Michelle Obama's Family Tree has Roots in a Carolina Slave Plantation
Monday December 1, 2008
An interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune discusses the roots of Michelle Obama and the path her family history traces back to slavery on a large rice plantation in lowcountry South Carolina. Genealogists at Lowcountry Africana, a research center affiliated with the Africana Heritage Project at the University of South Florida in Tampa, traced Michelle Obama's family tree back to her great great grandfather, Jim Robinson, who was born about 1850 and lived as a slave prior to the end of the Civil War on Friendfield Plantation in Georgetown, S.C. The article says that records show he remained on the estate after the war working as a sharecropper and was the last illiterate ancestor in this branch of the family tree (although his son, Fraser Robinson, stated that he could write, but not read in the 1920 census). The research was reportedly commissioned by Barack Obama prior to his bid for the White House, and shared this portion with the Washington Post, which expanded on the research to produce its moving article last October. The story of Jim Robinson and Fairfield Plantation also appeared in The Times, UK, last month.
Comments
Obama’s wife has slave family tree, who could have gues that.
I have been paid to find past relatives these people were held longer than other slaves so information and their history is incompleted because of this plantation and I have never did any research Michelle Obama and just heard of her until the election
So what’s the importance of this? A lot of blacks in America have family decedents that were slaves.
like!
What I find interesting is that this issue made it on to all three major news channels at exactly the same time this morning. It’s not news, it’s a fluff piece! Why is this news? It was made to seem as though this made her special. Almost every African American in the U.S. can trace their ancestry to slaves and slave owners. Was it meant to show that she’s just like everyone else? How is this even worthy of her?
It’s worthy for its historical significance. She’s the first First Lady descended from slaves. Why the hate? OBAMA 2012!
What I find more signifcant is how white men were raping young black girls and it was acceptable under the law.