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Rachel L. Swarns – NYT: First Lady’s Slave Roots Revealed – Michelle Obama’s Family Journey from Bondage to the White House

By Rachel L. Swarns and Jodi Kantor
The New York Times
updated 7:50 a.m. ET, Thurs., Oct . 8, 2009
WASHINGTON – In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.
In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.
In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, represents the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House.
Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama , the first lady.
Viewed by many as a powerful symbol of black advancement, Mrs. Obama grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obama’s roots were a mystery.
Now the more complete map of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors — including the slave mother, white father and their biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields — for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.
The findings — uncovered by Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist, and The New York Times — substantiate what Mrs. Obama has called longstanding family rumors about a white forebear.
While President Obama ’s biracial background has drawn considerable attention, his wife’s pedigree, which includes American Indian strands, highlights the complicated history of racial intermingling, sometimes born of violence or coercion, that lingers in the bloodlines of many African-Americans. Mrs. Obama and her family declined to comment for this article, aides said, in part because of the personal nature of the subject.
“She is representative of how we have evolved and who we are,” said Edward Ball, a historian who discovered that he had black relatives, the descendants of his white slave-owning ancestors, when he researched his memoir, “Slaves in the Family.”
“We are not separate tribes of Latinos and whites and blacks in America,” Mr. Ball said. “We’ve all mingled, and we have done so for generations.”
The outlines of Mrs. Obama’s family history unfolded from 19th century probate records , yellowing marriage licenses, fading photographs and the recollections of elderly women who remember the family. Ms. Smolenyak, who has traced the ancestry of many prominent figures, began studying the first lady’s roots in earnest after conducting some preliminary research into Mrs. Obama’s ancestry for an article published in The New York Times earlier this year.
Of the dozens of relatives she identified, Ms. Smolenyak said, it was the slave girl who seemed to call out most clearly.
“Out of all Michelle’s roots, it’s Melvinia who is screaming to be found,” she said.
Strange and unfamiliar world
When her owner, David Patterson, died in 1852, Melvinia soon found herself on a 200-acre farm with new masters, Mr. Patterson’s daughter and son-in law, Christianne and Henry Shields. It was a strange and unfamiliar world.
In South Carolina, she had lived on an estate with 21 slaves. In Georgia, she was one of only three slaves on property that is now part of a neat subdivision in Rex, near Atlanta.
Whether Melvinia labored in the house or in the fields, there was no shortage of work: wheat, corn, sweet potatoes and cotton to plant and harvest, and 3 horses, 5 cows, 17 pigs and 20 sheep to care for, according to an 1860 agricultural survey .
It is difficult to say who might have impregnated Melvinia, who gave birth to Dolphus around 1859, when she was perhaps as young as 15. At the time, Henry Shields was in his late 40s and had four sons ages 19 to 24, but other men may have spent time on the farm.
“No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery; it was an everyday experience, “ said Jason A. Gillmer, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, who has researched liaisons between slave owners and slaves. “But we do find that some of these relationships can be very complex.”
In 1870, three of Melvinia’s fo

It’s not saying anybody living is a slave. It’s called history and geneology, sweetie.

I doubt that anyone with any shred of intelligence would consider the description of a slave as a slave to be racist.

This clown puts an emergency center in the WTC AFTER the 1993 bombing, communications systems WERE NOT upgraded, even though Islamic terrrorists had made it known New York City was a target and needlessly cuased respiratory illnesses with a rushed clean up of the WTC site.

Guiliani is nothing but a dirtbag giving photo ops AFTER 9/11, shamelessly exploiting 3000 deaths for his benefit and to cover up his incompetence of allowing and causing death, illness and injury.

but here’s hoping Guiliani is the Republican nominee, the record he runs on is the record which deserves to be attacked.
Yes, I’d have the guts to question Guiliani and given the propensity of Republicans blaming Clinton for 9/11, this is no rant, but a real question.
I might give Guiliani a pass on lack of preparations for 9/11 IF the 1993 WTC bombing had not taken place and IF how the sheik who planned the 1993 bombing had said things showing it was still a target.
In fact, I would LOVE to question Guiliani about his lack of preparations allowing extra deaths of 9/11. I would love to have those questions broadcast live! It’s EVERYONE ELSE who lacks the guts to question Guiliani.
If Guiliani wants to answer this question, he can do so as well as the reply with article critical of Guiliani, he can do so!

Might as well do it now, if he gets the nomination, hope can be a "Firefighters for the truth" group that forms.

Actually your assertion is absolutely correct, I thank God there are still people like you who don’t jump onto the media bandwagon and actually bother to do the research..

Here you go straight from msnbc news:
Giuliani faces questions about Sept. 11
Post-terrorist attack hero status challenged by some firefighters’ families

NEW YORK – Rudy Giuliani’s White House aspirations are inescapably tied to Sept. 11, 2001 – for better and for worse.

While the former mayor of the nation’s largest city was widely lionized for his post-9/11 leadership – "Churchillian" was one adjective, "America’s mayor" was Oprah Winfrey’s assessment – city firefighters and their families are renewing their attacks on him for his performance before and after the terrorist attack.

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime – that’s indisputable
"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

Such comments contradict Giuliani’s post-Sept. 11 profile as a hero and symbol of the city’s resilience – the steadfast leader who calmed the nerves of a rattled nation. But as the presidential campaign intensifies, criticisms of his 2001 performance are resurfacing.

‘He disrespected us in the most horrific way’
Giuliani, the leader in polls of Republican voters for his party’s nomination, has been faulted on two major issues:

– His administration’s failure to provide the World Trade Center’s first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center.

Regenhard, at a 2004 commission hearing in Manhattan, screamed at Giuliani, "My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" The hearing was a perfect example of the 9/11 duality: Commission members universally praised Giuliani at the same event.

– A November 2001 decision to step up removal of the massive rubble pile at ground zero. The firefighters were angered when the then-mayor reduced their numbers among the group searching for remains of their lost "brothers," focusing instead on what they derided as a "scoop and dump" approach. Giuliani agreed to increase the number of firefighters at ground zero just days after ordering the cutback.

More than 5 1/2 years later, body parts are still turning up in the trade center site.

"We want America to know what this guy meant to New York City firefighters," said Peter Gorman, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. "In our experiences with this man, he disrespected us in the most horrific way."

The two-term mayor, in his appearance before the Sept. 11 Commission, said the blame for the death and destruction of Sept. 11 belonged solely with the terrorists. "There was not a problem of coordination on Sept. 11," he testified.

Giuliani was also criticized for locating the city’s emergency center in 7 World Trade Center, a building that contained thousands of gallons of diesel fuel when it collapsed after the terrorist attack.

The politics of 9/11
The lingering ill will between Giuliani and firefighters was resurrected when the International Association of Fire Fighters initially decided not to invite the former mayor to its March 14 candidates forum in Washington. Other prominent presidential hopefuls, including Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, addressed the nation’s largest firefighters union.

According to the Giuliani camp, the contretemps with the union dates to tough contract negotiations in his second term as mayor. His critics deny any political motivation.

The IAFF drafted a membership letter – it was never sent – that excoriated Giuliani and promised to tell "the real story" about his role in handling the terrorist attack
The then-mayor’s decision to change policy on the ground zero recovery effort was "an offensive and personal attack" on firefighters, the letter said, going on to say that Giuliani’s "disrespect … has not been forgotten or forgiven."

Giuliani countered the attacks by releasing an open letter of support from retired firefighter Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son was among the 2,749 victims on Sept. 11. "Firefighters have no greater friend and supporter than Rudy Giuliani," Ielpi said.

A contingent of nearly 100 South Carolina firefighters also expressed their support for Giuliani and his White House hopes.

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant, predicted the 9/11 criticisms could resonate beyond New York during the presidential campaign.

"These are very emotional people who will touch a responsive chord with a lot of the electorate," he said. "The things that the 9/11 families say will wind up in television commercials used against Rudy Giuliani."

The issues also have forced Giuliani to try to strike a balance to avoid the perception that he’s exploiting the attacks for his own personal gain. President Bush faced the same challenge in 2004 when he invoked the attacks to portray himself as a strong and steady leader in the face of terrorism. Some victims’ relatives criticized Bush for using the ruins of the World Trade Center in his campaign commercials, while others defended him.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17869046/

If you watch Fox News(Rep TV) or MSNBC(Dem TV) you wont be able to articulate an Intelligent answer to this question seeing as you don’t get Intelligent information to start off with. =)

Im an Independent aka thinking voter lol.

So that’s the question who should i vote for… ill tell you right now when this all started i was stuck between Gov. Richardson(D-NM)[the only candidate with an international track record] and Sen. McCain[if he wants to go to war he knows first had how bad it gets] but then Richardson didn’t make it and McCain changed everything he believed in to appeal to his base, so is he a liar or is he a liar. i have a thing about liars. so that leaves me with this dude talking about change will he do it? he better! Im leaning real hard toward Obama.
Reasons i don’t like either

Obama, we all know this country is still very racist things could happen to him leaving Bidden in charge who is a washington insider and agrees fully with The RIAA who need to get over them selves i swear greedy, moral-less, capitalists will be the death of this country unless they manage to take the whole world down with them. oddly starting to come true.

McCain, first i don’t like liars but he gets off the hook because hes in politics. i like the old McCain a lot but this isn’t him. my biggest concern is HES 70 SOMETHING!!!! have you seen AL DAVIS!?!? owner of the Raiders picture him running a country that’s barely standing. he did just change everything he believed that’s not a good sign of mental stability…But the real reason i don’t want to vote for him is Sarah Palin… you gotta be kidding me that’s the most pathetic move to try and get Hillary supporters! and its so Pathetic because there were so many more qualified WOMEN he could have chosen. hes old like may die of natural causes any moment old… and from what she’s showing us so far she DOES NOT have what it takes to run this country in times like this. that’s nice about she ran po dunk Vill. a budget that involves a couple hundred things and a few million dollars is a WHOLE different world from millions and trillions nothing agisnt Alaska its not the largest places in the world population wise. I belive he can still change his Vp pick thats his best chance at winning this election. lol Sarah Palin hahaha and i thought it was gonna be the dems that did something stupid and gift wrapped it for the repubs lol amazing!! to say the least.

So tell me why you think i should vote for the same guy you are.

most repubs are scare of obama cause he going to raise tax’s for his programs- well since that wall-street bailout was passed- congress is going to have to raise tax’s- so being sacred of that should not be a real issue- all those programs that each candidate wants to put into law will not get passed.
who ever wins the president need to sit down and look at the laws on the books already and see if they can try to straight that out first.

look for me i keep coming back to the question and no-one has not answer it for me: Mccain been in office for over 20 yrs- so why all he said that he could do haven’t happen? He also said that he’s one of those type of guys that can cross party lines well what happen?
He claims that he can find Osama, well why haven’t he conveyed this message to his good friend bush, so the troops can get him.
another thing is with this drilling: well if they start drilling off the coast or in alaska- it’s going to take 10 yrs to get oil from the earth- ok since they knew that this oil was there why are they now talking about drilling when it probably was not even thinking about it untill it got worst. i remember when katrina hit and that week after it happen- gas went up then to- so why didn’t start drilling then?
about sarah parlin; her views scares the crap out of me- her abortion views, her reglious views. i believe in a time of need the women has the right to do with what she wants with her body. i really don’t want you preaching your religious rules on me.

most of the repubs are sacred of obama cause of his race, they been misled to believe he was muslin, arab and whatever—
these people need to realize that this nation was bulit on religious difference.
quite frankly the people that need to be sacred of is the indians who land they took right from under there nose and abuse them.
they also talk about mccain has experience to be president- just because he been in congress for 26 yrs- they way i see it he haven’t held that office- so he doesn’t have experience.
we need to think about this crap- the old way is not working give someone else a chance to get it right or mess it up even more.

all i know is voted how you think the candidate have your best intreast in mind- not on fear or race.
we going to have some long lean years coming up and who ever gets in will no be able to do in 2 or 3 yrs. it might come at the end of the presidency.

i like this been voting for someone different every time i vote and always got stuck with someone that didn’t or couldn’t do they job.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon said Monday it is charging a Saudi Arabian held at Guantanamo with "organizing and directing" the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and will seek the death penalty.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25460351/

On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record of public service. But on the Internet, in his grocery store, at his neighbor’s house, at his son’s auto shop, Peterman has also absorbed another version of the Democratic candidate’s background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25447998

It’s a republican thing, the rest of us are not expected to understand it.
However the confession was the result of waterboarding and may not be admissible so it may never be prosecuted. One more job well done by this (MIS) administration.