My closest paternal cousin, per a DNA test, is a descendaent of a "mulatto" of the same surname.

Yet my DNA ethnicity results indicate 100% European origin, almost entirely from the British Isles. (Those ethnicity estimates only go back about 10 generations. We're all from Africa at some point in time.)

His most distant (known) ancestor originated from the same part of Virginia as my most distant (known) ancestor of the same surname, around the same time period in the late-1700's.

I haven't identified the father of my distant paternal ancestor, but I strongly suspect that I'm a descendant of a group of (suspected brothers) from that area... and one of them was an "agent" of Robert Carter III, possibly the most wealthy and biggest slave-owner in Virginia at that time. An agent was like a superintendent of plantation overseers, for what I've read. Carter later "made history" by emancipating all of his slaves starting in 1791, possibly the largest emancipation in USA history until the Civil War.

Should I feel weird about contacting that person? I feel bad that his ancestors apparently dealt with prejudice as so-called "Guineas" in West Virginia later, and my white ancestors were removed to another area while that was happening. I don't know if my direct ancestor was the "agent" of Carter. Based on records, I doubt it. Yet my imagination keeps conjuring images of "Chicken George" in "Roots".