Given that on one side of my family, it's likely that some have been in country since around 1630...

It's almost certain that there were slaveowners in my past. On the other side of the family, they didn't get here till the middle of the civil war and at least one of them fought for the North.

Somewhere in the mix (My great grandmother on the southern side) they intermarried with the Cherokee.

All of this is interesting, some of it is disturbing, and I literally cannot do a thing about it. My kids know as much of my history as I do, and we're all learning more. We are not who we came from, and those denying that we should even KNOW where we came from don't seem to get that. Or else want to re-establish that some people are not really people, but 3/5ths of a person, or a "godless savage"...

The right question (questions?) is where do we go from here?

One can and must look back, both for the good and the bad. But time appears to only move in one direction. Let's look that way, too.

Great article!