John A. Macdonald's anti-Indigenous and anti-Chinese racism is well documented. What is lesser known, however, is his connections to the history of #slavery and the #BritishEmpire. JAM was not a slave owner, but his second wife's father was. Thread. 
There have been debates recently about the legacy of the British Empire. Was it good or bad? Here there can be no doubt: British imperialism was a ruthless project of thieving on a global scale. It was not "benevolent"; it was exploitative. Full stop: nybooks.com/daily/2018/01/…
Many empire apologists point to the fact that Britain abolished slavery (in 1833 - though it was a drawn out process), and they contend that abolition = absolution. That's absolute rubbish.
Historians have made a number of important, critical interventions recently; of particular note is the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project. Read about the project here: ucl.ac.uk/lbs/project/
The project's extensive research revealed that as part of abolition, the British government compensated 46,000 British slave owners in the colonies an incredible sum of £17 billion in today's currency, almost 40% of the government's total expenditure for 1834. It was a bailout.
Of the 46,000 slave owners to get paid were some powerhouse, elite names: John Gladstone, the father of Victorian Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone; an ancestor of recent PM David Cameron; and even Charles Blair, the great-grandfather of George Orwell.
So, how is JAM connected to this history? Well, also on the list was Thomas James Bernard, JAM's eventual father in law, who received compensation for a number of estates in Jamaica: ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/vie…
When Bernard died in 1850, his two eldest sons established a new family home near Barrie in Upper Canada - colonial mobility no doubt aided by their father's payout and other monies made through slaving.
Against the advice of her brothers (who apparently did not like JAM's drinking) Susan Agnes Bernard (Thomas James Bernard's youngest surviving daughter) married JAM in 1867 - the same year as Canadian confederation. Read more: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lad…
I am not aware of research that looks at the particulars of their marriage - i.e. money + property exchanged, which would have been common at the time. But Bernard's - later Lady Macdonald - status was boosted by her lineage and status, secured, in part, by her father's slaving.
For more research looking at the braided histories of family, finances, and empire, see the great work of historians such as Catherine Hall, @AdelePerry, @erinmillions, @Krista_Barclay et al.
Anyway, my small point here is: reckoning with the legacies of slavery + empire requires a rethinking of how people learn to see the past and present. The British Empire and its dominions like Canada do not get a pass on confronting these hard histories. More research is needed.
