Slavery...

One of the early realizations I had when doing the family genealogy was that the Beard's were slave holders. In fact, given when the Place family was in North Kingston in Rhode Island, it is quite possible they were slave holders too (Slavery pretty much disappeared in New England after the Revolutionary war, but was common in the Rhode Island plantations in the 1600's and 1700's.). In fact, a recent book I finished called "MayFlower" told how many of the Indians were rounded up after the King Phillip wars and sent off as slaves to Bermuda and the Carribean, to get them out of New England.

All of the Beard clan in Pocahontas County, West Virginia fought for the Confederacy.

Pocahontas County was a dividing line for the Civil War. There were two families of McNeels, one named McNeel (Confederate) and one named McNeil (Union), both in the same county.

The division caused by the Civil War and the attitudes of some of the Beards at the time is shown in a meeting of the Oak Grove Church on Sept 2, 1871, where James Henry Moffet Beard tried to remove the minister from the Church for taking the Iron Clad Test Oath, and preaching against rebellion of the civil government. The fact that father (Josiah Beard) was against two sons (James Henry Moffet Beard and Wallace Warwick Beard, who both fought in the Civil War) in this conflict shows the deep divisions of the time.

http://etater.pbwiki.com/Churches%20-%20Oak%20Grove%20A

It has been a difficult thing to come to grips with.

I know my father, who was from West Virginia, was not racist. I was not raised in a racist household. I remember driving through the south when I was young with my family, and stopping at a gas station, and seeing "men" "woman" and "colored". I didn't understand at the time. I remember my mother talking about visiting the south with my father, and how abhorred he was over the racist conditions.

Growing up in the 60's I witnessed the race riots. Visited Washington DC in 1972, saw the rubble from the riots. Witnessed the hate. Learned to fear others who were different. Then going to work near Philadelphia, working with non-whites, a new experience.

As I have grown through my life, I have visited many places, many cultures. Middle Eastern, Asian, European, Australia. I am fortunate to have people from different cultures working for me, as I have come to realize no matter where you go, no matter what the culture, people are people and all have the same fundemental wants and desires.

I am thankful not to have been raised in a household that was racist, and I did not learn to hate when I was young.

So how do I rationalize the slavery and wrongs done by my ancestors? I cannot.

I originally thought, how do I present this information on my web site? So I thought, the only way is to present it as it was recorded, and let people make up their own minds.

For that is who they were. And history is history.