Henry Louis Gates

Now 14 Known Slaveholding Ancestors of Ben Affleck Throughout the South

Recent research published by the Daily Beast on Tuesday suggests that Benjamin Cole may have been a slaveholder but not a slaveowner, a distinction that may not seem to be a difference to those of us in the modern era, but which would have been significant back in the 1850s. Still, the bottom line on Affleck’s great-great-great grandfather Benjamin Cole is this: he was a slaveholder in 1860, and may have been either a slaveholder or slave owner in 1850, and possibly both.

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Ben Affleck and Henry Louis Gates Revising History of How Star’s Slaveholding Ancestor Was Edited From PBS Program

Hollywood movie star Ben Affleck and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates continue to revise recent history in their public statements surrounding Affleck’s successful pressuring of Gates, executive producer and host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” to remove any mention of his slaveholding ancestor, Benjamin L. Cole, from the “Roots of Freedom” episode that aired on PBS in October.

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