The United States signed the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, and still historians debate what metric the nation should use to define being American.

Long before genetic testing became a standard for identity, the country originally passed laws based on blood. The one-drop rule claimed that even “one drop” of known African ancestry legally made one Black under the law. It created the grounds for Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act and formed Quadroon and Octoroon communities in Louisiana, impacting the property, citizenship, inheritance, and marriages of Black people. 

America did not escape that past after the emergence of artificial intelligence, which determines ancestry using percentages and data bias. The Freedman’s Bureau indexing initiative challenges that by using technology for Black restoration rather than ranking.

Dr. Carolyn Haliburton Carter is a Detroit historian, professional genealogist, and founder of Storykeepers Heritage Network. She also authors articles on the Michigan Chronicle and oversees seven federal Underground Railroad historic designations as the chair of Detroit’s Historic Designation Advisory Board.

During a period where information is manipulated by the government—as seen last year from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who ordered national parks to remove negative content about America—histories like the Underground Railroad are fragile. “Those who control the narrative cannot simply control the history,” Carter says.

She joins The Metro to discuss the relationship between identity, U.S. history and modern genetic testing. As more people use DNA tests as a doorway to their heritage, Dr. Carter outlines what could be missed if we stop at data instead of entering a realm of living history and memory.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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