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For days, Black Twitter joked about “Karriet Tubman” after a news story loosely linked British royal Kate Middleton to one of her abolitionist ancestors.
Social media users took to the internet with jokes and memes following the Daily Mail’s article, published April 14. Written by royal biographer and journalist Claudia Joseph, the piece claimed that one of Middleton’s ancestors fought “a lifelong battle to abolish slavery and racism in the U.S.”
In light of the news, Twitter users jokingly dubbed Middleton “Karriet Tubman” as a twist on Harriet Tubman. For her heroic and life-changing abolitionary work, the formerly enslaved Black American woman, Tubman, is regarded in history books as the “conductor” of the Underground Railroad.
Tweets from the online roast session about Middleton shared laughable revisionist histories that put the royal at the center of Black culture and the fight for equality. Some posts painted Middleton as an advocate in the civil rights movement. Another showed the royal as an abolitionist “Confederate bride.”
A slew of other silly posts displayed Middleton in an afro, wearing a bonnet and as Sofia from The Color Purple.
Other online users pointed out that the Daily Mail’s article seemed like royalist propaganda.
Several tweets suggested that the article was published to help the monarchy combat racism allegations.
The Daily Mail’s reporting alleged that Middleton’s great-great-great-great-great-aunt “became known as ‘the greatest American abolitionist.'”
The outlet also claimed that the woman, Harriet Martineau, “played a key role” in what spearheaded slavery’s end in the U.K. and the U.S.
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Historian Michael Reed informed Joseph’s article on Martineau and connected the historical figure to her descendant, Middleton.
Martineau reportedly lobbied Presidents John Madison and Andrew Jackson against slavery. Madison was America’s fourth leader, and Jackson the nation’s seventh. It wasn’t until the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, that the Emancipation Proclamation declared the freedom of all enslaved people in states that succeeded from the Union during the Civil War.
Martineau advocated for equality regardless of skin tone in her 1837 book Society In America. The historical figure also reportedly helped two slaves, William and Ellen Craft, flee Georgia and gain refuge in England. The 19th-century author is remembered as the first British female sociologist, The Martineau Society stated.
Although her distant abolitionist auntie may have been down for the cause, Middletown seemingly tried to set civil rights back to the pre-Montgomery Rosa Parks bus boycott era.
On the heels of Prince Charles’ May 6 coronation as the King of England, the salty princess, affectionately known as Pippa, reportedly stated the only way her sister-in-law and fellow princess, Meghan Markle, could attend was if she sat “at the back.”
Markle, justifiably, won’t attend, while Prince Harry will go to show face, being the fifth heir to the throne.
So much for Martineau’s legacy.
