WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is wrong to assert none of his ancestors had slaves, Online magazine Salon.com reported Tuesday, saying his great-great-grandfather owned 52.
It quoted McCain as professing ignorance about the slaves but acknowledging it was logical that his ancestors would have owned some.The magazine cited a slew of public records documenting the slave holdings of William Alexander McCain, who owned a plantation in Carroll County, Miss., and died during the Civil War as a soldier for the Mississippi cavalry.
Salon quoted McCain as saying he had been unaware that his ancestors owned slaves.
"I didn't know that," the Arizona senator and former Vietnam War prisoner of war said.
"I knew they had sharecroppers."
Salon said it had gathered evidence of the family's ownership of slaves from various sources, including the Carroll County courthouse, the Carrollton Merrill Museum, the Mississippi state archives and the Greenwood, Miss., public library.
The documents include slave schedules from Sept. 8, 1860, which list as the slave owner, "W.A. McCain" and record ownership of slaves ranging in age from 6 months to 60 years.
"I knew we fought in the Civil War," McCain told the magazine. "But no, I had no idea. I guess thinking about it, I guess when you really think about it logically, it shouldn't be a surprise. They had a plantation, and they fought in the Civil War, so I guess that it makes sense."