Activist, philosopher and author Angela Davis discovered she was a descendant of a passenger of the Mayflower.
On Finding Your Roots’ Feb. 21 episode, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Davis spilled over documents containing Davis’ family secrets. At the end of the episode, Davis learned unexpected news about her paternal side.
She learned she was a descendant of William Brewster, a Mayflower passenger.
“No, I can’t believe this,” Davis reacted. “My ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower.”
There were 101 passengers aboard, and Davis’ tenth grandfather, Brewster, was one of the passengers. When asked if she ever thought she was related to people who “laid the foundation for this country,” Davis shook her head and said, “Never.”
“Do you know what you’re looking at? That is a list of the passengers on the Mayflower.”
Our researchers discovered #AngelaDavis’s ancestors traveled to the US on the Mayflower and here is her reaction. #FindingYourRoots pic.twitter.com/G2HhA9BSrT
— Henry Louis Gates Jr (@HenryLouisGates) February 22, 2023
Davis also discovered that her mother, Sallye Bell, a foster child, had a white father named John Austin Darden. Darden was a wealthy Alabama lawyer who was well-known in his community. Darden had six children, four boys and two girls, which angered Davis because her mother never met her siblings.
Davis also learned that her fourth-great grandfather, Stephen Darden, was a patriot during the American Revolution, specifically a drummer. However, Davis was disappointed after learning that Stephen owned six slaves.
“I always imagined my ancestors as the people who were enslaved,” she said. “My mind and my heart are swirling with all of these contradictory emotions. I’m glad, on the one hand, that we’ve begun to solve this mystery. We have something we didn’t have before. But at the same time, I think it makes me even more committed to struggling for a better world. Because this world that could give rise to such a beautiful person as my mother was not the world I want to see in the future.”
When asked how her mother would have responded to the discovery, Davis said she would’ve assured her that it was good to know the information, but she didn’t have to claim the ancestors that held slaves captive.
“My people are the ones who fought for me,” Davis said.
Another exposed secret dealt with her father, Benjamin Frank Davis, who never told her she had a white paternal grandfather. His name was Murphy Jones, and he had multiple children with her grandmother, Mollie Spencer.
Davis was happy to have caught a glimpse of who she got her rebellious spunk from when she realized that Spencer’s father, Isom Spencer, was a Black man born into slavery in 1924. Isom worked on a Marengo County cotton plantation and was freed after the Civil War. However, the plantation owner, William Pauliing, attempted to keep his nieces and nephews from freedom, causing Isom to fight for his nieces and nephews freedom through the court.
“This I’m so happy to see,” Davis said, smiling from ear to ear.
Davis yearned to know how Isom’s story ended. She was happy after learning that the Freedman’s Bureau intervened and helped Isom’s nieces and nephews obtain their freedom.
“I’m happy to find that there’s a motif of resistance there because that is what I feel like I’ve been trying to do since I was a teenager,” Davis said.
