Kids ask: Did presidents support slavery?

Were there any presidents who supported slavery?

Slavery -- the practice of owning another person as property -- existed in the United States colonies from the late 1500s until 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment to the U.S. constitution, which abolished slavery and indentured servitude.

A profitable business was established in which Africans were captured from the western and central areas of the continent and brought across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean islands and the British colonies in North America to be sold to plantation owners.

George Washington owned a 5,000-acre plantation in Virginia where he grew wheat and tobacco. Some documents indicate that he owned as many as 300 slaves; some he bought, some he inherited. Washington brought nine slaves with him to the Philadelphia White House despite Pennsylvania's law that called for the gradual abolishment of slavery. Two of the nine slaves fled to freedom. All the slaves Washington had purchased were freed when he died; the inherited slaves were given to his grandchildren.

Thomas Jefferson, who owned expansive plantations also in Virginia, had as many as 600 slaves. Journalists during Jefferson's time wrote that Jefferson had fathered six children with his slave Sally Hemming, who was his wife's half-sister.

James Madison, the fourth president, inherited his father's Virginia tobacco plantation and its 100 slaves. The Web site for Montpelier, a preservation and historical foundation, reveals that Madison's father was poisoned by three slaves.

Other presidents who owned slaves were Monroe, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Polk, Buchanan, Johnson and Grant.

While some early Americans called abolitionists hated slavery, most people accepted its practice and were not willing to give it up, even though they may have had some understanding of the harm and injustice. Slavery was so much a part of our nation's early history that slaves were used to construct the White House in Washington, D.C.

Slavery is an integral part of our nation's history. It is the basis for racial inequality and intolerance that continued to plague many aspects of our society until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Not surprisingly, our nation's first African-American first lady, Michelle Obama, has ancestors who were enslaved to plantation owners.

Slavery continues to exist throughout the world.

The U.S. government estimates that as many as 4 million children, women and men throughout the world are victims of human trafficking. Organizations such as Free the Slaves and Anti-Slavery provide awareness and relief.

Check these outThe Warren Newport Public Library in Gurnee suggests these titles on presidents and slavery:bull; "The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary," by Candace Flemingbull; "Slavery: Real People and Their Stories of Enslavement," by R.G. Grantbull; "The History of Slavery," by Norman L. Macht and Mary Hullbull; "Encyclopedia of the Presidents and Their Times," by David Rubelbull; "The Time of Slavery," by Elizabeth Sirimarcobull;On the Web: Understanding Prejudice: Slavery and the U.S. Presidents at understandingprejudice.org/slavery