Joe Biden's Family Exposed as Slave Owners, Genealogist Report Shows
Biden's ancestors were wealthy white elites who owned slaves in Maryland
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Democrat Joe Biden's ancestors have been exposed as slave owners, a new report from a leading genealogist has found.
Ancestry experts conducted a deep dive investigation into Biden's family history and reportedly found evidence that his paternal colonial ancestors were powerful white elites who owned African-American slaves.
The reported finding is detailed in an adapted excerpt from Politico correspondent Ben Schreckinger’s upcoming book “The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power.”
The evidence was recently discovered by Alexander Bannerman, a top genealogist in West Virginia.
After the 2020 presidential election, Bannerman worked alongside lineage expert Gary Boyd Roberts to put together Biden’s genealogy for the winter 2021 issues of American Ancestors magazine.
Bannerman told Schreckinger that during their research, the pair found that two of Biden’s ancestors on his father’s side enslaved people while living in Maryland.
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Bannerman told Politico that two of Biden's great-great-great-grandfathers were slave owners in the 1800s.
According to the news outlet, the genealogist made the discovery while searching through census records and slave schedules from Maryland.
Here's more from the Politico report:
[Bannerman] pointed to Biden's great-great-great-grandfather, Jesse Robinett, who enslaved two people in Allegany County, Maryland, in the 1800 census. Another 3rd-great-grandfather, Thomas Randle, enslaved a 14-year-old male in the 1st District of Baltimore County, Maryland, in 1850, he said, citing census records and slave schedules, which were separate headcounts of slaves conducted alongside the census in 1850 and 1860.
In 1860, census records show that Randle and his family had moved to Baltimore County's 13th District, Bannerman said, and an 1860 slave schedule for the 13th District again shows Randle enslaving a single man. (The spelling of Randle varies in some records, as is common for that period, and the spelling of Robinette, which is Biden's middle name, has changed over time).
Bannerman noted that he did not include the ancestral findings in his article for the New England Historic Genealogical Society publication, arguing that it is extremely common for Americans with colonial-era roots to have ancestors who were slave owners.
He also made sure to add that Biden's ties to slavery were relatively modest: "Not a lot of ancestors, and not a lot of slaves," he said.
The news may be of particular interest as it relates to Biden since the Scranton, Pa., native has always touted his heritage as the centerpiece of his public persona.
Furthermore, the fact that Biden's ties to slavery, however distant and modest, were not spoken of before now is somewhat surprising, especially in a day and age when other politicians' ancestral slavery connections have come to the forefront, the Hill reported.
Examples include Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and former Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke (TX).
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Politico noted that "the existence of any slave-owning ancestors can present a conundrum to a politician whose goal is generally to instill warm feelings about their personal biography" and perhaps especially for "a white Democrat who must attract overwhelming support from black voters to win a national election."
Conveniently, news of Biden's slave-owning ancestors has only come out after the 2020 election.
Before then, any speculation was summarily shot down by the regular left-wing "fact-checking" websites, including Snopes, USA Today, and Politifact.
Left-wing "fact-checker" Snopes encountered the specific allegations about Thomas Randle and the Robinettes in August 2020, but rated the claim "unproven."
"In the end, Biden's ancestry did not become part of the raging inferno of an election year fight over race and American history," Politico reported.
