In Ballymoney, Co Antrim, there’s a well-known clothing store called The Winsome Lady. Inside, an entire wall is adorned with photos of the city’s most renowned citizens, which includes William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, whose ancestral residence is in proximity to Dervock, a village nearby.
These days, conversations often revolve around the US Vice President and potential Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, due in part to discoveries regarding her alleged lineage tied to the town. Ballymoney’s weekly newspaper’s lead story sparked the talk, indicating Harris’s link to the town through Hamilton Brown, a notorious slave owner and migrant to Jamaica from Co Antrim, who was born in 1766. He managed a sugar plantation in Jamaica and is now believed to be Kamala Harris’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, according to genealogical research. This narrative was also picked by the New York Post among other publications.
However, Winifred Mellot, the owner of The Winsome Lady, asserts that Hamilton Brown’s picture won’t be hung on their wall of fame. But, she adds, if Kamala Harris does have a connection to the city, they will definitely celebrate her.
This rural town, hung with union flags, is a unionist bastion. Mellot, also the administrator of Ballymoney’s Chamber of Commerce, disparagingly refers to the area as “cow town,” due to its interim position between Coleraine and Ballymena, causing most to miss them. However, the town rose to fame due to its native motorbike riders. The prospect of Kamala’s connection to the town, according to Mellot, is utterly exciting.
The hometown of Hamilton Brown was confirmed to be Bracough, north of Ballymoney, through historic letters found by Stephen McCracken, a historian from Antrim.
Delving further into history, it was revealed that Brown was a severe antagonist who journeyed to London to plead against the abolishment of slavery across the British empire in 1832, explains McCracken. “Our history may be uncomfortable and we cannot alter that,” he said, adding that he had been subject to considerable criticism for bringing the subject to light. However, he poses that Kamala’s achievement is indeed of historical significance.
There’s a consensus among locals that this is indeed a significant story. Malachy McKenna, a livestock trader, had never heard of Hamilton Brown until now. “Unless something comes flying out of the blue, it remains unknown, right?” he adds. “Considering the fact that he was a slave-owner and now his descendant, Kamala Harris, is the first woman and first black vice-president, she might even be America’s next president. It’s remarkable how history unfolds.”
This discovery was subsequent to earlier research conducted by Kamala’s father, Donald Harris, an economist teaching at Stanford University. He had written in 2019 that Kamala’s great-grandmother, Christiana Brown, was a descendant of Hamilton Brown, the well-documented plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town in Jamaica.
Not all residents of Ballymoney seem to be interested in this discovery. “Never heard of him”, say two local women. However, Sharon McClelland, the manager of a local shoe shop, feels that Harris’s lineage has piqued her interest in the presidential race. She deems it intriguing.
Alan Millar, a senior reporter of Ballymoney Chronicle, states that while the news hasn’t yet sparked major conversation in town, he feels that the people of Ballymoney would not be immediately forthcoming about it.
The information is “complicated” for a woman whose ancestry links back to Hamilton Brown’s sister. “When I first came across Brown and Kamala Harris, I was fascinated thinking I had a celebrated ancestor. However, the more I discovered about Hamilton Brown, the less endearing he became. Hamilton was a brute, to put it bluntly,” said Linde Lunney.
A retired scholar who used to work for the Dictionary of Irish Biography in Dublin appeals to the complexity of celebrating history, especially when it’s entwined with the slave trade. Having grown up on a farm in Co Antrim, Lunney concedes that the ancestry of Kamala Harris, linking back to Hamilton Brown, a Jamaican legislator and her great-great-great-great-grandfather, is extraordinary, though it’s not meant to be an overt celebration or a reason for a ‘welcome home’ invitation. She mused on Brown’s potential perception of Harris if he were alive.
However, the exploration of her roots is not an endorsement of Brown’s actions, according to a DUP councillor in the vicinities. He affirms that ‘imperfections are present in all of our histories’, as argued by Mervyn Storey. He believes it’s worth pursuing the part of history that Ballymoney shares with Harris. Pressing further, he conveyed that if Harris ever ascended to the role of the US president, she’d surely find an invite in her mail to visit Ballymoney, a prospect they would unanimously embrace.