西部落：米歇尔.奥巴马的传奇家谱:从奴隶到第一夫人

Michelle Obama’s Slave Ancestry¹

The first lady’s family tree traces connections to slaves and a white forebear.

It is moving, it is sobering², it is a reach back into history. The tales about the family tree of first lady Michelle Obama and an American map that traces her back to the slaves and slave owners that were in her past. This woman who made it all the way to the White House. ABC's Yunji de Nies has more on the first of this journey.

The rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady-Michelle Obama.

Here is a journey that began more than a century ago with the death of a slave holder³ who left all of his property to relatives including a six-year-old girl named Malvinia valued at 475 dollars. She worked on a farm that grew wheat, corn and cotton living an unimaginable life of labour.

She was one of three slaves. There was a very small farm. It wasn't kind of the notion⁴ of a plantation⁵ that we have.

With so few slaves, Malvinia likely worked in the house and laboured in the field. As a teenager, she gave birth to a son with a white man.

The child is listed in this 1870 census⁶ as a "mulatto", the term used to describe a person of mixed race. His name was Dolphus Shields, Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather. Many families have stories like Mrs Obama did about white ancestors.

This is a good memory of him.

Shields grew up a free man and became a carpenter. Barbie Helld was his informally adopted daughter.

He was just a beautiful person, full of love.

Three generations later, Marian Shields Robinson would give birth to little Michelle. In Mrs Obama Holt sees Shields.

She seems to be a very loving person, and so was he. And they were just a good match.

A family that went from slavery in the south to the halls of the White House.

It's just an amazing journey.

An amazing uniquely American journey. For Good Morning America. Yunji de Nies. ABC News, Washington.

1 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

2 sobering   

有节制的； 清醒的，冷静的； 朴素的，柔和的； 持重的

参考例句：

• The dreadful, haunting fear of nuclear warfare casts a sobering pall over all international relations. 经常出现的对于核战争的恐惧在一切国际关系上投下了一道愁人的阴影。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• On that sobering note, here's how to as safe as possible. 以下是如何尽可能的确保密码安全的一些建议。

3 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

4 notion   

n.概念，意念，看法

参考例句：

• One common Chinese notion is that the elders ought to be respected.中国人共有的一种观念是长者应受到尊敬。
• He had a sudden notion to visit all his relatives.他心血来潮，突然想去拜访他所有的亲戚。

5 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

6 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。