By Julie Zauzmer Weil, Adrian Blanco and Leo Dominguez 1/10/22
From the founding of the United States until long after the Civil War, hundreds of the elected leaders writing the nation’s laws were current or former slaveowners.
More than 1,700 people who served in the U.S. Congress in the 18th, 19th, and even 20th centuries owned human beings at some point in their lives, according to a Washington Post investigation of censuses and other historical records.
Enslavers came from all parts of the political spectrum. The Post’s database includes lawmakers who were members of more than 60 political parties. Federalists, Whigs, Unionists, Populists, Progressives, Prohibitionists, and dozens more: All those parties included slaveholders.
The most common political affiliation among enslavers was the Democratic Party — 606 Democrats in Congress were slaveholders.
While the early Republican Party is associated with abolition, The Post found 481 slaveowners who identified as Republicans at some point in their elected careers.
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