London, Aug 21 (ANI): London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe has expressed deep sense of shock as he discovered that he is descended from a Jamaican slave owner who fathered an illegitimate child with a member of his workforce.
Lord Coe is related to the salacious 18th century sugar baron George Hyde Park, the Daily Mail reports.
Lord Coe had no clue that his family roots lay in the Caribbean until he was invited to take part in the BBC's genealogy program.
"My whole career has been surrounded by extraordinary Jamaican athletes. I guess I'm going to find deeper and less attractive roots," he said at the outset.
Hyde Park, who had plantations in the parish of Trelawny home to triple Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, owned 297 slaves.
Coe was shocked at the revelation that Hyde Park fathered a total of six illegitimate children.
Hyde Park regularly had sexual relationships with his female slaves and one of them, named Sarah Lee, gave birth to his daughter.
"There are odd contradictions because with the horror of all that went with the slave labour and the brutality of everyday existence on those plantations, you occasionally get glimpses of redemptive features, the way he made provision for Sarah Lee and their Child," the paper quotes Coe, as saying.
"How would I feel if I was living on the inherited wealth of the sugar industry? Well, I know I'm not and that's a bit of a cop-out. But I don't think I'd be that comfortable if that was the source of [my] wealth accretion. Mercifully, it's not, and I don't have to enter that moral maze," he added. (ANI)
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