I too have no clue if my ancestors owned any slaves. I know my dad's side of the family arrived in colonial North Carolina, fought in the Revolution, and then ended up in Fort Smith, Arkansas by the Great Depression, via Alabama. During the Great Depression, my grandfather was 6 years old when they moved to the San Joaquin Valley (Firebaugh to be exact) for better opportunities. I'm assuming that I had some that fought on the Confederate side, but my mom's side just as well probably had some that fought on the Union side.
It shouldn't make a difference if a family owned slaves during the antebellum period, but obviously to others out there, it does. Just as there were Southerners and non-Southerners that had problems with slavery, there were just as many that had no problem with the economic system at the time. There were race riots in NYC and other Northern cities over the integration of blacks into the Union army, and they were supposedly fighting to make the slaves free!
It shouldn't make a difference if a family owned slaves during the antebellum period, but obviously to others out there, it does. Just as there were Southerners and non-Southerners that had problems with slavery, there were just as many that had no problem with the economic system at the time. There were race riots in NYC and other Northern cities over the integration of blacks into the Union army, and they were supposedly fighting to make the slaves free!