I enjoyed the article as well and am an avid watcher of the various genealogy TV programs. I would suppose that the vast majority of the master/slave relationships were based on, if not actual rape, at least on coercion just as many of the master/white servant relationships were. This is not to say that others were not based on affection and were entered into freely. You are right in that the French Catholic "relationships" were often very different, especially where free woman of color were involved. I know quite a bit about 3 such relationships in my immediate family, two beginning in St. Dominigue and continuing in New Orleans between French men and free women of color and one in Mississippi/Alabama between a New Orleans French man and a free woman of color. All three were true marriages in all but name and lasted until the death of the male partner. Another relationship in a related line was between a foreign national in New Orleans and a woman who was his slave, but who was freed when she became pregnant and of course all of the children were born free. Would love to see the names in Greg's database. Would that be possible? Judy Vinson ----- Original Message ----- From: Carolyn Long To: LAORLEAN@rootsweb.com ; Cate Schweitzer-Toepfer Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 10:15 AM Subject: [LAORLEAN] Michelle Obama's ancesters 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 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message