Kamala Harris’ Ancestry Sparks Controversy Amid Allegations of Link to Irish Slave Owner
Mandel Ngan / AFP – Getty Images file
Kamala Harris’ heritage has once again come under scrutiny, but this time it’s not from political rival Donald Trump. According to a report by Radar Online, the Vice President is allegedly descended from an Irish slave owner described as “brutal” and “a seriously bad man.” The claim, made by British historian Stephen McCracken, has raised eyebrows and sparked debate.
Harris, whose mother Shyamala Gopalan was born in India and whose father Donald Harris hails from Jamaica, is often celebrated for her Indian-Jamaican roots. However, the new allegations center on her Jamaican ancestry, with claims that Harris is a descendant of Hamilton Brown, a notorious Irish-born slaveholder who founded Brown’s Town in Jamaica.
McCracken stated that Brown, who owned about 120 slaves in 1826, was Harris’ great-great-great-great grandfather. Donald Harris, a professor and the Vice President’s father, had previously acknowledged the connection in a 2018 article for Jamaica Global Online. “My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrissy (née Christiana Brown), a descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slaveowner and founder of Brown’s Town,” he wrote.
McCracken’s claims paint Brown as a particularly ruthless figure who resisted the abolition of slavery. “He was a seriously bad man,” the historian said, noting that Brown traveled to London several times to oppose the end of slavery and later exploited Irish migrants in Jamaica. “He effectively made slaves of them too,” McCracken added.
However, Harris’ supporters and genealogists have questioned the validity of the story. Megan Smolenyak, a renowned genealogist, called these claims “twisted attempts” to weaponize Harris’ family history. According to Smolenyak, there is no record of Hamilton Brown being married or having children to establish any direct descendants. She acknowledged Brown’s violent history but argued that “there is no paper trail proof at all” linking him directly to Harris.
The controversy comes in the wake of earlier attacks on Harris’ racial identity by Donald Trump. In the past, Trump questioned her heritage, saying, “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black… Is she Indian? Or is she Black?” as reported by the BBC.
As Harris continues to face scrutiny over her background, her supporters are dismissing the allegations as baseless, while critics seize upon the narrative in an effort to undermine her. Despite the claims, genealogists and historians remain divided on the legitimacy of the connection to Hamilton-Brown.
