The Sykes surname traces back to a white slave owner whose probable British ancestors came to America, via Virginia, by the early 1700s. A century later, that man—Kedar Sykes—had purchased a slave in Duplin County, North Carolina, creating in 1813 what may be the first record of Dasani’s own ancestors. By 1835, the Sykes estate’s documented “property” included six slaves. Among them was a little boy, around age five, whose name was David. He was valued at $100.
