite my tongue, or my typing finger, that is, keeping my mouth shut. Be careful, folks.

 

[billwill]

Well just think about it....we all have a female relative that listened to a snake. Geez..bet they don't put that on TV.

 

[Dominus_Lex]

I cannot find fault with Affleck (call it a double standard or hyper PC we all look out for our own), but PBS should have run the show as is (good, bad or whatever) or not at all.

 

[keith44spl]

My grandfather knew Frank James when he was a doorman at a hotel in St. Louis.

Or maybe it was a brothel.......

I jest can't recall right now

.

 

[wbraswell]

My Great-great-great grandfather owned slaves. 41 as I recall. I don't owe anybody an apology for anything. Does my family benefit from the labor of those slaves? Not one bit, during the depression, they were as broke as anyone else. No shame either, it was socially accepted at the time. They did just as anyone else would have in those circumstances. Is there any culture without a history of racism, exploitation, and perhaps genocide? I can't think of any. There are some things today, that are somewhat socially acceptable, that I find repulsive. Don't judge your ancestors with late 20th century morality. It's not fair to them, and you weren't in their shoes.

 

[the ringo kid]

My grandfather knew Frank James when he was a doorman at a hotel in St. Louis.

Or maybe it was a brothel.......

I jest can't recall right now

.

According to Bill O'Reilly,the brothel dude was Wyatt Earp.

 

[the ringo kid]

As far as I know--nobody in my family ever owned any slaves.That said, supposedly we have had one or more members in all the wars since Rogers Rangers days. The Revolutionary War, War of eighteen twelve, various Indian wars, two at the Alamo--one being Robert Evans, War w/Mexico, many in the Civil War--only one as a Yank, a few in WWI and at least one in the "banana wars""several in WWIII,Korea--one in Vietnam.

Am I proud of all of them? hell yes.

Actually goes back farther as most of the family came from Europe. One famed guy being: Bonnie Prince Charlie.

 

[Acebow]

According to Bill O'Reilly,the brothel dude was Wyatt Earp.

I don't mind hearing about our ancestors, whether they were slaveholders, pirates, outlaws, brothel bouncers---or other type of employee---etc. Heck, I even have French ancestry from a soldier who came over during the Revolution with Lafayette, then deserted at the end of the war so he could stay here and marry a little farm girl.

But please, no more mention of Bill O'Reilly; please? Acebow