Benedict Cumberbatch is a big film and TV star of Sherlock, August Osage County, Amazing Grace, and the Oscar winning film 12 Years A Slave. Starring in 12 Years A Slave must have hit close to home for Cumberbatch because his ancestors were slave owners.

In Barbados, back in 1728, Jezebel reported, there was a prosperous sugarcane farm called the Cleland Plantation. It was not just known for its sugarcane production, it was known for slaves. And the slaves were worked to death.

The Cleland Plantation was owned by Abraham Cumberbatch, Benedict Cumberbatch's fifth-great grandfather. One historian reported that the Cumberbatch's were among many prominent British families who built their lives, wealth, and social status from the slave trade.

The Cumberbatches were not just rich, they were the one percent of the one percent. At the time, the sugarcane industry was the engine of the British economy.

Rumors of Benedict's ties to slavery have been floating around for a while. The New York Times reported that Benedict's mother, Wanda Ventham, also an actress, urged him to use a different last name professionally, fearing that people would target him for reparations suits by descendants of slaves.

Benedict's act of contrition against his ancestral slavery background is the result of his choosing film roles in 12 Years A Slave and Amazing Grace, where he played William Pitt, who worked alongside the slave abolitionist William Wilberforce.

Benedict stated in an interview that he felt sorry that his ancestors were involved in the slaved trade, the dna.com reported.

Benedict's slavery lineage stretches from Barbados to England, back again to Barbados, and then to New York.

When the New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ushered in the new Commissioner of Citywide Administrative Services, Stacey Cumberbatch, she mentioned that she has ties linked with Benedict Cumberbatch through the slave trade.

Mayor de Blasio says of Stacey that she is great at untangling bureaucratic knots, and a proud granddaughter of Caribbean immigrants. Stacey stated that her ancestors were slaves in Barbados. The origin of Stacey's surname stems from when it was common for slaves to take the last name of their slave owners. The Cumberbatch surname is popular in Barbados today.

The New York Times reported that Mayor de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray also has Barbadian roots similar to Stacey's.

At a conference on immigration in Brooklyn, McCray stated that everyone needs to know their roots. "You cannot fulfill your future unless you honor your past," McCray added.

Slavery is part of the fabric of some societies and cultures that perhaps lead to those societies in becoming prosperous, failure, and in fostering and creating a revolution. Part of the revolution is enlightenment, and realizing that it [slavery] impacts all of us, from the homeless person on the street, even to the big movie star such as, Benedict Cumberbatch.

Cumberbatch has done his best to apologize through his own craft, and he should not be faulted for it.