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On PBS’s Finding Your Roots, Sunny Hostin learned that the program traced one of her maternal ancestors to a man it said owned at least one enslaved person. Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. described that ancestor’s father as likely involved in the slave trade. Hostin said she was “a little bit in shock.”
What Finding Your Roots reported
The revelation appeared in “Far and Away,” season 10, episode 6 of Finding Your Roots, which PBS lists as released on February 6, 2024. The 52-minute, 9-second episode also features Jesse Williams. PBS’s episode page describes the hour as exploring family histories connected to Spanish slave traders and Southern plantations.
According to the episode transcript, the program traced Hostin’s maternal grandfather, Augusto Beza Pérez, back three generations to Fermín Beza, from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. A dedicated PBS clip also identifies Fermín Beza as her third great-grandfather.
Gates explains the program’s findings this way: “Our researchers discovered that her third great-grandfather Fermín was the son of a merchant who was likely involved in the slave trade, and Fermín himself owned at least one human being.” The two claims have different levels of certainty: the episode qualifies the father’s involvement as likely, while it states that Fermín owned at least one enslaved person.
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How Hostin reacted
Hostin’s first response in the transcript is: “I’m-I’m-I’m a little bit in shock.” She says she had thought of herself as Puerto Rican and had not thought her family was originally from Spain and included slaveholders. Later, she calls the discovery “disappointing” and says she wants her children to know the information.
She also recalls that people would ask her, “What are you?” and that she would answer, “I’m Black and Puerto Rican.” That exchange gives context to why the program’s account of her family history surprised her; it does not make a brief on-camera reaction a complete statement of her views.
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What the episode said about her ancestry
Gates says the program traced additional lines of Hostin’s maternal family to Galicia and the Canary Islands. The episode also attributes “almost a quarter” of her admixture to the Iberian Peninsula. That is the program’s reported result: the available episode material does not provide a separate technical report or methodology that would establish the figure independently.
What the finding does—and does not—establish
This is an account presented by a television genealogy program, not a separate investigation. The transcript describes the series’ general use of genealogists examining paper trails and DNA experts conducting genetic analysis, but the underlying records for the Beza family and a technical report for Hostin’s DNA analysis are not included in the cited episode material. The historical claims and ancestry figure should therefore be understood as findings attributed to the show.
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The episode concerns the actions of people in Hostin’s family history; it does not assign personal guilt or responsibility to Hostin or her descendants. Its central revelation is that the program connected her maternal line to Fermín Beza and reported that he enslaved at least one person, while treating his father’s possible slave-trade involvement as uncertain.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where to watch the episode
PBS lists “Far and Away” for streaming on PBS.org and the PBS app, with Apple TV and Amazon shown under “Buy Now.” Availability may depend on the platform and location.
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