The curious tale of Kamala Harris and the Northern Irish slave owner

Published

1 year ago

August 25, 2024

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In the heart of Ballymoney, a small town in Northern Ireland’s County Antrim, bike leather-clad tourists seek out a well-manicured memorial garden.

Astride his motorbike, a life-sized statue of champion racer Joey Dunlop leans back, arms folded, a victorious grin engraved for eternity. The late King of the Roads, a local legend, still commands pilgrimage from around the world.

There are statues too of his brother Robert, and nephew William, all three men taken before their time, snatched away by one of the world’s most dangerous sports.

Down the street, drinkers sip pints in the sunshine outside Joey’s Bar, beneath his smiling image. This place knows how to celebrate its sons.

Yet there is a strange reticence to embrace the ancestral ties that might see Ballymoney blood in the Oval Office. A reluctance to acknowledge the town’s most famous daughter. “You’ll not get them to talk on that,” one man told me. And I soon found out how right he was.

Five years ago, Donald J Harris, father of Kamala Harris, revealed his belief that he is descended from Hamilton Brown, born in Ballymoney around 1776. Brown emigrated to Jamaica and ran sugar plantations. He owned scores of slaves, some treated harshly.

In an essay by Harris, published by the Jamaica Global Online website, the Stanford University professor wrote: “My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (nee Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town).” Donald J Harris emigrated to the US from Jamaica in 1961.

That story has been given fresh impetus since Joe Biden paved the way for Kamala Harris to become the Democratic presidential candidate. In recent weeks, a County Antrim historian said he had found documentation shedding further light on Hamilton Brown.

Stephen McCracken told the local newspaper, the Ballymoney Chronicle, that he had discovered letters connecting Brown to his birthplace in Bracough, a townland just outside Ballymoney. He told the newspaper that Brown was “a seriously bad man, who travelled to London a few times to campaign against the abolition of slavery”.

The Irish Times picked up on the story, as did the Belfast Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

“I’ve been getting a wee bit of abuse over it,” McCracken told the Irish Times. “People have been asking me why I’ve publicised it.”

When I asked him for an interview, he declined, citing an abusive backlash via social media, including Kamala Harris supporters accusing him of trying to wreck her campaign.

Right-wing and pro-Trump memes have circulated since 2019, painting the Harris family as “descended from slave owners”, without any context. These tropes deliberately ignore the ugly explanation that slave owners commonly raped their female slaves, explaining why many black Jamaicans have European genes.

In the ultra-polarised world of American politics, Kamala supporters were allegedly hitting out at those publicising her heritage, seeing it as ammunition for further MAGA propaganda.

Meanwhile, the Ballymoney Chronicle carried a follow-up piece practically debunking the original claim of lineage. A qualified genealogist told the paper that the links were “unproven”, and said Hamilton Brown was not recorded as getting married or having children.

When I asked that genealogist for an interview – they agreed. The next day they abruptly cancelled, calling the story “a pile of nonsense”.

I asked McCracken for further details of his research. He stopped replying.

A third historian told me he didn’t think existing documentation would ever prove the link. “You’d need DNA testing,” he said.

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I felt like I was encountering a wall of silence from others in Ballymoney. Multiple phone calls, messages and emails to a high-profile local DUP councillor went unanswered. A Sinn Fein colleague seemed unaware of the story and not overly interested in an interview. Ballymoney business owners declined to arrange interviews, or were not returning calls.

Repeated attempts to visit Ballymoney were abandoned due to rioting in Belfast. Another journey was aborted after the Sky News satellite van suffered a blow-out on a particularly inhospitable stretch of road.

The story was starting to feel a bit cursed.

When we did belatedly arrive, the contrast to other US presidential “hometowns” in Ireland was stark. Long before they received the imprimatur of an actual visit, Ballina in Co Mayo and Carlingford in Co Louth were abuzz with Bidenmania.

You can’t visit the “Barack Obama Plaza” motorway service station outside Moneygall, Co Offaly, without a sense of the faintly ridiculous Irish enthusiasm for presidential heritage. Petrol and a chicken fillet roll downstairs, Obama visitor centre upstairs.

Yet, half a decade on from Donald J Harris’s revelation, there isn’t a solitary sign of the transatlantic connection in Ballymoney. Not a mural, a sign, a US flag or an enterprising cafe with a Kamala-themed name.

On Main Street, pedestrians were bemused. Most simply hadn’t heard the tale. It’d take more than Kamala to brighten up “this dreary town”, one woman ventured, a bit unkindly.

But some locals were happy to talk.

In the W & J Walker hardware shop, paint brushes from both the “Hamilton” and “Harris” brands hung serendipitously side-by-side.

“People around here like family trees,” said worker Joanne Donnell. “They like to go back to the original people.”

“It’ll bring a bit of excitement to the town,” her sister Rhonda Lafferty said. “We get a lot of visitors here from America, this summer especially.”

Neither woman seemed concerned that Hamilton Brown was a slave owner. “People take these things with a pinch of salt,” said Joanne. “It was a long time ago.”

Winifred Mellot owns the bustling The Winsome Lady clothes shop. A popular figure, she is also the long-serving president of the Ballymoney Chamber of Commerce. She doesn’t think Brown’s slave-owning past should sour any future celebrations.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I mean let’s face it, we all have ancestors we’re not happy with, and you can’t blame Kamala or her family for what Hamilton Brown did. No, we don’t approve of it but it’s history.”

County Antrim’s White House credentials are also history. Incredibly, nine US presidents (with varying degrees of certainty) claim lineage from The Saffron County, from Andrew Jackson right up to Ronald Reagan (shared with Co Tipperary).

Can Kamala Harris make it 10? That depends firstly on the US electorate, and a willingness in Ballymoney to embrace the story.

Not far from the town you’ll find the Dark Hedges which portray the “King’s Road” in Game Of Thrones. A certain darkness too, may lurk within the branches of the Harris family tree. But while historians bicker, Kamala’s own father knows his truth. And that roots the family as surely in Antrim soil as those storm-battered beeches.

US

Meet the ‘moral migrants’ relocating from the West to Russia in search of sanctuary

Published

23 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Meet the 'moral migrants' relocating from the West to Russia in search of sanctuary

Imagine moving to a country you’ve never been to before, with a culture you have no knowledge of and with a language you’re unable to speak. You’re with your whole family, including three children. And your new home, not your old one, is at war with its neighbour.

Well, that’s exactly what the Hare family did, who relocated to Russia from the United States two years ago because they felt “persecuted”.

“We were noticing a great upsurge in LGBT-type policies coming into the government, especially the school system,” Leo Hare says.

“This is where we drew a line in the sand,” his wife Chantelle adds. “This is a complete demonic attack against the conservative Christian families.”

The devout Christians, who have three sons aged 17, 15 and 12, describe themselves as “moral migrants”.

I’m chatting to them at their apartment in Ivanovo, a city 150 miles from Moscow. It’s a big change from Texas, where the family lived on a farm and had their own shooting range.

But in a country where so-called “LGBT propaganda” is banned, they say they feel safer than before.

“There are laws that say: ‘no you can’t just run wild and have gay pride parades and dance in front of all the children’. You can’t do this. I like this,” Leo tells me.

The family was granted asylum last year in a ceremony that was covered on state TV. But as unusual as their story may sound, the Hares aren’t the only ones who have turned to Russia in search of sanctuary.

According to the latest figures from Russia’s interior ministry, 2,275 Westerners have applied for a new shared values visa, which was introduced by Vladimir Putin last August.

It’s aimed at those who think the West has become too woke.

Citizens from countries Russia considers unfriendly (which includes Britain, the US and most of the EU) are offered a three-year residency permit without meeting any language requirements or skills criteria.

On the ninth floor of a skyscraper in Moscow’s financial district, a group of adults are holding pens in their mouths and making strange noises.

We’re observing a Russian language class that’s been put on by an expat club to help its members integrate into the local society.

Among those with the bit between their teeth is British national Philip Port from Burnley, Lancashire.

He runs a visa agency for those going in the opposite direction – Russians to the UK – and has been coming to Russia on and off for 20 years. He says he applied for the shared values visa for both practical and ideological reasons.

“I love Russia,” he tells me unapologetically, describing it as “safe as houses”.

“There’s no crime, the streets are clean, it’s well-developed,” he adds.

His view of the UK is nowhere near as complimentary.

“I’m all for gay rights, don’t get me wrong, but I think when they’re teaching them to children in school – I’ve got a seven-year-old son, I don’t want him being influenced in that way.”

It’s unclear how many British nationals have migrated to Russia under the shared values visa, but Philip Hutchinson, whose company Moscow Connect helps Westerners apply for the pathway, says he receives between 50 and 80 inquiries a week from the UK.

“There’s a huge amount of people that are frustrated by the way the country’s got in,” he tells me. “Taxes keep going up and up and up. And we’re giving all this money to Ukraine.”

Mr Hutchinson stood as a candidate for the Conservative Party in last year’s local elections in Britain.

He moved to Moscow earlier this year after his Russian wife was unable to obtain a UK visa, bucking a trend that saw most Western expats flee Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

I ask him if the war bothers him or his clients.

“It doesn’t,” he answers without hesitation. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m not getting involved in that. You know, I’m not here to deal with politics.”

But is politics at play here?

After arriving in Russia, many of the “ideological immigrants” post slick videos on social media about how wonderful their new life is.

One prominent American blogger called Derek Huffman, who moved to Russia with his family from Arizona, has even joined the Russian army to fight in Ukraine.

It’s the perfect PR for a country that markets itself as a beacon of conservative values, and as the antidote to moribund, Western liberalism. But Russia insists it’s not running a recruitment campaign.

“We don’t give any social security guarantee or any free housing,” says Maria Butina, the Russian lawmaker spearheading the shared values programme.

“People come on their own with their own money, own families, at their own expense.”

Not everyone’s had a positive experience, though. The Hares say they were scammed out of $50,000 (£38,200) by the family who initially put them up when they arrived in Russia.

And their two oldest sons have returned to America, because of problems finding a school. The family weren’t aware that children are required to speak Russian to be eligible for a state education.

So, do they regret moving here?

“Moving so fast? Probably,” Leo admits.

“At times though, your pathway in life takes you places you wouldn’t have willingly gone. But through God and providence, you’re meant to go through this.”

US

Donald Trump says he would ‘love to see’ Marjorie Taylor Greene return to politics

Published

23 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Donald Trump says he would 'love to see' Marjorie Taylor Greene return to politics

President Donald Trump says he would “love to see” one-time ally Marjorie Taylor Greene return to politics one day – as the fiery congresswoman reportedly considers a White House run in 2028.

The US leader said “it’s not going to be easy for her” to revive her political career in comments to Sky’s partner network NBC News.

But he added: “I’d love to see that.”

In the meantime, Mr Trump said “she’s got to take a little rest”.

Marjorie Taylor Greene – a one-time MAGA ally who has turned into a fierce critic of Mr Trump – unexpectedly announced on Saturday that she would be resigning from Congress.

In a video posted online, the Georgia representative said she did not want her congressional district “to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president we all fought for”.

Ms Greene’s resignation followed a falling-out with Mr Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticised him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and health care.

Mr Trump branded her a “traitor” and “lunatic” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for re-election next year.

She said her last day would be 5 January 2026.

Meanwhile, Time magazine reports that Ms Greene has told allies that she is considering running for president in 2028.

US

Haunted by Trump deja vu, Ukraine and its allies are in a perilous moment

Published

23 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Haunted by Trump deja vu, Ukraine and its allies are in a perilous moment

There is a profound sense of deja vu surrounding the Ukraine crisis right now.

It was only a few months ago that European leaders rushed to Washington after Donald Trump appeared to align with Vladimir Putin at their Alaska Summit.

The Europeans gathered in Washington in August and appeared convinced that they had pulled Trump back around to their mindset: that unity and strength, not capitulation, is the answer for Ukraine.

Well, this week it is possible (some sources say probable) that European leaders will again head to Washington for another attempt to pull Trump back.

Ukraine live: Trump suggests peace plan ‘not final offer’

Ukraine and its allies head to Geneva

The meeting in Geneva on Sunday is absolutely pivotal.

It was billed initially as a meeting between the Americans and the Ukrainians.

But it has since morphed into a wider meeting with a number of European countries sending senior officials.

The core meeting is still expected to be between US envoy Steve Witkoff and the Ukrainians, but sideline talks will now take place with a much wider group of nations.

Many European leaders have spoken to President Trump on Friday and Saturday and plan to do so again.

I am told Keir Starmer’s conversation with him was “good, short but productive.”

Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, will be in Geneva.

Over the last nine months, he has emerged as an important British influence on the Trump administration. He is close to Witkoff – who co-wrote or at least signed off on the 28-point plan.

However, the Powell-Witkoff relationship is clearly not close enough to have afforded the UK a heads-up on this latest peace plan.

‘Sudden injection’

One source told me that the “sudden injection” by the Americans had “been surprising.”

The American decision to put a rocket under the quest for peace in Ukraine appeared to have vice president JD Vance’s fingerprints on it.

The territorial elements of the peace plan are almost identical to a proposal put forward by Vance in the summer of 2024 before Trump won the election.

Vance’s stance on Ukraine has always leant towards questioning the point of it all. He led the attacks of Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Oval Office in February.

The US secretary of the army, Dan Driscoll, who has taken a lead in the conversions with Ukrainian officials, is a friend and ally of Vance – the two were at Yale together.

Vance has also been leading calls for his own administration to spend more time on “the home front”.

This sudden momentum on Ukraine could be an attempt to draw a line under it quickly in order to focus attention domestically.

The week ahead

So – things to look out for now: first, the Geneva meeting on Sunday – this is pivotal and will set the tone and the agenda for the days ahead. It is day-by-day at the moment.

Out of the Geneva meeting, a meeting of the European “coalition of the willing” countries will convene.

And following that, a contingent of European leaders heading to Washington seems likely – perhaps on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, America begins to wind down for the biggest holiday of the year – Thanksgiving.

Trump’s deadline for an agreement by Thanksgiving still feels improbable, but it’s not impossible that some sort of memorandum of understanding could be signed by then.