A British historian has traced Vice President Kamala Harris’s lineage to Hamilton Brown, a notorious 19th-century slave owner and plantation manager in Jamaica. Harris, of Indian and Afro-Jamaican descent, has not publicly addressed these historical ties. Her father, Donald Harris, an academic at Stanford University, has written about the family’s connections, noting that Brown is his ancestor.
Stephen McCracken, a historian from Northern Ireland, has asserted that Hamilton Brown—himself an Ulster Scot—was not only a slave owner but also campaigned against the abolition of slavery. Born in Antrim, Brown relocated to Jamaica where he established a plantation and protested anti-slavery efforts in London.
Joe Biden has endorsed Harris as the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nominee after Biden decided not to seek re-election last month. While Harris has enjoyed a honeymoon phase in election polling, critics have pointed to Harris‘s penchant for gaffes and policy decisions as potential liabilities. Her political ascent has been accompanied by controversies, such as her handling of cases as San Francisco’s District Attorney and Attorney General of California.
Harris is not the only Democratic presidential hopeful who can trace her ancestors back to slave owners. When he was still just a U.S. Senator, Barack Obama was presented with evidence in 2007 that his ancestors were also slave owners on his mother’s side.
Numerous currently living members of the American political elites have ancestors tied to the slave trade, including five living presidents and senators like Elizabeth Warren and Lindsay Graham, among at least a hundred others. However, one major political figure who appears not to have any ancestors involved in the slave trade is former president Donald J. Trump.
The legacy of the slave trade remains an issue for some, including Caribbean nations, who have demanded as much as $33 trillion in reparations.
