On TV tonight: Jess Ennis-Hill discovers truth behind family mystery in BBC show Who Do You Think You Are?
Sheffield Olympian Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is shocked to discover she is descended from a slave in Who Do You Think You Are?
The 2012 heptathlon gold medal winner-turned-broadcaster travelled to Jamaica for the hit BBC1 genealogy series.
Her episode of the popular series is at 9pm on BBC1 tonight, Thursday September 12.
There, she discovered her great-great-great-great grandfather, George Thomas White, was enslaved on the Water Mount sugar plantation.
She told The Times: “The houses were beautiful with manicured gardens — visually stunning places — but then you dig under the surface of what happened there, and think that your family members were there, and that they were just a number with no identity, nothing,” said Ennis. “It’s really hard to understand how other humans can treat humans like that.”
White, who was born in about 1795 and died in 1879, was a cooper, a skilled craftsman who made barrels to hold rum for the ageing process.
After emancipation, he saved enough to buy a 25-acre plot from the former owner of the estate, James Williams in 1840. It is still farmed and owned by the White family to this day.
Jess’ father, Vinnie, moved to the UK from Linstead in Jamaica when he was 13.
She grew up in the Highfield area and attended Sharrow Primary and King Ecgbert School before becoming one of Great Britain’s greatest athletes.
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be broadcast on BBC1 on Thursday, September 12 at 9pm.