The legacy of slavery is alive and well in the United States, but efforts to trace its exact impact can often be complicated and difficult. One man’s attempts to learn about his own family, including his enslaved ancestors, has unearthed a surprising connection to one of the country’s most prominent political families.
Over 50 years of tracing family history and slavery ties
As detailed by The Washington Post, 66-year-old Charles Holman’s over-50-year mission to uncover his family’s history recently established a connection to the Bush family. After coming across an article about the Foree family of Kentucky, direct ancestors of presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, Holman recognized the Foree name and confirmed that the family had owned several members of the Thomas family, Holman’s ancestors.
Holman, a lawyer, has spent decades tracing his family history. He was inspired to trace his family history by a fifth grade teacher who asked his class to write report on their ancestors’ histories before they came to the United States — a question that a young Holman could not answer at the time — as well as by an encounter as a teenager with Alex Haley as the author was working on his book Roots. Working since then to trace his own family history, Holman’s endeavors have connected him with a variety of Black and white relatives, including descendants of slaveholders who exercised legal ownership of Holman’s own relatives during the 1800s.
Charles Holman had been researching his family tree for decades when he made a stunning discovery: President George H.W. Bush’s ancestors had enslaved his. https://t.co/DMWczPinM4
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 13, 2024
Bushes and others have past ties to slavery
Since learning of their ancestors’ connection, Holman has reached out to several members of the family, including former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush, who serves as a board member for the Council for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He has also contacted their daughter Jenna Bush Hager, an NBC television host, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. So far, no members of the Bush family have responded. The Bush family is reported to have significant ties to slavery. The Foree family from which they are descended are documented as owning over two dozen slaves, per Reuters, and one of the Bush family’s ancestors was involved in nearly a dozen slave trading trips between the United States and the west coast of Africa, according to the Post.
Holman’s discovery of his connection to the Bush family through slavery comes as a variety of powerful people and institutions grapple with their own ties to slavery. Last year, King Charles announced that he was launching an investigation into his family’s connection to slavery after a news article linked the British royal family to the slave trade. In 2022, Harvard University announced it was setting aside $100 million to address racial disparities as a response to the school’s long involvement in slavery and racist practices in its past. Nevertheless, some states such as Florida have sought to downplay slavery and limit teachings about the subject in history classes.
As the United States and other countries continue to deal with the extensive and complicated history of slavery, stories like Holman’s help to fill in the details of the past. Holman’s surprise connection to the Bush family serves as a reminder of how much of the nation’s wealth and power was built on the backs of Black oppression, a bleak legacy that still shapes the nation today.
