Paula Deen Shocked Her Ancestors Owned Slaves

Paula Deen gets a lot of flak for her Southern cooking, especially from Anthony Bourdain, but Who Do You Think You Are took an in-depth look at her Georgia roots and her ancestors.

The full episode below, available online for a limited time, is some 40 minutes long. Paula Deen heads back to Albany, Ga.

She traces her ancestry to John Batts, her great-great-great grandfather, who was apparently a politician, plantation owner, and slave-owner.

She finds out John Batts owned slaves, a revelation at 15 minutes in. "I almost feel like somebody took a bucket of cold water and threw it in my face," Deen says. "If I could go back and talk to him I would do everything in my power to convince him not to participate in the heinous act of slavery."

Watch below as she learns about what happened to her ancestors in the Civil War, and where they went during the Reconstruction.