There’s a reason why some people bury family secrets. Roots actor LeVar Burton, a Black man, just discovered his great-great-grandfather was a white Confederate soldier while appearing on Finding Your Roots.
Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Burton dug into his maternal side, encountering something from his grandfather’s mother, Burton’s great-grandmother, Mary Magdeline Sills.
The Reading Rainbow host was always told Sills had Native American ancestry. Researchers discovered Sill’s birth certificate listing Louis Sills as her father and Mary Jane Lee as her mother — his great-great-grandparents. However, a further investigation led to them discovering Louis was biologically linked to Sills.
Researchers ultimately linked Burton’s DNA to the descendants of a man named James Henry Dixon, Sills’ biological father, a white man who was married with children.
Gates believed Dixon’s being white is why his family kept their history hush-hush.
“[Lee] was the other family on the side,” he said about his great-great-grandmother.
Burton erupted into laughter, yelling out a long “No!”
“I had no idea! So, [his great-grandmother] was half white,” he said in astonishment.
Research showed James was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, in 1847. When he was 14 in 1861, the American Civil War erupted, and North Carolina would soon join the Confederacy. Burton also learned that his white great-great-grandfather served in the Confederate Army as a teenager.
Those who served in the Confederate army fought to protect slavery.
“Are you kidding me? Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I did not see this coming,” Burton declared.
According to Gates, Dixon likely never witnessed the battle since he was a part of the junior reserves, where it was used for guard duty. After serving in the Confederate army, Dixon would impregnate his great-great-grandmother, who was born into slavery.
“I often wonder about white men of the period and how they justify to themselves their relations with black women, especially those in an unbalanced power dynamic. There has to be a powerful disconnect created emotionally and mentally,” Burton responded, still shocked at his secret family history.
He continued, “So it’s possible in my mind that he could’ve contemplated it and was conflicted at worst, maybe repentant at best. And then there’s the possibility that he didn’t think about it at all.”
Gates has made discoveries of secret affairs with previous guests, but he does note that there’s no telling what the nature of those relationships was.
“Right, and we’ll never know. They could’ve been in love. It could’ve been something terrible. We don’t know,” Gates said.
Burton’s family has some explaining to do.
The full episode is available until Feb. 13, 2024.
