These are the--

--all the slaves he owned...So you know what this means: in 1860, your great-great- grandfather Thomas was the owner of nine enslaved people, including a four-year-old boy and two ten-year-old girls. What's it like to see this?

It makes me feel a sense of shame.

Had you ever imagined that your ancestors owned slaves? Had you ever–-

I never really thought about it, no.

Your family is so New England-oriented...

We hadn't really concentrated on the Southern component, which was through Granny Close.

That's why we're opening that door...

Yeah. ... Well, in a weird horrible way, it also makes me part of the history of White America. A history that I find abhorrent.

...

What’s it like to see this and know that your family is documented on all these different lines?

You know what first comes to my mind? That the people who my ancestors owned didn't have that—luxury of knowing their lineage.

That's right. We can't do this for any Black person whose White ancestor we haven't identifed.

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on his program Finding Your Roots, in conversation with Glenn Close.