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In First Lady’s Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery [White Great-Great-Great-GrandDaddy]
NYTimes ^
| October 07th 2009
Posted on 10/07/2009 7:12:36 PM PDT by Steelfish
In First Ladys Roots, a Complex Path From Slavery
RACHEL L. SWARNS and JODI KANTOR October 7, 2009
WASHINGTON In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.
In his will, she is described simply as the negro girl Melvinia. After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.
In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, marked the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House.
Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady.
Viewed by many as a powerful symbol of black advancement, Mrs. Obama grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obamas roots were a mystery.
Now the more complete map of Mrs. Obamas ancestors including the slave mother, white father and their biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; crymeariver; flotusmichelle; obamafamily; roots
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1
posted on
10/07/2009 7:12:36 PM PDT
by
Steelfish
To: Steelfish
2
posted on
10/07/2009 7:14:12 PM PDT
by
Jeff Chandler
(Hear us, O Bama: Mmm, mmm, mmm.)
To: Steelfish
Where’s a pic of the $400 snack for MO from last year when you need it? Persian caviar is so hard to find when you get that craving. Then there’s the dancing lessons and all the Versace gowns. Slaving in the garden requires $600 boots. Just ask the unemployed and homeless. In Detroit.
3
posted on
10/07/2009 7:15:21 PM PDT
by
combat_boots
(The Lion of Judah cometh. Hallelujah. Gloria Patri, Filio et Spirito Sancto.)
To: Steelfish
My ancestors were enslaved for 700 years. They lived in Spain under the Moors. I want repayment!
4
posted on
10/07/2009 7:18:41 PM PDT
by
trimom
To: Steelfish
One drop of honky makes one a cracker trailer trash racist 100%.
I demand reparations from this cracker mook.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
5
posted on
10/07/2009 7:19:52 PM PDT
by
The Comedian
(Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
To: Steelfish
I saw the story on ABC today. So neat they could trace the ancestors of Ma Zero and find all that ancient documentation, yet they can’t locate hubby’s ACTUAL birth certificate and all his school records and other documents.
6
posted on
10/07/2009 7:20:06 PM PDT
by
fieldmarshaldj
(~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
To: trimom
Don’t you mean the Moops ?
7
posted on
10/07/2009 7:20:39 PM PDT
by
fieldmarshaldj
(~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
To: Steelfish
Wonder when Michelle is going to come out with her story about how she sat on her Great, Great, Great Grandfather’s knee watching another Olympic game?
8
posted on
10/07/2009 7:21:38 PM PDT
by
freekitty
(Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
To: Steelfish
Note the molestation by the white man.
9
posted on
10/07/2009 7:23:08 PM PDT
by
BunnySlippers
(I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
To: Steelfish
The truth is that everybody has slaves in their ancestry if you go back a while. Slavery was the normal practice of all civilizations during recorded history. The black Africans where just the ones in the barrel when the practice was abolished in Christian countries in the 18th -19th centuries. The idea that slavery was some kind of ‘original sin’ in America is a-historical nonsense.
To: Steelfish
My ancestors were slaves under Pharoah. Egypt owes me big time.
11
posted on
10/07/2009 7:24:04 PM PDT
by
MestaMachine
(One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1.)
To: Old North State
12
posted on
10/07/2009 7:25:07 PM PDT
by
MestaMachine
(One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1.)
To: Steelfish
I'm sorry - but who really gives a $hit?
13
posted on
10/07/2009 7:26:04 PM PDT
by
USMA '71
((Re-elect no one!))
To: BunnySlippers
Note the molestation by the white man. Rape of black women was common in the South - a shameful part of our heritage. Then again, if Hollywood had existed back they, they'd be siding with the rapist...
14
posted on
10/07/2009 7:30:09 PM PDT
by
GOPJ
(MSM BIAS: grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell)
To: USMA '71
I wuz gonna say that. Then I saw the part about poor little Melvinia, and well......you know. /sarc
15
posted on
10/07/2009 7:32:25 PM PDT
by
MestaMachine
(One if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Air Force 1.)
To: Steelfish
Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the one of sixteen sets of great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady
Fixed it.
Doesn't have quite the impact now, does it?
16
posted on
10/07/2009 7:34:25 PM PDT
by
lightman
(Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini)
To: Steelfish
"Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama, the first lady." Let's ask Whoopi if it was rape-rape. She seems to know what is in the minds of people and has her own special interpretation of law.
17
posted on
10/07/2009 7:38:00 PM PDT
by
Earthdweller
(Harvard won the election again...so what's the problem.......?)
To: BunnySlippers
"Note the molestation by the white man." Who says it wasn't consenual miscegenation? There seems to be quite a bit of that still going on -- right, Ms Dunham?
18
posted on
10/07/2009 7:43:02 PM PDT
by
TXnMA
(REVIEWed it...)
To: Steelfish
I think this Megan Smolenyakis is a writer of fiction. I worked for 25 years on family genealogy and it it not so easy to document family history. JMO
19
posted on
10/07/2009 7:52:07 PM PDT
by
BARLF
To: Steelfish
In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475Seems like a very valuable asset. What would $475 in 1850 translate to today?
20
posted on
10/07/2009 7:52:39 PM PDT
by
fso301
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