Beyoncé’s September cover issue of Vogue doesn’t just include a history-making photospread, it also contains some stunning revelations about the singer’s family history.
While sharing her story, the superstar explains how discovering a slave and slave owner relationship within her lineage put things in perspective for her after welcoming twins Sir and Rumi Carter.
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – AUGUST 02: Beyonce performs onstage during the “On The Run II” Tour – New Jersey at MetLife Stadium on August 2, 2018 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Larry Busacca/PW18/Getty Images for Parkwood Entertainment)
“I researched my ancestry recently and learned that I come from a slave owner who fell in love with and married a slave. I had to process that revelation over time. I questioned what it meant and tried to put it into perspective.
“I now believe it’s why God blessed me with my twins. Male and female energy was able to coexist and grow in my blood for the first time,” Bey said, noting the dysfunction between men and women in her family. “I pray that I am able to break the generational curses in my family and that my children will have less complicated lives.”
While the singer didn’t give details on the specifics of her family history, the Daily Mail did some digging to uncover more information about Bey’s family tree. It learned that the singer’s maternal great-great-great grandmother, a Black woman named Rosalie Jean Louis, was born enslaved in Louisiana in 1800.
Records show Jean Louis managed to get out of enslavement by marrying Joseph Lacey, a white, wealthy American merchant. While Bey said she’s descendant from a slave owner, the Daily Mail reported there were no historical records available to confirm that Lacey owned enslaved Black people. Still, the British paper noted that the predominance of slave ownership in the state during that era along with Lacey’s wealth indicates the marriage could be the result of the slave owner Bey referred to as falling in love with his slave.
Additionally, the records the paper secured show that Jean Louis’ own mother, Louis Mary Jean, was likely enslaved as well.
Meanwhile, fans have been reacting in different ways about Bey’s ancestral revelation.
“Beyoncé revealed in her Vogue interview that her family are descendants of a slave girl who married her slave owner…my goodness.”
“I absolutely love how y’all will let Beyoncé get away with those comments in her Vogue interview where she basically romanticized a relationship between a slave master and slave owner. She literally has a pea brain.”
“A lot of you are not reading Beyoncé’s Vogue article correctly. She said her slave-owning ancestor fell in love and married a slave. She didn’t say the feeling was mutual, nor did she say it was consensual. It was quite a common thing. She merely stated what she’d found out.”
