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Michelle Obama: A Distant Daughter of Slavery
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by Rhonda J Mangus | December 5, 2008 at 07:10 pm
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Michelle Obama, born in 1964, will be America's next first lady. When she moves into the White House in January, a mansion built partially by slaves, "she will embark upon a life her great-great-grandfather, who was a slave, never could have envisioned for her."
Tiny wooden cabins line the dirt road once known as Slave Street as it winds through Friendfield Plantation.
More than 200 slaves lived in the whitewashed shacks in the early 1800s, and some of their descendants remained for more than 100 years after the Civil War. The last tenants abandoned the hovels about 30 years ago, and even they would have struggled to imagine a distant daughter of the plantation one day calling the White House home.
But a historical line can be drawn from these Low Country cabins to Michelle Obama, charting an American family's improbable journey through slavery, segregation, the civil-rights movement and a historic presidential election.
Their documented passage begins with Jim Robinson, Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather, who was born about 1850 and lived as a slave, at least until the Civil War, on the sprawling rice plantation. Records show he remained on the estate after the war, working as a sharecropper and living in the old slave quarters with his wife, Louiser, and their children. He could neither read nor write, according to the 1880 census.
Robinson would be the last illiterate branch of Michelle Obama's family tree.
Census records show each generation of Robinsons became more educated than the last, with Michelle Obama eventually earning degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Her older brother, Craig, also earned an Ivy League education.
Barack Obama's campaign hired genealogists to research the family's roots at the onset of his presidential bid, but aides largely have kept the findings secret. Genealogists at Lowcountry Africana, a research center at the University of South Florida in Tampa, scoured documents to put together a 120-page report, said project director Toni Carrier. She said the center signed a confidentiality agreement and is not allowed to disclose the findings publicly.
However, in his now-famous speech on race during the primary, Barack Obama, whose father was from Kenya, stated he was "married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners."
Obama aides refused to discuss the report or allow Michelle Obama to be interviewed about her ancestry. She has said she knew little about her family tree before the campaign, but census reports, property records and other historical documents show her paternal ancestors bore witness to one of the most shameful chapters in U.S. history.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (38)
at 19:25 on December 5th, 2008
Good Post, Thanks you Rhonda.
Makes you think. I may sound a bit off line here and yet I never understood why people that are free and who's ancestors had to suffer due to slavery are so indefferent to it as well.
In Africa and Asia Slavery still exist and is well off and yet not one America I know that is of Slaves decent has ever spoken out against it nor done any thing either, all there did is complain about what they had to endure , well actually what there ancestors had to endure and not them self's. Why can none of them speak up against the ongoing slavery and just dwell on poor little me?? I do not mean to sound harsh here or belittle what has happen in the US but as a Euro-African I can not understand this, nor accept the indifference towards the slaves of today.
at 19:52 on December 5th, 2008
Thank you, Paschen. You are quite welcome. I don't find your comment harsh at all. I can only say that there will be those who take the PLOM position, those who will demonstrate complete indifference to it, and those who will speak out against slavery, in all of its forms.
I do find it interesting, however, that Mrs. Obama had little knowledge of her ancestry until Mr. Obama's campaign hired genealogists to research the family's roots at the onset of his presidential bid. In fact, very interesting!
at 21:07 on December 5th, 2008
Even more phenomenal, members of the maternal side of the President Elect's family owned enslaved persons.
As for speaking out against slavery of today, all humanity is aware of the total repugnant injustice of such a practice still deeply entrenched in the so called modern world, with slavery still here in the States, with women and child held as sex slaves, with all that seek to claim themselves capable of soul searching knowing this must be fought until all vestiges of the custom are eradicated from the Earth. And there are those that are speaking out and working to end this continuing horror.
When speaking of the millions of ancestors of millions of North, South, Central, European and Asian Americans of African descent, as a point in fact, never in the history of the world has any group of individuals, originating from one place, ever been forced to endure the conditions of those forcibly relocated throughout the world for over a thousand years.
At the World Conference Against Racism in 2001, over 160 countries in attendance condemned the slave trade during the European Colonial period as a " .... crime against humanity."
And YES, pity the millions that endured the Middle Passage, herded aboard ships to be held possibly for months, depending upon the wind available for sailing, where conditions below deck, chained to planks, lain head to foot, cramped, stifling and filled with human waste products, created a fog that rose above decks; those that were blinded by being held in darkness, the vermin crawling among the living and the dead, feasting on both; those driven insane as they lay chained next to the dead, lying in their own as well as their fellow tormented souls' excrement; those throw overboard to collect insurance money, when it was determined the lot may not fetch a good price at market; the young boys, girls and women kept in quarters just behind the captain's quarters for the use of the captain and members of the crew; those that were denied a burial upon death, their bodies thrown overboard, fed upon by sharks, who learned to follow the slaving ships for a meal; the seasoning process, that occurred in the Caribbean, where it was determined to work an enslaved person to death and replacing them was cheaper than maintaining them; the process meant to break the will of people who knew who they were but were meant to be transformed into a slave.
Pity the tens of millions, regarded as animals, used as chattel, raped, castrated, murdered and abused, with no status or avenue of redress for ten centuries.
at 21:26 on December 5th, 2008
Karen, thank you for reading and for the additional information/links. Always appreciated!
at 07:32 on December 6th, 2008
Did you research his paternal side? He's Fathers Tribe and Family where not slaves in Kenya. Yet Kenya does still have slavery of some groups and this for over a 6 centuries now.
at 07:45 on December 6th, 2008
As Rhonda states below at the end of this comment thread:
"It is important to note that a distinction needs to be made between slaves in the traditional sense (this story), and wage slaves and contract slaves as commented, as well as human trafficking. The Current situation across the world can be read here."
at 08:04 on December 6th, 2008
Does are not wage slaves I am talking about. We have groups of people in Niger that have been and are still enslaved to their master in the same manner then it was practised in the USA. I think you make a grave mistake by trying to portray the US slavery as the worth ever and every thing else as casual wage slaves. The wage slavery is a different issue all together, Slavery has been practised in and through out Africa for Over a Tausend years ad the worth part is, that it is still being practised today in the same fashion. A salve getting killed by its master has not ever been persecuted by a court in Niger. One slave was granted her freedom by a court and then put back into slavery and harshly punished by her master for even daring to run away and ask the NGO to help her and this is the main point I am making, You should read some of my posts and follow up on what is really happening in Africa. Yes the All your said is through and the Former Colonial Powers have admitted their wrong and that they committed some grave injustices, So now we can lay back and close our eyes and let the other still going slavery go on since it is tradition there and it is done by African onto African and not by the bad White Man. You are bios It seems for where I am standing. Sorry.
My apologies Rhonda, I am off topic.
at 08:08 on December 6th, 2008
No need to apologize, Paschen. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
at 08:09 on December 6th, 2008
Your bias has always prevented you from grasping the salient points of any commentary that discusses the period of chattel slavery and the forced migration of inhabitants of Africa and the unique character of these incidents and their consequences in the history of humankind.
at 08:57 on December 6th, 2008
I do acknowledge what has happen and has been done by Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands and later the USA and Brazil in the American slave trade and the it was in large numbers, those slaves where sold by African though and not because their where forced to, it was a profitable business and a great way to rid of once enemies. the Queen Fatima of the Hausa was very good a waging wars and selling the captives to the slave traders, those that where not good enough as slaves where killed by her or rather by her warriors. Just one part of the great History of that era. Now Is a wrong just wrong because it happened to those slaves being shipped to the Americas and the others, well, they do not really count since they did not have to be shipped for thousand of Kilometres and there for just did not suffer enough, yet get bitten, raped, mistreated, and killed in the same fashion as the American slaves where only in Africa and by African, not English or Portuguese there for it is okay. Or at least not so bad or as bad. I beg to differ and I am sure any slave in slavery today will differ with you on that, they do not care if the slave trade did take place and that many where shipped over a great distances, they are in slavery still Today and wonder what the heck those ex slaves or rather great grand Children of the Slaves are complaining about since they are free and do nothing to stop it. No they even cloud the issue by making sure that the attention is only on them the descendent off the American slaves and that the decendends of their former masters will hear it, wile around the globe we still have slaves that are still in slavery and have been for centuries and will remain there because They are born slaves and because no one cares. Would you rather be in Niger now or are you glad to be born in the USA even though you may have descended from slaves and yet you are free your self and so will you children be free. Australian decent from so called Criminals shipped there in chains as well and they do rather well today, I think American descending from former slaves do rather well to, compared to their counterparts in Africa and even much better then those still in slavery in Africa. It is always easier to lay blame and point fingers rather then look at once reality.
at 09:06 on December 6th, 2008
During the time Europe sought Africans for its trade, the majority of wars waged by Africans against Africans on the continent of Africa were waged to prevent one's own people from being procured.
at 09:09 on December 6th, 2008
That is what you like and want to believe, The Hausa, the Bambara and Tuareg will differ with you and so will Camara Lay a Cameroon's Philosopher and Historian. In Ghana this was the case and not in Niger, or today's Nigeria nor Cameroon or Gabon. The history is a lot more complex then that. The Housa where great Warriors and had a great empire and still do.
at 09:25 on December 6th, 2008
You may believe what you wish as well but, refrain from projecting your assessment regarding my reality and that of my family here, shaped and bent through your prism.
at 10:06 on December 6th, 2008
Karen, I used to think as you did to some extend, until I really started studying African History and as a friend of mine in Dakar pointed out to me the slave trade really started in the 17th century and was at it pick in the 18th century by the end of the 19th century it had died out due to the civil war in the US as being one factor.
However the colonisation of black Africa did only really start in the 19th century, to be exact after the Berlin convention of 1872 not before that. North Africa was always occupied since the Greek empire yet not Central, West or South Africa nor East Africa, those came under colonial power only in by the end of the 19th century. Making the whole theory of forced sales flawed at best. Try be objective here. The Housa war with the French and British went on from 1872 until the early 1900 and the Bambara war was similar, same period for the Peul and Fulany war and in the 20th century came the war in the South of the continent as the British colonized South Africa with the Zulu Wars.
In West Africa the War with the Tuareg and there resistance to the Colonial powers went on until the early 1930th. Those are facts of history.
The point here I made, slavery is wrong! It was wrong back in the 16th century and it has been wrong and is still wrong. Officially we have no more slavery, yet the reality is rather dark and shows us that we do have slavery in the same manner has we had 300 years ago.
at 16:05 on December 6th, 2008
As you direct me to be objective, I direct you to pay attention.
My comment was:
"During the time Europe sought Africans for its trade (Author's note: The words 'it's trade' refers to the slave trade.) , the majority of wars waged by Africans against Africans on the continent of Africa were waged to prevent one's own people from being procured."
Many of the dates you mention are after the time period addressed by my comment, with colonialism's rule, influence and aftermath well documented as detrimental to the progress of Africa.
The trade in African flesh began during the 7th century when the Arabs began their trade on the east coast of Africa, a fact not known to many and highlighted in my article about Iraqis of African descent seeking civil rights entitled An African Connection in Iraq.
With the exception of Africans that arrived in parts of Asia and the Middle East as sailors, the majority of the African Iraqi descendants' ancestry is the result of the Arab Slave Trade, which focused primarily on acquiring African females for use as sex slaves, wet nurses and domestic workers.
at 01:18 on December 7th, 2008
You are mistaken, The European did not take control nor where interested in Africa until the 19th century, there for no African needed to fear nor did fear an invasion back in the time of the slave trade. There where a couple of ports on Islands yet not on main land and there was no such a fear at all. The European Colonial Powers did only invade Africa by the end of the third quarter of the 19th century and managed to control it only by 1930, the independence started by 1948. The colonial time was less then two centuries and yet the slave trade to the Americas stated in the 17th century. Slaves have been traded for over three thousand Years and made some war lords and Sultans as well as African Kings very rich. It was a lucrative business for them and they did not worry to much off being slaves them self. The Housa and the Tuaregs among some where famous for this slave trade since the Roman empire and some still practice it today. Who freed the slaves in the Americas? It was some of the former masters and governments that realized by the end of the 19th century that this was not humanitarian and that the Scriptures that allowed slavery may have been wrong in that regard.
You seem to fail to see the reality off that era in Human History. For the last 4000 Years human where treated rather harsh by leading classes and War Lords or masters, slavery was as common as the daily bread and most people where owned by their Lord or master, this until the 18th century when things started to change radically in Europe and Asia. The Term "Leib Eigene" meaning owned body was to refer to slaves in the German Empire and only stopped or started to stop with Martin Luther in 1547, however the break through came with the 30 year war that followed and only by the beginning of the 17th century slavery was ended in a large part of Germany, those slaves where all German bzw. By 18th century slavery really was put to an end in Western Europe and later in the Americas. You only care to see one single aspect of the hole human history and fail to see the era and the suffering of the people over all.
Wet nurses and sex slaves where all over Europe until the 19th century and from all ethnical groups. You fail to see the reality of slavery and it extend still today. You are hold on to the idea that only African and black where slaves and wet nurses and sex slaves and that all the nice African that traded those slaves did it because there feared for them self, that however was not the case and still s not. Slavery is wrong and yet still practised today especially in Africa by African onto African.
at 10:14 on December 7th, 2008
Earlier in this thread, I referred to the European Colonial period, which may have caused you some confusion.
My intent was to indicate the period when Europe was displacing indigenous peoples around the world, establishing colonies elsewhere outside of Africa, mainly throughout the so called New World, using the wealth obtained through the slave trade to expand and 'settle' other lands.
I hope this caveat clears up any misunderstanding that may have contributed to your remarks.
I am aware the first major agreement among Europeans, dividing the African continent, to avoid infighting among themselves, began with the Berlin Conference.
And, I state again, your bias has always prevented you from grasping the salient points of any commentary that discusses the period of chattel slavery and the forced migration of inhabitants of Africa and the unique character of these incidents and their consequences in the history of humankind, one such consequence, the transformation of the peoples that inhabited the Caribbean prior to the imposition of the machinations of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade.
at 10:30 on December 7th, 2008
Karen, I am not Bios at all, and I would take that as an insult in a way since you concluded with it. I do not and did not ever belittle what has happen in the Americas and to those that where put into slavery and you know that if you read what I wrote over all. The Berlin Convention was not meant to avoid fighting of the European Power houses among them self in Africa, it was meant to avoid war in Europe and especially retaliation against Germany since it won the last great war of 1868 against Some of Europe's powers. Germany have full control of Africa back then divided up the continent among the Powers in a way that none would have a large part in one single geographic setting and had to go through the foreign land in order to reach the next section of their colonial territory in Africa, Will Germany retained only 3 colonies Cameroon on the West Coast, Namibia on the South and Tanzania on the East, as strategical points to be able to cut off any British or French or Spanish military movement in case off another war, yet Bismark was not interested in Wasting Military or other resources in Africa since he's focus was A strong German economy and industry and not prestige of a large empire as it was the case for France and Britain. You are mixing up historical facts and realities.
My main point all along was that slavery is wrong and sadly though still going on. In part because we let it. I can not see there being a difference whether some one is black, white , or any other colour of the rain bow and be a slave. Whether the dealing slave trader is black, White or what ever else is no difference either, and last whether the slave trader trades 10 or 1000 slave a year is no different either it is wrong and a crime all the same.
at 12:21 on December 7th, 2008
It is not I who is confused about why the Berlin Conference met, as European powers set about carving up African land that was not theirs to carve up.
From the above linked reference, a listing of those participating in the conference:
Fourteen countries were represented by a plethora of ambassadors when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884. The countries represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway (unified from 1814-1905), Turkey, and the United States of America. Of these fourteen nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time.
Also from the link:
In 1884 at the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismark called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa. Bismark appreciated the opportunity to expand Germany's sphere of influence over Africa and desired to force Germany's rivals to struggle with one another for territory.
At the time of the conference, 80% of Africa remained under traditional and local control. What ultimately resulted was a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that divided Africa into fifty irregular countries. This new map of the continent was superimposed over the one thousand indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. The new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups who really did not get along.
at 19:09 on December 7th, 2008
Look Karen you want to confuse the issue and be right so there you go you are right. In the mean time slavery still exist and slaves are both and sold thank to your inaction and dwelling and persisting on staying look into American Slave trade rather then worrying a little about the still existing slaves and spending some more energy in freeing them.
I feel sorry for it.
at 19:25 on December 7th, 2008
Do not speak of things of which you have no knowledge.
You do not know what I do regarding any issues beyond this site nor do I seek or welcome your thoughts on what I should do with my time.
at 02:51 on December 8th, 2008
I agree with most off what you put up and say, however in this particular case and as to what my point was and is, wish you failed totally to address and some what tried to miss lead for what ever reason. I say there is slavery still today even though it is officially abolished and that Slavery needs our attention today, the dead do not care much any longer for they are dead, however the living do care and the living slaves need and deserve to be free and have the same rights as any other free citizen does. You say that black African are not guilty and that only White African and European are or at least that is what you insinuate, I do not agree with that, Black, White or Yellow If selling, holding, trading, exploiting or using slaves are all guilty in the same way no matter what their colour may be or their religion or Nationality. There are guilty and I will not excuse either nor let them off the hook. What you trying to defend is no different then some trying to defend the SS soldiers killing Jews and Roma and Socialist, by arguing that they had to or would end up being Killed them self, I just say that is a lot of BS and pardon my languish here please. Same goes for the slave traders, may they be Back or white they are guilty all the same and I will not excuse either. I see Humans as Humans and do not divide into colours, races or religions, As you seem to do and wish in my view is racist.
I grow up with this and saw Slaves get beaten and stoned. My father did petition the UN on this and on the borders as you mentioned before, the response is simple the Veto Powers have made certain in 1948 with a resolution that this error i history will not be rectified and that no borders can be changed upon independence. Back then there was still one chance to rectify the error.
Be well.
at 04:33 on December 8th, 2008
You are solely responsible for your own misguided assumptions, incorrect as they are, none of which represent my point of view.
at 21:18 on December 5th, 2008
I think it's great that he had her roots traced, what a wonderful gift to her!
We should all be proud of our heritage, whatever it may be. People are all just a little bit of this, a little bit of that, not so much different from one another... but mixed together, it makes that flavour that is unique to oneself.
at 09:10 on December 6th, 2008
Blue Crush, thank you for reading, commenting, and for the recommend!
I would like to add that I don't think that this was a gift from Mr. Obama to Mrs. Obama for the reason that "Barack Obama's campaign hired genealogists to research the family's roots at the onset of his presidential bid, but aides largely have kept the findings secret."
at 21:19 on December 5th, 2008
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The above comment was made by my cat walking across the keyboard. I would like to add, thank you, Rhonda for the story. And Bravo, Karen, for your comment.
at 21:25 on December 5th, 2008
My thanks to you, Will.
at 21:30 on December 5th, 2008
StandUpToRacism, thank you for reading and commenting. You are very welcome! An aside: Our kitten is running around here tonight too:) Not across the keyboard though:) Thanks again!
at 21:30 on December 5th, 2008
This is the great news, it will help to restart the debate of contrling the NEO-Slavery across the world.
at 21:43 on December 5th, 2008
Amitjha, thank you for reading, commenting, and for the recommend. I don't know that it needs a "restart" in America. In other words, "The Untold History of Post-Civil War 'Neoslavery'.