Last weekend, visitors gathered in Montpelier, Va. for an unusual event — the second Montpelier Slave Descendants Reunion. America's fourth President, James Madison, owned upwards of 100 slaves, and their distant relatives came together to swap stories ... and swab DNA samples.
For pediatrician Bettye Kearse, it's personal. She believes that her family descends not just from one of Madison's slaves but from Madison himself.
And she's trying to prove it genetically with the help of Dr. Bruce Jackson, chair of the department of science and professor of biotechnology at Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
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