Towards the end Bill Paxton says that people have a tendency to hide the bad parts of their history. He was referring to the controversy surrounding Ben Affleck influencing producers of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr to not include the fact that one of his ancestors was a slave owner.
Benjamin Sharp was not Bill Paxtons only ancestor with dealings with slavery. He is a descendant of Sir John Hawkins the man who owned the first slave ship to come to America.