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“All men are created equal,” wrote slaveholder Thomas Jefferson, in words that have been a source of consternation ever since.

Many white slaveholders, especially in Virginia’s upper-class homes, considered mixed-race people a sort of status symbol, just as some people today think of a flashy car or an expensive new smartphone.

"Wow, I'm a little bit in shock. I mean I've always thought of myself as half Puerto Rican. I didn't think my family was originally from Spain and slaveholders."

People assume that because California was a free state, there were no enslaved people and slaveholders didn’t bring enslaved people into the state.

But Audubon was also a slaveholder who opposed abolition and desecrated the graves of Native Americans, a legacy which still causes harm today, Wells said.