Kamala Harris is Not Directly Related to Slave Owner Hamilton Brown Despite Descendant Rumors
Kamala Harris, a potential future president of the United States, is currently receiving both criticism and support for her candidacy, with some rumors circulating about her being related to slave owner Hamilton Brown.
Kamala Harris is an American politician who has served as the vice president of the United States since 2021 under President Joe Biden.
On July 21, 2024, President Biden suspended his re-election campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
If Kamala Harris succeeds in winning the 2024 election following her nomination, she will be the first female, first Asian-American, and second Black-American president after Barack Obama.
Kamala Harris’s Father, Professor Donald Claims To Be The Descendant Of Hamilton Brown
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is not directly related to Hamilton Brown, but somehow, she might share lineage with the slave owner.
Harris’s connection with Hamilton Brown hit the media in July 2019 when one social media user posted that an ancestor of Kamala Harris, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, was a slave owner in Jamaica.
Those claims circulated widely during the first round of Democratic primary debates when Harris highlighted racial issues by criticizing a rival candidate.
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Furthermore, on August 18, 2020, the Jamaica Globe featured an article by Professor Donald Harris, Kamala Harris’s father, discussing his family’s Jamaican heritage.
Donald stated that he is descended from Hamilton Brown, a 19th-century planter and slave owner. In the article, he stated that;
“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),” a town in Jamaica.
However, this research on Harris’s lineage lacks official confirmation, and some claim Kamala’s father made mistakes regarding his grandparents’ birth dates.
My mother always use to say, “Don’t just sit around and complain about things. Do something.” I dearly wish she were here with us this week. pic.twitter.com/RHO2VnlZs4
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 13, 2020
Moreover, Kamala Hariss’s biological mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was from Chennai, India, making her origins multicultural as she rose from India to Jamaica.
Following her multi-lineage background, all these allegations about Kamala’s race and ancestry have been surrounded in the media.
Despite all these, Kamala Harris focuses on her candidacy for the United States President, with Joe Biden’s support and ongoing campaign.
Additional Information
- Kamala Harris has a younger sister, Maya Harris, and one niece, Meena Harris.
- Hamilton Brown was the planter and politician born in 1776 to an Ulster-Scots Presbyterian family in County Antrim, Ireland.
- During her childhood, Kamala Harris went to Hindu temples with her mother and the Black Baptist church, embracing both South Asian and Black identities.