{"id":29511,"date":"2013-03-13T05:21:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T05:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=29511"},"modified":"2013-03-13T05:21:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T05:21:43","slug":"woman-finds-out-famous-relative-was-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=29511","title":{"rendered":"Woman finds out famous relative was black"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woman finds out famous relative was black<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Toronto Star<\/a>
\n2011-02-23<\/p>\n

Megan Ogilvie<\/a><\/strong>, Health Reporter<\/p>\n

Growing up in Georgetown<\/a>, Catherine Slaney knew her great-grandfather had an important and interesting past.<\/p>\n

She knew he was a respected doctor and a surgeon in the American Civil War<\/a>. She knew he was a friend of Abraham Lincoln<\/a> and had received a gift \u2014 the shawl Lincoln wore to his first inauguration \u2014 from his widow after the president was killed. She knew he was a coroner in Kent County, Ont.<\/a>, and that he was involved in politics.<\/p>\n

But Slaney did not know Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott<\/a> was black…<\/p>\n

…The uncle \u2014 Slaney\u2019s mother\u2019s brother \u2014 knew Abbott was black. His youngest sister, however, had no idea previous generations of her family had passed<\/a> as white. Or that some family members still kept the secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family my mother and father knew was white-haired and pale-skinned,\u201d Slaney says. \u201cThe question of race just never came up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slaney says finding out Abbott was black cast a new importance on the pieces of history she did know about him. Abbott wasn\u2019t just a doctor \u2014 he was the first black Canadian to be a licensed physician. He wasn\u2019t just a coroner \u2014 he was the first the first black Canadian to hold the office…<\/p>\n

..Slaney turned her research and personal experience into a book, Family Secrets: Crossing the Colour Line<\/a><\/em>, which was published in 2000. She also completed a PhD at the University of Toronto, focusing on racial identity and the practice of passing.<\/p>\n

By exploring her past, and finding her black heritage, Slaney says her outlook on the world has expanded…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woman finds out famous relative was black The Toronto Star 2011-02-23 Megan Ogilvie, Health Reporter Growing up in Georgetown, Catherine Slaney knew her great-grandfather had an important and interesting past. She knew he was a respected doctor and a surgeon in the American Civil War. She knew he was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1245,19,459,8,6462],"tags":[10442,10441,10439,13994,13996,4798,2117],"class_list":["post-29511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-biography","category-canada","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","tag-anderson-abbott","tag-anderson-r-abbott","tag-anderson-ruffin-abbott","tag-catherine-slaney","tag-megan-ogilvie","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}