Rachel L. Swarns is an American author, news correspondent and investigative reporter. Since 1995 at The New York Times, Swarns has been a reporter, news correspondent, and since 2017 a faculty member in journalism at New York University. Swarns has been a foreign correspondent for the Times while reporting from Cuba, Russia and southern Africa. Swarns wrote American Tapestry (2012) about the history of Michelle Obama's ancestors, and co-authored the book Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archives. In 2023, she published The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church.