A claim that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is descended from a white slave owner in Jamaica resurfaced online in the run-up to the 2024 election. For example, one TikTok post shared in early August 2024 claimed Harris' "great-great-great-great granddaddy used to own slaves."
Snopes initially addressed this rumor in 2019. At that time, we had found no record confirming a link between Harris' paternal great-grandmother, Christiana Brown, and Mary Melvina Brown (sometimes spelled Mulvina), who some believed to be either the granddaughter or daughter of Irish slave owner Hamilton Brown. Given this absence, we rated the claim as unproven.
Following the July 2024 announcement of Harris' candidacy for U.S. president, this rumor received renewed interest. It centered around her paternal lineage and has been used in attempts to undermine her politically. However, new information has since come to light.
The Original Claim: Kamala Harris and Hamilton Brown
In 2018, the now-vice president's father, professor Donald J. Harris, published an essay (archived) in Jamaica Global — a website focused on news about Jamaicans and the Jamaican diaspora — titled: "Reflections of a Jamaican Father."
In the article, he discussed his family's heritage and traced his lineage to his grandmother, Christiana Brown, who he said was descended from Hamilton Brown, a white plantation and slave owner in Jamaica during the early 19th century. The professor, who was born in Jamaica, wrote:
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.
Snopes contacted Donald Harris for further details on his lineage and will update this article if we receive a response.
Sources confirm Hamilton Brown was born around 1776 near Ballymoney, County Antrim, in what is now Northern Ireland. He later emigrated to Jamaica, where he became a prominent figure in the plantation and slave economy. Brown owned several hundred slaves, imported European laborers and indentured servants,
According to Jamaican archives and University College London's (UCL) Centre for the Study of the Legacy of British Slavery, Brown enslaved people on sugar, livestock,
Open-source genealogical websites Geni and Ancestry also indicated that Brown fathered a son, also named Hamilton Brown — and this is where the direct lineage to Kamala Harris grows murky.
New Discoveries and Ongoing Research
Since our 2019 investigation, new information has surfaced, providing additional context and clues for Harris' possible connection to Hamilton Brown.
In 2021, historian Diana Muir Appelbaum published a book called, "Ancestors of Hamilton Brown Slave Owner, Browns Town, Jamaica." It gave the following context about Hamilton Brown's background, his treatment of the slaves in Jamaica, and his son (emphasis our own):
Born in 1776, Hamilton Brown came from Tullyloob, County Down, Ireland to Jamaica in order to earn his fortune [ …] Within a few years, Hamilton Brown had made a name for himself; buying and selling slaves and property [ …] and before long owned more than 6 properties, each with a slave population. He lived in Saint Ann parish [ …] and represented the parish for 22 years in the House of Assembly of Jamaica. He founded Hamilton Town, which was later renamed Browns Town [ …] He brought over 300 people from Balleymoney, County Antrim, Ireland to Saint Anne [ …] but most were little more than white slaves [ …] He was often criticized for his treatment of his slaves and workers. When he died in 1843 it is guessed that he had more than 30 children himself by different slave women [ …] Although he never married, he left part of his property to his son Hamilton Brown Jr, a mulatto whose mother was Kate Williams, a Negro Ebo slave who was brought to Jamaica before 1832 when slavery was abolished in Great Britain.
The 2021 biography "Kamala's Way: An American Life" by former Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Morain
Morain said via phone call: "What I know is what I wrote. I have no reason to doubt Donald Harris, but you can't know for sure that Kamala Harris is descended from Hamilton Brown without DNA testing," adding, "If it's true [and Harris is elected president], she would be the first person in the White House who is descended from slaves."
We have also contacted Jamaican archivists for reviews of church and parish records that could provide new insights into the Brown family lineage. As of now, we await responses to confirm any conclusive findings.
The Harris Family Lineage Uncertainty
The original Snopes story reviewed multiple genealogical sources, none of which could confirm Hamilton Brown, the slave-owning plantation founder, as Kamala Harris' direct ancestor. We consulted
What we do know of Hamilton Brown's documented history, including public records maintained by UCL, is that he owned hundreds of slaves across multiple estates, and fathered children with some of the women he enslaved.
Recent genealogical research has revealed several interesting pieces of information that attempt to join the branches of the Harris family tree, though none that definitively solve the mystery. Due to gaps or conflicting information and ongoing alterations in real time to genealogical reports, there remains some confusion about the name "Hamilton Brown." To recap what we've managed to unravel:
- Kamala Harris' father, professor Donald J. Harris, is the son of Oscar Joseph Brown Harris and Beryl Magdeline Finegan.
- Oscar Harris was the son of Joseph Alexander Harris and Christiana Brown.
- While some genealogical websites name Christiana Brown's mother as Mary Melvina/Mulvina Brown, others name her as Mary Jane Brown.
- Due to this conflicting information, we were unable to definitively verify whether Kamala Harris' paternal great-grandmother, Christiana Elita "Chrishy" Brown's, father was an
innkeeper called Hamilton Brown , who may have been the son of slave owner Hamilton Brown (one site lists Hamilton Brown, the slave owner, as the innkeeper's father, while another lists someone named Charles Brown as the innkeeper's father), or a different Hamilton Brown who descended from the slave owner.
While some sources indicate slave master Hamilton Brown never married, other genealogical databases and historians suggest he
Meanwhile, other genealogical sources suggest Hamilton Brown, the slave owner, was married to a woman named Ann Riley, and together they had two children, Hamilton Brown, II and Elizabeth Wallace.
These websites indicate Hamilton Brown may have fathered two sons he named after himself. It was indeed a common practice in the 1800s for parents to bestow on multiple sons the same first name as their father.
Historian and author Christer Petley noted in his book, "Slaveholders in Jamaica: Colonial Society and Culture during the Era of Abolition," that in 1842, in Hamilton Brown's final will, he "left property and other legacies to his wife and children in Jamaica, to his godson in Britain and to his brother and sisters in Ireland. He also stated that in 'all former wills made by me I left legacies to my nephews and relations in this island as well as other friends.'"
Ancestry.com lists Hamilton Brown (whose father is named, perhaps erroneously, as slave master Hamilton Brown) and wife Mary Melvina/Mulvina Brown as parents to several children, including Mabel Melvina Brown, sister to Kamala Harris' great-grandmother, Christiana Brown. Newspaper archives address Mabel Brown's death in 1935, confirming her parents' names as Hamilton Brown and Mary Mulvina Brown:
(findagrave.com/)
Mabel and Christiana Brown are also noted as having had a brother, Dr. Edwin Hamilton Brown. A newspaper article announcing
(Geni)
Addressing the Gaps: What We Still Don't Know
An Oct. 2024 discussion on Geni attempted to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the family lineage, particularly the identity and lineage of Mary Melvina Brown's father and husband, who appear to share the name Hamilton Brown. On Oct. 25, 2024, the following note was added to the FamilySearch page for Hamilton Brown Sr., the apparent slave owner: "Stop deleting everything you are complicit in continuing the misinformation. This tree was well researched with records and 'someone' deleted everything."
The existence of these conflicting accounts and lack of primary documentation definitively proving or disproving a genealogical link means it has not been possible to definitively confirm Kamala Harris descended from Irish slave owner Hamilton Brown. The question remains whether Brown, the politician and slave owner, is the same Hamilton Brown referred to by Donald Harris in his essay, or whether the Brown of Harris' ancestry was a different individual who happened to have the same name and reside in the same area in Jamaica.
Beyond family lore, the evidence tying Harris directly to Hamilton Brown remains inconclusive and the claim therefore unproven, though neither have we found evidence to disprove a potential connection. As noted by her biographer Dan Morain, Harris would need to undergo DNA testing to confirm her familial link to Hamilton Brown the slave owner. Combined with historical records, this would provide clarity on her family's ancestry. We remain transparent about the gaps in our research, as they're a fundamental part of this investigation. As such, we have rated this claim as unproven.