Though current US Vice President and presumptive Democratic candidate Kamala Harris might not openly acknowledge it, her lineage includes Irish ancestry. Kamala Harris was born to Shyamala Gopalan Harris, an Indian, and Donald J Harris, a Jamaican.
Details provided by Genealogist Stephen McCracken from Northern Ireland show that Hamilton Brown, Mrs. Harris’s paternal ancestor four generations removed, hailed from County Antrim. Born on the same year as the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, Brown later relocated to Jamaica, which was under British control at the time, and became a passionate slave owner on the sugar plantations that were central to the island’s economy.
Contrary to the move to abolish slavery in the British Empire in 1832, Brown sought to replenish his workforce by bringing in labour from his birth county in lieu of his former slaves. Brown’s legacy lives on in Jamaica, giving his name to the Jamaican town of Brown Town, and his resting place is within St Mark’s Anglican Church, a structure he funded and constructed.
Donald Harris, Kamala’s father and a retiree of Stanford University where he served as a professor of economics, addressed his familial history of slave ownership in an article for a Jamaican newspaper in 2018. Interestingly, his mother’s name was Finegan, a surname shared with President Joe Biden’s Irish forebears.
In his own words, Donald Harris explained: “I can trace my ancestry back to my paternal grandmother Chrishy (whose maiden name was Christiana Brown, an offspring of Hamilton Brown who was known as a plantation and slave holder, and founder of Brown’s Town) as well as my maternal grandmother Iris (aka Iris Finegan, a farmer and teacher from Aenon Town and Inverness, whose lineage remains unknown to me).
He continued, “The surname Harris was taken from my paternal grandfather, Joseph Alexander Harris—a land owner and exporter of agricultural ‘produce’, particularly pimento or ‘all-spice’—who passed away in the year following my birth in 1939 and is interred in the grounds of the impressive Anglican Church in Brown’s Town (where I was taught the catechism, received my baptism and confirmation, and served as an acolyte during my childhood years)”.
The monument honouring Hamilton Brown states: ‘In tribute to HAMILTON BROWN Esq., a native of County Antrim, Ireland, who left this world on September 18th, 1843, at the age of 67. Recognised as the FOUNDER OF THIS TOWN, he held the position of Representative for this parish for 22 years in the Honourable House of Assembly. His legacy will forever be remembered.’
Ms Harris is on track for the Democratic presidential nomination as the necessary party delegates have pledged their support for her, smoothing her way to the nomination.
Following the withdrawal from the re-election campaign by President Joe Biden on Sunday, Ms Harris has emerged as the anticipated nominee of the party. This change has occurred amidst weeks of internal discord within the party and after internal surveys exposed a drastic decrease in Biden’s backing in a competition against his Republican opponent, Donald Trump.