Are we responsible for the actions of our ancestors?

GE- This one is definately a sensitive topic for a great many people, and I can understand both points of view. For myself, my great grandmother on my father's side was from the Cherokee tribe, and her family line went through some horrible times, including being locked in closets unless they spoke English. I personally feel that if anyone has a right to be paid back for hard times it is the Native peoples of the Americas. I do understand that slavery was very wrong, and a horrible situation but it was not unique to the American slave trade, and people seem to forget that tribes in Africa at times sold their own people into slavery (or rival tribes into slavery). Africa is just as much accountable as those in America who participated in slavery, but again it was not unique. Many civilizations prior the Americas had slavery, and I've not heard a whole lot from those countries about people sueing for payment for their ancestors. I have not heard of the Jewish community sueing Egypt for their 400 years of slavery. So no, I don't feel that we are responsible for the actions of our ancestors. I feel we can only be responsible for our actions now, and learn from our ancestors. We still have slavery today and inequality, even if not in the same fashion. We've a long way to go in the area of civil rights. Namaste-Anora

Well, if we're going to start compensating ppl based on what their families did, I should be compensated for all the work that my ancestors did on the Underground Railroad movement. While I'm proud of what they did, I didn't have anything to do with it...I wasn't even born. So to say that I'm also responsible for the treatment of slaves is just as absurd. I think it's nothing more than a way to get ppl to feel guilty over the way ppl were treated and try to get money out of them b/c of that guilt. Back when we were foster parents, we had a black girl placed with us and when I told her to help the other girls with dishes while I made dinner, she looked at me and said "My ppl have suffered for 300 years b/c of your ppl". I looked right back at her and said "Well, my Granddaddy paid good money for your ppl so get to work". Her jaw hit the floor and then she started doing dishes. We never heard anymore about the whole slavery thing from her. Now I should say that as far as I know no one in my family ever owned a slave but sometimes that card is played just to see if it can be played. [b]~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~ **STANDING STRONG IN MY BELIEFS**[/b]

What I believe in is that we are all liable for our own actions. We shouldn't be held responsible for an acted upon done by other people.If we know that what we're doing is right then we don't have a thing to worry. Just abode by the golden rule that "don't do to others what we don't want others to do unto us."

We should not be responsible for the crimes or sins of those who are the same ethnic group that we are, but for some reason there are people who are still paying for the errors or wrong doings that their ancestors did even now. Even the African Americans. Who knows that the reason that many of their ancestors were enslaved was because back in the tenth century they had kings who thought nothing of killing off their opponents and who knows whether the reason some people do not have as large families because their ancestors rejected the true faith and followed a heresy? And we cannot go back and change the past only make sure that it never happens again. But these are not punishments visited by man in that man says "because you sent my ancestors to the gas chambers or because you brought my ancestors over in slave ships we lost our opportunity to make money and you owe us a living." The trouble is that if you feel that way, you have a slave mentality and that has nothing to do with your ancestors working for no money or your ancestors being in a concentration camp because there were some Negros back in the early 18th and 19th century who felt in their minds that they were free even though legally they were slaves and tried to make a little money to gain their freedom just as there were some Jews and others in the concentration camps who tried to escape and encouraged others not to give up. And besides even if you may be rich and fortunate, back two thousand or more years ago, one of your ancestors was a gladiator or worked in the mines back in the Roman Empire and you made it even with that horrible background.

No I don't think we are responsible for our ancestors. They lived in a completely different time than we do, and just because somebody who may share some blood line with me did terrible things it has nothting to do with me. I didn't do those things, I would not do those things, and I didn't know that person nor did I have any influence on their behavior. I was not even born. It had nothing to do with me. And just because people did bad things in the past to other people it does not even mean that any one I was related to did those things. I don't know what my great, great, great, grandparents did. I think we need to live in the present. I also don't think people should get compensation for what their ancestors went through. They never suffered the same injustices, we don't owe them any thing. Perhaps if someone from that decade were still alive and they had been mistreated then maybe, but not some distant relative of today that probably didn't even know their tortured ancestor.

I look at it this way, we had no more control over what our ancestors did or dodn't do than we have over what a stranger on the streets does or doesn't do. I agree that slavery was wrong, but it was abolished a long time ago. NO, we are in no way liable for the actions of our ancestors and those who wish to seek monetary compensation for things that happened in the distant past and not even to them personally, in my opinion, are just being greedy and trying to find any and every way to get free money.

I believe we are liable for one life, the life we we have been given, we are all given a precious gift of life and have to do the best we can with that life, we can try and improve things , try for better ways but we are only responsible for our own life and actions.

I agree. I do not condone what others did many years ago. If they want compensation then they need to sue Africa for it. They are the ones that sold their own people into slavery. I do not feel that we should be liable for what others did a long time ago. I did not do it therefore I should not have to pay for it. If I do wrong I should pay for it and will, but I did not do this.

I hate what went on in history. I feel horrible for the people who had to live through that. It is sad that we are desendents from that but it doesnt mean that because out ancestors did something like that that we would ever do anything like that. I would never want someone as my slave. I dont think any race is superior to another other. I do not think that our government should give money to desendants who say they are victims when in fact it was hundreds of years ago to their ancestors not them.

no ,,as Far as I m Concerned Its nt Like V shd B taken Responsible for d Actions Of our Ancestors .. as At d Time wen Our Ancestors would hav done d dose actions it may b accordin to d Den Situation n so d Present Cant b taken Reponsible for d Deeds Of d Past ... Its Nt right to b Taken Responsible for d Deeds of Others.. May b U ll agree wit Me..Gud Day

If memory serves me correctly, it was the DUTCH that were the main suppliers/shippers of the slave trade in America. Why are they not on the hook financially for these actions?

What our ancestors did have stayed for some years though but now it is nowhere mentionned that we are confronting theirs actions so I believe we are not at all responsible for theirs actions.

Goldeneagle, I do not feel you owe me anything except acknowledgement that we are kin (if we are). This country is so r#cist, that Blacks who are related to Whites because of the actions of the slave master or his friends or whoever, are shunned by their White relatives. (There is a controversy amongst the Jeffersons about this very subject.) But getting back to whether you owe anything, mostly, I say no. But there are Blacks who after slavery, were run out of their property for one reason or another and they are owed something. I think some of them are asking for reparations because they feel Jewish people are getting them. I don't believe it will happen and wouldn't hold my breath. As for being responsible for the actions of our ancestors. It seems that we are. In a Christian sense, if you do something wrong, then future generations pay for what you do. As a kid I heard enough stories of Blacks being cursed because they descended from Ham. It never dawned on me to think that the whole human race should be cursed because Black people are the only ones to have done things displeasing to God. We see curses especially in horror movies like Freddy and The Fog. So somehow it is ingrained in us that our generations pay for what we do.