Ainsley Harriott Reflects On Slave Owner Roots | Who Do You Think You Are

Ainsley reflects on his findings, and anxiety over finding out his ancestors were in fact slave owners. He heads to the former Harriot estate which is now abandoned and derelict and reflects on what it was probably like at the time.

In each episode one of Britain's best-loved celebrities traces their family tree to reveal the surprising, extraordinary and often moving stories of their ancestors.

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Ainsley Harriott travelled to the West Indies to uncover his roots and soon discovered that Caribbean history isn't quite as 'black and white' as he'd imagined.

Ainsley thought he already knew a lot about his father's side of the family. He'd been told that his great-grandparents, on the maternal line, had come to Jamaica as indentured labourers from India. But when he began his research, he was shocked to find himself heading down a very different path in his family's history.

He had thought that the Harriott ancestry was straightforward. Ainsley knew his great-grandfather was in the colonial West India Regiment, and had assumed that they were descended from slaves.

In Barbados, he confirmed that his great-grandfather had a distinguished military career, and learnt that he had fought for the British Empire in the Sierra Leone 'Hut Tax War' – an increasingly violent protest against British tax collecting in the protectorate.

But he also encountered some extraordinary family details. He discovered how, in the time of slavery, one of his ancestors, an unmarried 'free black' woman, accumulated enough money to buy seven houses. His next discovery was even more surprising. Ainsley's great-great-grandfather, James Gordon Harriott, wasn't a black slave as he had thought, but the descendant of a long line of white slave owners.

[annem]

We are not responsible for the choices our ancestors made, but we ARE responsible for doing Better.

[CradleEpiscopalian]

This story is way more interesting than most bcs it blows the doors off secrets and lies from the point of view of those who had no voice.

[mrowley]

Honestly though if he fixed the place up abit it could make for a decent holiday home

[vilhelmvonbacon]

The reality is as harsh as it may seem that until 200 years ago nearly every nation every people had slaves and slavery. Britain was the country that removed the shackles world wide with the west Africa core it is a fundamental reason why I am proud of Britain, these things used to be common and we had the vision and drive to do something about it and make slavery illegal and unusual instead of legal and common. This is why looking to history and trying to understand is much better than assuming and blaming. Imagine if one day it became illegal to own pets? Or it became illegal to own livestock, cars, have electricity, have the internet or a tv. People were seen back then as something you could own just as much as we can own those things today, none of those things are unusual to us but slavery is. Now think about how if one of those things was morally wrong but people relied on those things to make a living. You can imagine some pushback against outlawing these commodities. Then imagine after abolishing slavery in your own country you decide to spend the nations wealth on abolishing it world wide now it’s one thing to impose our own laws on ourselves but quite another to apply those to the rest of the world at the risk of having the world try and fight us. Unfortunately slavery still exists today and is slowly coming back in places like Saudi Arabia where you can buy women and castrated males. Or even the camps found across Europe where people have been kidnapped and forced into enforced labour in countries including Britain itself! That’s why if you really have hatred towards slavery the practice aim that hatred to slavery that is happening now, not slavery that happened 200 years ago. Our efforts should be put towards preventing such a thing from ever becoming commonplace again instead of demanding reparations. That would only punish people who never owned a slave instead of the criminals of today that traffic other human beings.

[coralscraftslady]

Just as Ainsley is NOT responsible for the actions of his ancestors, neither is anyone else! We are only responsible for our OWN actions!

[marcelschellekens]

if there's one thing to tell, it's how much more nuanced the whole transatlantic slave trade story is.
mind you, no less bad for the criminals, but easier for them to hide.
afterwards you can only look at what not to do, and then adjust your life so that you have a beautiful legacy to leave behind.

[vdiieou]

The past is to be learned from and not lived in, during the present.

[MissesWitch]

I feel like he came full circle in a way <3 like with his own family <3

[pierzing.glintsh]

Should Ainsley Harriet be told to give reparations due to his family line benefiting from chattel slavery?

[stevenahlberg]

I think he should restore this old building and turn it into a place of healing

[ronbaggett]

I would Guess most all humans now have a past in some way like this!

[LBGirl]

We must stop judging the past by the standards of our time. And while it might be painful, our society today is vehemently fighting to keep an abomination legal like people did about slavery. Should today’s world be canceled?

[Leoforever]

History is not all shinny stars... parades and loveliness... The truth hurts. We must remember, learn the truth and not repeat the sins of the past.

[omairafigueroa]

I want to know about the relationship with James and Priscila and their child Ebenezer . Does he talk or document that life time ? Did Priscilla also live in that house?

[ziko]

Why is the grass perfectly mowed if it's abandoned?

[sumhas]

You’re looking at it in the context of today’s thinking. Of course it’s abhorrent now! It was average life then, like cooking over burning wood or washing in river water. Two hundred years from now we’ll be looked at as unenlightened too.

[bornbiscuit]

wonder if he would have legal claim to that land

[michaeliredale]

Thats what happens when you try to be too righteous. Our families and our heritage goes back through things we probably dont want to know. Roots is the right name for this show. YOUR family Ainsley helped to make the slave trade what it was. We have to move on and accept what we did was wrong in some cases.

[Greenz]

Did he find out about his Mother's side of the family and Pricilla?

[AhJodie]

I would think that he has part ownership in that property!