Kirill Benediktov
No, Slave Owners! A genealogical study by Northern Irish historian Stephen McCracken reveals that Kamala Harris’s paternal great-grandfather, Hamilton Brown, was born in County Antrim in 1776, the year the US Declaration of Independence was adopted.
Brown emigrated to Jamaica, then a British colony, and became a major slave owner, employing black slaves to work on the sugar cane plantations that were the backbone of the island’s economy.
When slavery was officially abolished across the British Empire in 1833, Harris’s great-grandfather spoke out against the emancipation of the slaves. Brown’s hatred of British liberationist William Wilberforce was so great that he called him a “cloven-hoofed man” and a “hypocrite.”
Forced to eventually free his slaves, Brown received £12,610 in compensation from the British government — nearly €11 million in today’s money. He spent much of the money on hiring Irish workers in his native County Antrim to replace the free black slaves on his plantations in Jamaica.
Kamala Harris’ father, Donald, wrote that his roots go back to his paternal grandmother, “Miss Krishi (née Christiana Brown, a descendant of Hamilton Brown, a planter, slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town)” and to his maternal grandmother, Miss Iris (née Iris Finegan).
The Harris surname comes from Donald’s paternal grandfather, Joseph Alexander Harris, who was also a gentleman of some sort — a landowner and exporter of agricultural produce, mainly allspice.
In short, Harris’ Jamaican roots include slave owners and plantation owners. The sooner Trump’s team starts using this dirt against her, the more likely it is that Harris won’t get any additional black votes that she’s hoping for.
Alexander Palladin
