WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? {BLAIR UNDERWOOD} (TV)
Summary
One in this genealogy documentary series inspired by the British program of the same name. This program features actor Blair Underwood. Underwood, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children, expresses a desire to research his African roots and visits his parents' home in Virginia, where his mother Marilyn providea a few notes about her grandparents. Underwood's brother Frank Jr. notes that he has "hit a wall" in researching their family tree because of the lack of detailed information on enslaved individuals. Underwood submits his DNA for testing and then heads to Richmond, where genealogist Joseph Shumway sheds light on his ancestors by examining marriage records and census forms going back to 1900, which reveal that Underwood's paternal great-great-great grandfather, Sawney Early, was a slave and then a blacksmith and a farmer before being committed to a mental institution. Having again hit "the wall," Underwood travels to the Jones Memorial Library and talks with history professor Dr. Dan Fountain, who searches through archived newspapers and finds a story describing Early as a "pestiferous darkey" who proclaimed himself to be a "second Jesus" and somehow survived a gunshot to the face after a violent encounter with a neighbor.
Underwood then finds conflicting information about Early's later life, suggesting that he was shot again but survived. Fountain states that Early was likely a "conjurer," a protective leader in slave communities believed to have otherworldly powers rooted in West African traditions. Underwood and Fountain visit the site on which Early once lived and find that he killed a neighbor's cow after the animal strayed onto his property and endangered his crops; Underwood muses that his ancestor seems to have been a determined figure who "could not be broken." Returning to Shumway, Underwood uses Ancestry.com and finds that his maternal great-great-great grandfather, Delaware Scott, was not only a free man but a property owner during the time of slavery. In Richmond, Dr. Eva Sheppard Wolf describes a law in which freed individuals were ordered to leave Virginia before 1806 or risk recapture; Underwood is startled to find that his ancestors were free as far back as 1790 and that Scott's father owned 200 acres of land. The 1840 census reveals that his free ancestor had slaves of his own, but Wolf explains that he likely "bought" his own parents so that they could continue living in Virginia after the 1806 deadline.
Dr. Ken Chahine reveals to Underwood that, according to his DNA, he is 74 percent African and 26 percent European. Underwood is pleased to hear that he has French roots, as he has long felt connected to the culture. He is then stunned to hear that he has a tenth cousin, Eric Sonjowoh, currently living in Cameroon. Underwood and he and his father travel to Africa and excitedly meet Sonjowoh and his father. The family members discuss the "forced migration" of the Atlantic slave trade and Sonjowoh describes how he happened to have his own DNA tested. Underwood concludes that he has learned a great deal about his family's past and looks forward to sharing that history with his own children. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: January 31, 2012 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:43:11
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 107308
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; Education/Information
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 2010-2012; TLC - 2013-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Alex Graham … Executive Producer
- Jennifer O'Connell … Executive Producer
- Lisa Kudrow … Executive Producer
- Dan Bucatinsky … Executive Producer
- Al Edgington … Executive Producer
- Lisa Bohacek … Supervising Producer
- Kate Richter Green … Supervising Producer
- Chuck LaBella … Producer
- Anna Kirkwood … Consulting Producer
- Jim Albarano … Line Producer
- Meagen Gibson … Senior Story Producer
- Courtney Paulson … Story Producer
- Sarah Feltes … Director
- Jeff Lippencott … Music by
- Mark T. Williams … Music by
- Mocean Melvin … Narrator
- Blair Underwood … Interviewee
- Marilyn Underwood … Interviewee
- Frank Underwood Jr. … Interviewee
- Joseph Shumway … Interviewee
- Dan Fountain … Interviewee
- Eva Sheppard Wolf … Interviewee
- Ken Chahine … Interviewee
- Eric Sonjowoh … Interviewee