April, I was pleased to see your posting concerning the CALDWELL family and slavery. Sometime ago, I asked a similar question of this group. My research on my own family line had not yielded any SPECIFIC information about slave ownership...but with the large tracts of land they sometimes owned, and living in the areas in which they lived, I surmised that it was PROBABLE they might have owned slaves. Further research did begin to turn up ifnormation which directly indicated they did indeed own slaves.

Interestingly enough, from time to time someone will contact me via email and ask this question. I always reply with honesty and offer to help in anyway I can...but then the people who contact me just drop off the screen so to speak and I do not hear anymore from them.

I am a novice at this research business, so perhaps I do not have enough skill to be of much help to people who are researching their family lines...and truthfully, other than deeds, or wills which mention ownership of slaves, I have no idea the RELATIONSHIP the owner had with their slaves. By that I mean, I do not know if they were cruel, kind, enlightened and seeking a way to end slavery, etc. The personal stories of that relationship is lost to me in this time.

As for acknowledgement of slavery in my own family line...I have no trouble with it except that saddness and shame which I think most of us feel over that period in our history. I cannot speak for "all" people, but I can tell you that in my family I never heard a word of praise, or longing for the institution of slavery. The fact that it was not told to me directly by any family member does NOT necessarily signify refusal to accept our role in it. More than likely, our family was split on the matter...some owning slaves, some not...some politically accepting of the institution of slavery and some not.

One thing involvement with genealogy teaches you is that people pretty much are caught up in their own struggles and moral issues according to their time period. I think of future generations of genealogists and wonder what they will make of our present situation with regard to recent "politics" over Muslims and Iraque?

I hope you will continue your reseach, and trust that this forum can really be a help to you along that line! There are many on this list who are advanced researchers and yet they have tolerated my "novice" status and never hesitated to offer help or point me in a direction I need to go...

Good luck on your continued research and don't hesitate to ask questions or challenge our research!

Barbara