On 2021-06-09 8:18 p.m., jmcquown wrote:
> On 6/8/2021 1:27 PM, Dave Smith wrote:

>> For a lot of Americans with roots going back to the colonial days, the
>> chances are probably higher that an ancestor was subject to a form of
>> slavery than of owning slaves.
>
> You make a good point, Dave.Â* I've mentioned many times my Scottish
> ancestors were captured in battle in Scotland in 1679 and transported
> (sentenced) by the English to plantation owners in Virginia for a term
> of 7 years indentured servitude.Â* They'd have been treated exactly like
> any other slaves until they worked off their "debt".Â* Once in the
> American colonies the plantation owners could work them until they died,
> and lay claim to any children they might produce as their property.Â* We
> got lucky.Â* The captain of the ship died and the man who assumed command
> changed the course and they didn't wind up in Virginia.

My (Scottish) ancestors didn't spend much time in the US. Six times
great grandfather was sea caption the woman he met and married in New
York was also born in Scotland. He was murdered in NY and his wife
remarried and the new husband took her and her son to York (Toronto).
The son fought against the Americans in the War of 1812, but his son
moved back to NY and then to Virginia where he fought for the south and
ended up on Jackson' staff and then on Robert E Lee's staff. I doubt
that he had slaves. I can't imagine him relocating and being able to
afford to buy slaves.