President Obama May Be Related to the First Black Slave in America
President Obama’s ancestry has become a consistent point of fascination in a nation where racial divides have come to define the social landscape of our society. The latest example of this fascination is a finding by Ancestry.com claiming that President Obama may be related to the first American slave.
The most interesting point of the discovery is that the slave is not related to Obama’s black father, but to his white mother instead.
“We have two of the most significant Africans in our country’s history being directly related to each other,” said Joseph Shumway, an Ancestry.com genealogist.
A group of genealogists put in 500 hours to secure the ancestry tree of President Obama. They were then able to connect the president to John Punch, an indentured servant who was sentenced to a life of slavery after trying to escape servitude in Virginia.
The challenge in the finding was going through all the records that had been destroyed over time. Descendants of slaves often have a difficult time finding their history due to a lack of available information. By piecing together the evidence, researchers were able to connect President Obama to the Punch family farm in Virginia.
They then found that the family (called Punch) was related to John Bunch, who was African American. At that time (the early 1600s), interracial marriage was not looked down upon in Virginia. It wasn’t until the 1660s that it became a problem and eventually outlawed. Punch fathered many children with a white woman, with these children being called the Bunches.
“[A]ll of the surviving evidence we studied very strongly points to conclusion John Bunch is the son of John Punch,” said Shumway.
“[A] lot of pieces of circumstantial evidence pointed at John Punch as the only logical candidate who could fit as this African American ancestor,” said Shumway.
The search for President Obama’s background is nothing new. Ancestry.com has been conducting the search since Obama ran for president back in 2008.
“We felt this was an incredibly significant discovery,” Shumway said.
There is no evidence that President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, knew that she had African ancestry. President Obama’s great-great-great-great grandmother, Anna Bunch, as born in Tennessee and her daughter moved to Kansas in 1834. That’s where Obama’s mother was born and where he was raised for a large part of his life.
This finding plays a part in the debate over whether President Obama is “black enough,” because some said that he was not a descendant of slaves. But there are others who say that in spite of this connection, his mother’s lack of knowledge that she was a descendant of slaves still likely led to Obama being raised with the perspective of a white American. The debate is far from over.
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CNN led with this story this morning and the only people that found it more than an interesting commentary on American race relations is Donald “Duck” Trump and that idiot sheriff in Arizona. If everyone’s DNA were evaluated for ethnicity we’d probably find that we’re probably all cousins. Maybe we should treat one another better. The people you hate might be your family….
Yo AL..first you demean Trump by calling him “Duck” and then you demean the sheriff by calling him an “idiot”, then you claim that “maybe we should treat one another better”? Right! Sounds like a “Bunch” of c**p if you ask me…just like the article above.
@ Almasi Sidu Jitu: Scientists have already proven that we are one species, one race, and one family of people. Other sciences are now proving that we are a very mentally ill race of animals on this planet. That should be obvious by simply noticing everything going on around us and processing it properly. But everyone (as mentally handicapped as many are) cannot process reality correctly, and it doesn’t help for them to have religious superstitious beliefs imbedded into their consciousness and emotional psyche! In this social structure the poor are compelled to vote the rich to serve and protect them, and how insane is that? There are many signs which point to our overall insanity as well as our individual sanity, but alas we are too insane to acknowledge this and individual so insane that we live in fantasy and a constant wave of denial!
Who cares if your ancestors where half black in the 1600′s…if you intermingled with everyone white up until the 2000′s then you WHITE!! you are not cousins!!..That like me saying i had a white ancestor 400 years ago and think we are still related !!
It’s strange that people will go to any lengths to make sure the “black” democratic voting community vote Obama and give the appearance that voting is legitimate and that we African Americans support the rich surrogate (Obama), of the ‘Anglo-elite’!
The elite have already chosen their surrogate for these two segments of their rule. The whole process of the democratic voting [game] is only to keep the public under a cloud of ignorance! It is easier to manipulate the country and the world when the population is oblivious to truth and enlightenment on a multitude of levels, and are also very easily fooled and conditioned without realizing this! In this country even the most most learned and intelligent are completely lost in a extravagant and growing con game that spans centuries of preparation, repair, and corrections! Sure it’s unbelievable, but in a social structure controlled by the uber-wealthy, which lies and keeps massive amounts of secrets, while harming and murdering members of the populace, and people of other nations, exactly what is it that you don’t get? The only way they can do this is by convincing the “normal” people that everything is as it seems.
What a “Bunch” of crock!!!!! CNN really??
The people are fooled on practically every level of this society! Nearly every ‘media’ is owned by conglomerates which are owned by very wealthy and very powerful families! Our conscious minds have been ‘tweaked’ ever since we became “aware” of our surroundings. We are left out-of-the loop of vital ‘needed’ information, hardly enough to form proper opinions and ideals. We are left thinking we know things we really don’t know! Most are too inundated with fantasy, superstition, and false propaganda to even bother understanding the truth or trying to seek reality and truth, which is hidden on a magnitude of layers and purposely connected to bits and pieces of reality and truth, just enough to fool the prepped ignorant! How can we know if we aren’t prepared to know or if we don’t aggressively seek proper knowledge from proper sources. How can we tell where the proper sources are? One way is to seek it from organizations and people who are not a part of the wealthy corporate machine, and who are not trying to create wealth in the attempts to dispense knowledge. Look to the disenfranchised academia, booted and demeaned journalists. Mainly disregard any information tied to the wealthy and/or corporates. They know that lying to populace protects them from scrutiny and justice.
So what arnt we all decendant of slaves. weather we were born in the United States or some other nation in the western hemisphare we are decendant of Slavery, and are still slaves to the system. Now he is head of the plantation. Is he showing mercy to the slaves or he is just like the masters befor him?.
Personally I would not want his job, I would be hungry rather than running a plantation.The burden of evil would make it hard to sleep at nights.
@Edward: It takes special types of people to be surrogates for the Anglo-elite. Psychologically the people are selfish and are deceiving themselves as well. There are a myriad of symptoms which make up the perfect human for political rule. Those who do not have those negative (nearly positive) issues, and find themselves in politics are quickly subjected to a ‘wake-up’ call! Those who are not cut out to be the type of “criminal mind” a “good politician” represents are quickly kicked out or quit! Some of them assimilate and become wealthy and fat off the public and private t**s!
We as African Americans, “blacks”, were never meant to survive this type of “white” Anglo-dominant social-structure, and sure enough most of us are struggling, generation to generation! Many of us do not see this as we are expected to, and many of us are unable to adjust to what we can see as a lopsided, unjust, genocidal, racist, etc., etc., nation. But what many of us fail to realize is that we have been assimilated [just enough] to be confused, misguided and hooked into an unrealistic, greedy, consumerist, and overall superstitious world of liars and posers, to say the least! We are “sitting ducks” and we can’t even comprehend the severity of our predicament even as it plays out before us!
I like your brilliiant comment WizardG!!!
There is a distinct difference between “the first documented African enslaved for life in American history,” and the first enslaved Afrikans in what was then part of the British Empire in North America. Indeed the title of this article does grave injustice to the Angolans, called the “20 and odd” who were sold to the governor and cape merchant of Virginia by British pirates in August, 1619.
These Afrikans were slaves in every sense of the word, having been captured in Angola. There were approximately 350 people crammed into a Portuguese slave ship called the San Juan Bautista bound for Mexico. Based on the merchant records about 150 of them perished during the dreaded Middle Passage. British pirates attacked the “Bautista” and stole 50 of these Angolans, whom they transported to Virginia aboard two ships (the White Lion and the Treasurer) and sold for food. Per the available records these Angolans were resold to Virginia settlers in Jamestown. Some of them became indentured servants.
Unlike English indentured servants who voluntarily came to North America due to massive unemployment, and intense poverty in England, or to finish serving time for criminal convictions, these Angolans who were transported to Virginia in 1619 were free people living productive lives who became part of the largest forced migration in history. So don’t get this “first Black slave” thing twisted.
In fact, prior to the English, the Spaniards transported 100 enslaved Afrikans to South Carolina:
[The first slave revolt in continental North America was in South Carolina in 1526. Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, a Spanish colonizer founded a town near the Pee Dee River. This settlement consisted of 500 Spaniards and 100 enslaved Africans. Illness soon hit the settlement and Ayllon died. The South Carolina Indians became hostile to the settlement, and in November the enslaved Africans revolted, killing their Spanish masters, and escaped to the Indians. The surviving 150 returned to Haiti in December, 1526. (Herbert Aptheker, Negro Slave Revolts in the United States 1526-1860 pp. 16- 17; Joseph Cephas Carroll, Slave Insurrections in the United States 1800-1865. Reprinted by the Negro Universities press: Westport, Connecticut, 1971. p.13)]
The history of John Punch is well documented. His relationship to John Bunch (and Ann Dunham-Barack Obama) via a white woman requires further research, but the DNA study is certainly plausible.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/responses/spotlight.html
I have family members I really don’t like & that I find difficult to get along with & that does not mean I’m insane. Reality is that in order to survive in this cold, cruel world one seeks out whom one feels safe & confortable getting along & associating with. Life has to have some pleasantness and we are required to seek it out for our own well being. Somewhere along the way we learn what is good for us & at some point it should become obvious what we like and makes us feel good.
Everyone currently on this planet represents the survival class (regardless of race) and that means we adjust to what keeps us here & hopefully we seek to thrive & prosper. Insanity is a problem only to those who having survived don’t recognize who will help them thrive not just exist in the same condition as before. Obama’s job is to continue to fool us into thinking he has our best interests at heart in order to stay in power. He’s very adept at convincing people they are part of him even when he continues to distance himself from the very persons whose vote he needs in order to continue to live like a ruling king. He has to convince just enough people, regardless of race, that he is their man in Washington. He’s one of us. Kind of like an abusive parent that keeps telling his children he loves them & the children just hang on deceiving themselves.
Schwarzenegger Jokes about Smoking Weed with Obama in the 1970s
It truly amazes me that the “Crabs In The Barrel” phenomenon is kept alive and well by the likes of Dr. Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, Yvette Carnell, and yes you, Dr. Boyce Watkins! When do each of you expect to get your own show on Fox News and be with the white devils there? The four of you have too much knowledge to offer the African-American community, as well as the general American community, to be taking these evil, unwarranted, unproductive, disloyal, insensitive and potentially divisive positions relative to the first Black President of the United States of America! We need your bright minds to uplift our Black community, not serve the white devils to depress and tear us and our community down! History, and Ourstory and Yourstory, will record you as the traitors to the Black community that you are! It will be your legacy, and that would be most unfortunate! However, it would be even more troubling if the four of you Judases are being the evil, destructive and divisive traitors you are without being royally compensated! Take the ten pieces of tin, but betray the white devils and help us win!
We want, and need, all Real Americans of good will to really recognize that we have a great person-President Barack Obama- serving all Americans now! Let’s re-elect President Barack Obama on Tuesday, November 06, 2012 and help him to become the greatest President in the history of the United States of America!