Didn’t Harris’ Jamaican ancestors own a plantation?
Slave catchers and slave dealers for money....
FROM:
Reflections of a Jamaican Father
By
Donald J. Harris
As a child growing up in Jamaica, I often heard it said, by my parents and family friends: “memba whe yu cum fram”. To this day, I continue to retain the deep social awareness and strong sense of identity which that grassroots Jamaican philosophy fed in me. As a father, I naturally sought to develop the same sensibility in my two daughters. Born and bred in America, Kamala was the first in line to have it planted. Maya came two years later and had the advantage of an older sibling as mentor.
My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (née Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town) and to my maternal grandmother Miss Iris (née Iris Finegan, farmer and educator, from Aenon Town and Inverness, ancestry unknown to me). The Harris name comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph Alexander Harris, land-owner and agricultural ‘produce’ exporter (mostly pimento or all-spice), who died in 1939....
Can I at least get some Irish?
Actual request from Kamala’s plantation owning relative upon being told his slaves would be freed.
It is my understanding that her ancestors did own a plantation — and also owned Irish slaves.
Why don’t we hear about that?