Which member of Congress owned the most slaves?

Believe it or not, it's a difficult question.

*Correction- now we know that at least 1800 members of Congress owned slaves

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12 of the first 18 American presidents owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson owned more than 600 slaves throughout his life.

But people forget just how many members of Congress owned slaves, 1700 of them did…and many of them were from northern states. For the first 30 years of the existence of the United States, more than half of Congress owned slaves.

When Senator Daniel Webster delivered his famous Seventh of March Speech that helped lead to the passing of the Compromise of 1850, THESE 40 of the 106 members of Congress present still owned slaves. Long after slavery was abolished, former slave owners continued to serve in Congress into the 20th century, with the last one holding office in 1922.

But which member of Congress owned the most slaves? Well, we actually don’t know the answer to that question. Researchers, believe it or not, are still trying to figure that out.

#ushistory #slavery #americanhistory