Ainsley Harriott’s Slave Owner Ancestor Revealed | Who Do You Think You Are? UK | S5 E5
Who Do You Think You Are? Full Episodes
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Chef and TV presenter Ainsley Harriott opens a door he never expected to find. What begins as a tender search for his father’s Jamaican roots turns into a journey through freedom, enslavement, and a shocking family twist.
Guided by relatives in Kingston and Bridgetown, Ainsley follows clues from Weir Pen to parish registers that name Catherine Smith, a “mulatto” child born in slavery, and an overseer called Jonathan Briggs. A plaque to plantation owner John Davy stirs raw anger, but the truth only grows more complicated. In Barbados, the trail uncovers Rachel Hunt, a “free Negro” ancestor, a policeman grandson, and nine properties off Jessamy Lane near Nassau Street’s red-light district. Then comes Ebenezer Harriot’s West India Regiment medals from the Sierra Leone Hut Tax War. And finally, a revelation that reframes everything Ainsley thought he knew about the Harriots.
Powerful, surprising, and deeply human, this episode shows how one family can hold the whole Caribbean story at once. Watch to see what Ainsley finds at the abandoned Harriot estate and why a single record changes his family history forever.
#AinsleyHarriott #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre #JamaicaHistory #Barbados #FamilyHistory #SlaveryHistory #WestIndiaRegiment
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Ainsley Harriott’s Slave Owner Ancestor Revealed | Who Do You Think You Are? UK | S5 E5
Who Do You Think You Are? Full Episodes
72,568 views
Chef and TV presenter Ainsley Harriott opens a door he never expected to find. What begins as a tender search for his father’s Jamaican roots turns into a journey through freedom, enslavement, and a shocking family twist.
Guided by relatives in Kingston and Bridgetown, Ainsley follows clues from Weir Pen to parish registers that name Catherine Smith, a “mulatto” child born in slavery, and an overseer called Jonathan Briggs. A plaque to plantation owner John Davy stirs raw anger, but the truth only grows more complicated. In Barbados, the trail uncovers Rachel Hunt, a “free Negro” ancestor, a policeman grandson, and nine properties off Jessamy Lane near Nassau Street’s red-light district. Then comes Ebenezer Harriot’s West India Regiment medals from the Sierra Leone Hut Tax War. And finally, a revelation that reframes everything Ainsley thought he knew about the Harriots.
Powerful, surprising, and deeply human, this episode shows how one family can hold the whole Caribbean story at once. Watch to see what Ainsley finds at the abandoned Harriot estate and why a single record changes his family history forever.
#AinsleyHarriott #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre #JamaicaHistory #Barbados #FamilyHistory #SlaveryHistory #WestIndiaRegiment