A recently released database from The Washington Post, found 1,700 United States congressmembers once enslaved Black people. The Post published  the first-ever comprehensive list of “every member of the U.S. Congress who enslaved Black people.” The news outlet put together their findings in a searchable database, which including that 1,715 members owned slaves. To create the list, The Post found over  5,500 Congress members by sifting through 18th and 19th century census records, wills, journal articles and plantation records, along with other documents. 

“This database helps provide a clearer understanding of the ways in which slaveholding influenced early America, as congressmen’s own interests as enslavers shaped their decisions on the laws that they crafted,” The Post wrote. Politicians who owned people spanned political parties and states. While most slaveholding congressmembers were men, the first woman ever to serve in the Senate — Rebecca Latimer Felton — was also a former slaveholder, suffragist and white supremacist, according to The Post.  

“The Post’s database includes lawmakers who were members of more than 60 political parties. Federalists, Whigs, Unionists, Populists, Progressives, Prohibitionists and dozens more,” The Post wrote.  

“The most common political affiliation among enslavers was the Democratic Party — 606 Democrats in Congress were slaveholders,” The Post adds. “While the early Republican Party is associated with abolition, The Post found 481 slaveowners who identified as Republicans at some point in their elected careers.” 

The database is still ongoing and adding people to the list. The Post admitted their researchers were unable to determine whether or not 677 additional members of Congress had once owned a person and asked readers to help complete the database.  

“You may already have records to share. Maybe you’ve done genealogical research on your family’s connection to one of the congressmen or to one of the people they enslaved,” The Post wrote. “Maybe you wrote a thesis on one of these congressmen. Maybe you’re involved in your local historical society, which are often treasure troves of information about these bygone elected officials.” 

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