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MANY WEALTHY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ARE DESCENDANTS OF RICH SLAVEHOLDERS
− NEW STUDY DEMONSTRATES THE ENDURING LEGACY OF SLAVERY  
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Neil K R Sehgal, University of Pennsylvania and Ashwini Sehgal, Case
Western Reserve University
October 23, 2024
The Conversation
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_ In a new study, we found that legislators who are descendants of
slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress
without slaveholder ancestry. _

A statue of Jefferson Davis, second from left, is on display in
Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill in Washington. A slaveholder, Davis
represented Mississippi in the Senate and House before the American
Civil War., AP Photo/Susan Walsh

 

The legacy of slavery in America
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remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.

Some argue that slavery still contributes to modern economic
inequalities
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Others believe
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its effects have largely faded
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One way to measure the legacy of slavery is to determine whether the
disproportionate riches of slaveholders have been passed down to their
present-day descendants.

Connecting the wealth of a slaveholder in the 1860s to today’s
economic conditions is not easy. Doing so requires unearthing data for
a large number of people on slaveholder ancestry, current wealth and
other factors such as age and education.

But in a new study, we tackled this challenge by focusing on one of
the few groups of Americans for whom such information exists: members
of Congress. We found that legislators who are descendants of
slaveholders [[link removed]] are
significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder
ancestry.

How slavery made the South rich

In 1860, one year before the Civil War, the market value of U.S.
slaves
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was larger than that of all American railroads and factories.

At the time of emancipation in 1863, the estimated value of all
enslaved people was roughly US$13 trillion
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lower Mississippi Valley had more millionaires
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all of them slaveholders, than anywhere else in the country.

Some post-Civil War historians have argued
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emancipation permanently devastated slave-owning families.

More recently, however, historians discovered that, while the South
fell behind the North economically immediately following emancipation,
many elite slaveholders recovered financially
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or two generations.

They accomplished this by replacing slavery with sharecropping
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indentured servitude that trapped Black farm workers in debt to white
landowners – and enacting discriminatory Jim Crow laws
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that enforced racial segregation.

100 descendants of slaveholders

Using genealogist-verified historical data
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and financial data from annual congressional disclosures, we examined
members of the 117th Congress
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session from January 2021 to January 2023.

Of its 535 members, 100 were descendants of slaveholders, including
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Legislators whose ancestors were large slaveholders – defined in our
study as owning 16 or more slaves– have a current median net worth
five times larger than their peers whose ancestors were not
slaveholders: $5.6 million vs. $1.1 million. These results remained
largely the same after accounting for age, race and education.

Wealth creates many privileges – the means to start a business or
pursue higher education. And intergenerational wealth transfers
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these advantages to persist across generations.

Because members of Congress are a highly select group, our results may
not apply to all Americans. However, the findings align with other
studies on the transfers of wealth and privilege across generations
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Europe.

Wealth, these studies find, often stays within rich families across
multiple generations. Mechanisms for holding onto wealth include low
estate taxes and access to elite social networks and schools. Easy
entry into powerful jobs and political influence also play a part.

Privilege with power

But members of Congress do not just inherit wealth and advantages.

They shape the lives of all Americans. They decide how to allocate
federal funds, set tax rates and create regulations.

This power is significant. And for those whose families benefited from
slavery, it can perpetuate economic policies
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inequality.

Beyond inherited wealth, the legacy of slavery endures in policies
enacted by those in power – by legislators who may be less likely to
prioritize reforms that challenge the status quo.

COVID-19 relief legislation, for example, helped reduce child poverty
by more than 70%
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while bringing racial inequalities in child poverty to historic lows.
Congress failed to renew the program in 2022, plunging 5 million more
children into poverty
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most of them Black and Latino.

The economic deprivation still experienced by Black Americans is the
flip side of the privilege enjoyed by slaveowners’ descendants. The
median household wealth of white Americans today is six times higher
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than that of Black Americans – $285,000 versus $45,000.

Meanwhile, federal agencies that enforce antidiscrimination laws
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remain underfunded. This limits their ability to address racial
disparities.

[Legislators argue in the chamber of the House of Representatives.]

Legislators in the House of Representatives debate the abolition of
the 1836 gag rule, which prevented discussion of any laws concerning
slavery. MPI/Getty Images
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The path forward

As the enduring economic disparities rooted in slavery become clearer,
a growing number
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of states
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and municipalities
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are weighing some form of practical and financial compensation
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for the descendants of enslaved people.

Yet surveys show that most Americans oppose such reparations
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slavery. Similarly, Congress has debated slavery reparations many
times [[link removed]] but
never passed a bill.

There are, however, other ways to improve opportunities for
historically disadvantaged populations that could gain bipartisan
backing.

A majority of Americans, both conservatives and liberal
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support increased funding for environmental hazard screening, which
assesses the potential impact of a proposed project. They also favor
limits on rent increases, better public school funding and raising
taxes on the wealthy
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These measures would help dismantle the structural barriers that
perpetuate economic disparities. And the role of Congress here is
central.

Members of Congress do not bear personal responsibility for their
ancestors’ actions. But they have an opportunity to address both the
legacies of past injustices and today’s inequalities.

By doing so, they can help create a future where ancestral history
does not determine economic destiny.[The Conversation]

Neil K R Sehgal
[[link removed]], PhD
Student in Computer & Information Science, _University of Pennsylvania
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and Ashwini Sehgal
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Professor, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, _Case Western
Reserve University
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This article is republished from The Conversation
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the original article
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* wealth
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* class
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* race
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* slavery
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* Congress
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* political power
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