My father’s family came from Germany and Poland just before the end of WWI and not one had ever owned a slave. Heck they were lucky if they owned a hairbrush. They all worked hard with their children as their only farmhands. My grandfather started school in first grade speaking German exclusively and when he was forced to quit at the end of 4th grade to work on the family farm he spoke fluent English, although he had an accent all his days. My grandma was educated all they way though high school and as a one-room-school teacher, her income kept them going through the dust bowl and great depression.
My mother’s family came mostly from Ireland in the 1700′s, they never owned slaves either. If it wouldn’t have been for my great-great grandfather, my great-great-grand mother and her family would still be living in a teepee on the prairie.
