As some of you know.. I am a very avid Geneaologist. I have done research on my family lines since I was 10 years old.
Recently I have found out new and interesting things... Connections getting closer to proving a Aunt's history that she was the 2nd cousin to the Wright Brothers. Proving that I am the my 11th Great grandfather was Lord Burleigh who was the right hand man to Queen Elizabeth the first...
But tonight I found the skeleton... And I didn't even expect it. I had found a marriage to a Dahmer and had been searching for a connection to tie with the Jeffery Dahmer of old and found proof that he is from a different line... WHAT A RELIEF..
But then tonight I came across one name "John Armfield"... It seemed so plain..
The below is John's house. John had a nickname "John the Slave trader".
The house above is now a symbol of that dark time in our history.
I found alot about him on the internet. here is just one such clip:
From 1828 until the outbreak of the Civil War, the entire city block which today is within walking distance of Old Town Alexandria, was the business office and “slave pen” for a succession of domestic slave trade operators. The first slave trade operating at 1315 Duke Street was established by Isaac Franklin and John Armfield. For the period 1828-1836, theirs was the largest and most prosperous slave trade enterprise in the entire country. During this eight-year period, more than 10,000 enslaved men, women, and children passed through the Alexandria slave pen as an interim stop on their way to an unknown fate in the Deep South. As a result of their fortuitous timing and business skill, Franklin and Armfield made profits of as much as $1 million and $500,000 (in pre-Civil War dollars), respectively, in their slave trading business.
John is my 1st cousin (8 times removed)...
It got me to thinking... In all my research I had never found a slave tax record... IE... my family being Quaker mainly never owned slaves (Oh I have a story of one Quaker who got mad, joined the war got a medal... went home and when asked where his hunting meat was he answered 'there was nothing worth keeping'.) yet now I find one who was worse then them all...
Anyone is capable of anything. Hatred, lust, lying, murder, slander, aldultry, theft...
THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I!
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