Dwayne Johnson

JM Bowles | January 7 2015 [email address removed]

With the film adaptation of author Lawrence Hill's book "The Book of Negroes", making it's debut in Canada on January 7th on the CBC and set to air in the US on BET, February 16th-18th, I thought it would be interesting to write about how the history of the original Book of Negroes, has a direct ancestrial connection to one of Hollywood's biggest stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The American born actor and former professional wrestler who also has Canadian citizenship, is of African Canadian/Black Nova Scotian & Samoan heritage, along with a percentage of Irish and Mi'kmaq Native Canadian. He is a man truly proud of his many cultural blessings and rightfully so. With so much written about his beautiful Samoan heritage and culture, not much is known or has been written about his equally beautiful and storied African Canadian roots.

Dwayne's father, born Wayde Douglas Bowles who was a amatuer boxer and former sparring partner to boxing legends George Foreman and Muhammad Ali and is best known as a retired professional wrestler who has made quite a name for himself around the globe and in particular the World Wrestling Federation, and wrestled under the ring name of Rocky"Soulman" Johnson. Eventually he would legally change his name from Wayde Bowles to Rocky Johnson.

Born in Amherst Nova Scotia in 1944, Dwayne's father comes from a family that has deep roots planted in NS since 1783, when one of the ships "The Joseph" mastered by captain James Mitchell carrying his great great great grandfather, James Bowles departed New York and arrived in Annapolis Royal, NS on Nov 9 1783. According to the ships boarding records,which is the actual Book Of Negroes, James was born a free man in 1755, most likely in South or North Carolina. Noted in that document it says he lived with a Issac Bowles before leaving to fight for the British Loyalist in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Black Pioneers, a all Black Regiment.

At the time any Black person, slave or free man, man or woman who came and fought for the British was promised complete freedom from slavery after the war was over. Even though the British lost the war, they had to make good on their promise, and thus granted some 3,000 Black Loyalist their freedom in one of their colonies in Nova Scotia. James Bowles was one of those 3,000 Black Loyalist that boarded ships in New York that left for NS and brought him to his freedom.

After about 10 years of being in Nova Scotia, we know that James eventually settled in Amherst, and had a son named Cornelius Bowles born in 1793. Although not much is known about Cornelius life, we do know according to census records he had a son named Stephen Bowles born in 1826 in Amherst. Stephen then had a son name John Bowles born in 1856 in Amherst. John would eventually have a son named James Henry Bowles born in 1888 in Amherst ,who is the father of Wayde Bowles (Rocky Johnson) and the grandfather of Dwayne Johnson.

Dwayne's grandfather James Henry Bowles was a hard working man who worked in a coal foundry providing for his family, but he had also aspired to be pro boxer, but unfortunately never realized his dream. Standing at 6 feet 7 inches tall and about 270 lbs, he was a very big man and legend has it that he was once known as one of the strongest men in NS ,after winning a strength contest at a fair, by lifting a church bell that weighed almost 500lbs, off the ground with his bare hands.

Although there are not many immediate Bowles family members still living in the Amherst region today, as the majority of Dwayne's family live in Toronto, and the Southern US, there are still many distant relatives that live in the area that can trace their roots to those early descendant's who's family name is written in the Book of Negroes.

The Book of Negroes is not just another film, or interesting read written purely for our entertainment purpose by Mr Hill, but it is a well written real life historical account, about the Canadian Black expierience, unfamiliar to most Canadians and Americans, of one woman's journey through the life of Aminata. But it very well could be written about the thousands of others that can trace their roots to a name listed in The Book of Negroes. I truly applaud Lawrence Hill and Clement Virgo, the CBC , BET, the actors and all those that worked so hard to bring this story to life.

Dwayne Johnson African Canadian Paternal Lineage

(1st Generation) James Bowles-Born 1755 (South or North Carolina,USA) (Landed in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1783 from New York) V (2nd Generation) Cornelius Bowles- Born 1793 ( Amherst NS,Canada) V (3rd Generation) Stephen Bowles -Born 1826 (Amherst NS, Canada) V (4th Generation) John Bowles -Born 1856 (Amherst,NS, Canada) V (5th Generation) James Henry Bowles -Born 1888 (Amherst ,NS, Canada) V (6th Generation) Wayde Douglas Bowles (Rocky Johnson)- Born 1944 (Amherst, NS ,Canada) V (7th Generation- Although Dwayne was born in the US, as of 2009 because of changes to the Canadian Citizenshp Law he was given automatic Canadian citizenship) Dwayne Johnson(Bowles) Born May 2,1972 (Hayward .Ca)