An interesting blog post by a professional genealogist on the book on Michelle Obama, American Tapestry. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-smolenyak-smolenyak/does-accuracy-in-history-matter_b_1607421.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=802217,b=facebook

Thanks for the link, Cate, to the article by genealogist Megan Smolenyak. I've been reading this discussion of Mrs. Obama's white ancestors with interest. A Google search for Dolphus Shields turned up anoher article, "DNA Uncovers Michelle Obama's White, Slave Master Ancestry," on a site called "Madame Noire." In this article and others, the assumption is that the enslaved mother, Malvinia, was raped by Charles Shields, the son of her owner: "No African American would be surprised to learn that he or she has white ancestors given the history of slave raping in this country." Dolphus was born in 1860, and Malvinia, presumably after she was freed by the emancipation proclamation, had other biracial children. The article doesn't say whether these children were also fathered by Shields. The article goes on to ridicule Aliene Shields, a white descendant of the Shileds family: "Citing the fact that Melvina bore several more biracial children, Aliene Shields told the New York Times: 'To me, it's an obvious love story that was hard for the South to accept back then." The writer of the article comments: "That's one sugar-coated way to look at it." The person writing this obviously doesn't know anything about Orleans Parish, where such relationships were often consentual and one assumes based on affection and mutual benefit. True, white men usually cohabited with free women of color, not slaves, but when the woman WAS enslaved the owner at aleast sometimes freed her and their biracial children and they continued to live together as a family. Greg Osborn at NOPL is compiling a database of biracial families and so far has over 500. In my research on the Laveau-Glapion-Legendre family and the Macarty family, I've also found many examples. I'd be interested in what the rest of you think about this. Carolyn Long