Canadian raised, New York resident and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell has had his genealogy scrutinized by US broadcaster, and Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates hosted the PBS series African American Lives and Faces of America.
You may recall that along the way Gates was surprised to discover through DNA testing that although an advocate for Afro-American culture, consistant with outward appearance, he has more European ancestry than African.
Now Gates has discovered that Gladwell, who has mixed ancestry: English on his father’s side, Northwest European, Jewish, and middle class mulatto on his Jamaican mother’s side, had slave owing ancestors in Jamaica.
Why should Gates and Gladwell be exceptions -- the more you investigate your family history the more surprises your likely to find in your ancestry.
Read Gates article in The Root at http://www.theroot.com/views/malcolm-gladwells-elusive-roots?page=0,1
via Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
13 October 2010
Malcolm Gladwell Ancestry
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Not every Black person who came to the colonies was a slave. I read that the first ones in Virginia were classified as indentured servants by the court when they arrived on a ship where the captain and or owners had died on the voyage. They had been sold as slaves in Africa, but were free after a time. There was always a population of Free Black persons.
The Dutch in New Amsterdam freed their dozen or more slaves, but had some form of indenture on their work for several years.
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