What % of the current US pop. has ancestors who were in the country before slavery was abolished (approx 1850)

Question

I am trying to get demographic statistics to determine what the burden of slavery reparations should be. Also, the number of current living Americans who are descended from slaves would be useful. The best answer would exclude those who were actual slaves. I am trying to decide if it would be fair for taxpayer money to pay reparations if the majority of Americans don't have roots that stretch back that far in the US. People always say "America"/"the govt" should pay. But that is merely currently living taxpayers. As a second generation American whose ethnic group was barred from interracial marriage, citizenship, and property ownership in the US as recently as the 1940's, I feel that the debate concerning reparations often overlooks many factors. If it is the economy as a whole that benefited unjustly from slavery, then I argue that I have benefited no more from slavery than the very descendants of slaves as they have a longer line of free descendants in the US than I have.

Answer 1

= I've never seen that statistic, although questions like that are frequently asked when subjects like this come up. I'm sure that it's a pretty small number. Even smaller is the percentage with an ancestor from the Slave states, and even smaller is the percentage with an ancestor who was a slave owner.

= A number that I see frequently is that about 40% of the population of the United States has at least one ancestor that came through Ellis Island.

- On November 23, 1993, President William Clinton signed a public law "To acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the January 17, 1893 overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and to offer an apology to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii" . I am not aware of any reparations that were made.

- That Atlantic Slave Trade involved most of the countries in the Western world. Some 4.4% of the slaves were taken to British North America.

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The idea of reparations for ancestral crimes is almost ridiculous. Practically everyone has ancestors that are both victims and criminals.

Answer 2

Over 70% of the current US population has ancestors who were in the USA before slavery was abolished

Ancestors who were slaves

38,499,304 African Americans (100% of AAs have slave ancestors)

79,270,796 White Americans (40% of White Americans have African ancestry who were slaves)

18,000,000 White Hispanics (Most Hispanics have ancestry who were of African ancestry but also not all above 70% do)

In total 44% of USA population has at least one African in their ancestry who was also a slave.

135,770,100 people