SLAVE REGISTERS FROM LONDON Name The Slaves Kamala Harris’ Ancestor Owned

Jul 1, 2019

Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris is descended from Irish slave owner Hamilton Brown, the namesake of Brown’s Town in Jamaica, who recruited massive numbers of Irish migrants to Jamaica to work on his sugar plantations after the British empire abolished slavery.

Kamala Harris’ father Donald Harris wrote an essay entitled “Reflections of a Jamaican Father” for Jamaica Global Online, in which he made a startling admission (emphasis added):

“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 one year after I was born and is buried in the church yard of the magnificent Anglican Church which Hamilton Brown built in Brown’s Town (and where, as a child, I learned the catechism, was baptized and confirmed, and served as an acolyte).”

Harris’ father’s passage ends

Hamilton Brown was not only a slave owner, but also an engineer of mass Irish migration to Jamaica after the British empire abolished slavery in 1834.

Jamaican Family Search recorded: “Hamilton Brown owned several plantations over the years 1817 to about 1845. According to the 1818 Almanac which can be found on this site, (Jamaican Family Search) , he was the owner of Minard (128 slaves) which he must have acquired from its previous owner (John Bailie) in 1815 or later. The number of slaves on this estate approximates the number of slaves in one of the registers attributed to his ownership (124 slaves). The other register (86 slaves) cannot be assigned to any estate, although he is listed in Almanacs for subsequent years as owning several, (Antrim, Grier Park, Colliston, Little River, Retirement and Unity Valley).”

Here is a full accounting of the slaves owned by Hamilton Brown, according to the National Archives in London, as of June 28, 1817 in the parish of St. Ann in Jamaica:

NAMES

Names of all Males to precede names of females

MALES

 Colour

 

 Age African or creole Remarks
1 Apollo Negro 45 African –
2 Jein Negro 40 African –
3 Sambo Negro 40 African –
4 Cicero Negro 30 African –
5 St???e Negro 45 African –
6 Chance Negro 44 African –
7 Clendin Negro 42 African –
8 Jamaica Negro 32 African –
9 Apollo Negro 32 African –
10 Montague Negro 38 African –
11 Jack Negro 30 African –
12 Mark Negro 32 African –
13 Ned Negro 36 African –
14 Sharper Negro 40 African –
15 Ceasar Negro 38 African –
16 John Negro 30 African –
17 Charles Negro 35 African –
18 Oxford Negro 35 African –
19 Hannibal Negro 32 African –
20 ??ill Negro 30 African –
21 Dick Negro 35 African –
22 Duke Negro 32 African –
23 Nelson Negro 34 African –
24 Robert Negro 30 African –
25 George Negro 35 African –
26 Prince Negro 40 African –
27 Henry Negro 38 African –
28 Hamilton Negro 28 African 4
29 Tom Jack Negro 40 African –
30 Neal Negro 34 African –
31 Luke Negro 28 African –
32 Bel Negro 25 African –
33 ????? Negro 33 African –
34-39 missing – – – –
– – – PAGE 89 –
40 Charles Negro 16 Creole –
41 London Negro 11 Creole –
42 Nelson Negro 10 Creole son of Juddy
43 Jamaica Negro 10 Creole son of Evey
44 ?Seny Negro 8 Creole son of Juddy
45 Virgil Negro 8 Creole son of Love
46 Tom Negro 4 Creole son of Juddy
47 Joab Negro 3 Creole son of Lucky
48 Harper Negro 3 Creole son of Love
49 Jack Negro 2 Creole son of Lucy
50 James Negro 2 Creole son of Tamer
51 Sambo Negro 2 Creole son of Evey
52 Dick Negro 1 Creole son of Nanny
53 Charles Negro 1 Creole son of Nelly
54 Hugh Negro 5mos Creole son of Maria
55 Sam Negro 4mos Creole son of Gift
56 George Negro 6mos Creole son of Flance
FEMALES – – – –
1 Pheba Negro 50 African –
2 Love Negro 42 African –
3 Juddy Negro 40 African –
4 ?Floramel ?Meromel Negro 40 African –
5 Flora Negro 38 African –
6 Lucy Negro 40 African –
7 Maria Negro 40 African –
8 Laura Negro 30 African –
9 Evey Negro 30 African 5
10 Olive Negro African –
11 Lucky Negro 28 African –
12 Venus Negro 32 African –
13 Rachel Negro 30 African –
14 ?Betsy Negro 27 African –
15 Juliet Negro 48 African –
16 Hellen Negro 40 African –
17 Nanny Negro 27 African –
18 Nelly Negro 28 African –
19 Gift Negro 25 African –
20 Jeane Negro 33 African –
21 Milly Negro 32 African –
22 Industry Negro 13 Creole –
23 Margaret Negro 10 Creole Daughter of Juddy
24 Nancy Negro 4 Creole Daughter of Tamer
25 Mary – 4 Creole Daughter of Evey
– – – PAGE 90 –
26 Peggy Negro 3 Creole Daughter of Flora
27 Sarah Negro 2 Creole Daughter of Nanny
28 ? Hanna Negro 6mos Creole Daughter of Tamer
29 Hellen Negro 5mos Creole Daughter of Milly
30 Nelly Negro 2 Creole Daughter of ?Floramel ?Meromel

Hamilton Brown officially swore to the authenticity of this record, stating:

“I Hamilton Brown do swear that the above list and return consisting of two sheets is a true perfect and complete list and return, to the best of my knowledge and belief in every particular therein mentioned of all and every slaves possessed by me as owner, considered as most permanently settled, worked and employed in the Parish of Saint Ann on the twenty Eight day of June One thousand Eight Hundred and Seventeen without fraud, deceit or evasion So help me God.

Sworn before me this twenty fourth day of September 1817”

Hamilton Brown’s slave owning shows up in other records, as well.

“Hamilton Brown was instrumental in the importing of several hundred labourers and their families from Ireland to Jamaica between 1835 and 1840,” according to University College London’s project “Legacies of British Slave-ownership.” The project describes Hamilton Brown as a “Major attorney and resident slave-owner in Jamaica.”

The Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner reported in July 2012 in a travel piece on Brown’s Town:

“As we struggled to stay on the narrow sidewalk, we noticed an elderly man coming our way. He had an unruly grey beard and wore spectacles with thick frames and cloudy lenses.

“Hallo! Hallo!” he said. We stopped and returned the greeting. The man gave his name as Ferly and he told us a bit about Brown’s Town.

“A good amount of Brown live here, you know,” he said. “People what name Brown pack up the place. It all coming from Hamilton Brown who the town name after. Yes man, dem teach it in school,” said Ferly, nodding.

He told us that Hamilton Brown was buried in the graveyard at the nearby Anglican Church. “But a lot of people don’t even know that. Is only long-time people like me know dem tings,” he said.”

The Gleaner passage ends

Black activist Tariq Nasheed has publicly cast doubt on Kamala Harris’ claim to being “Black.”