What would you do if you had just discovered your family played the largest role in the U.S. slave trade?
This is what happened to the descendants of the DeWolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island.
In the documentary film, “Traces of the Trade”, which will be shown at the Hancock Library on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m., producer/director Katrina Browne tells the story of her forefathers, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.
Follow their struggle as they seek to reconcile their abolitionist ideals with the historical reality.
The film follows ten DeWolf descendants (ages 32-71, ranging from sisters to seventh cousins) as they retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade, visiting the DeWolf hometown of Bristol, Rhode Island, slave forts on the coast of Ghana, and the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba. Back home, the family confronts the thorny topic of what to do now, having to deal with the privileged status that the wealth and status derived of the slave trade has brought them. Many of them are pastors in the Episcopalian church which also played a role in the slave trade and they involve the church in their search for justice.
In the context of growing calls for reparations for slavery, family members struggle with the question of how to think about and contribute to “repair.”
And Bristol was not an isolated case – this went on up and down the east coast of the North of the United States. Gain insights into the role of New England in the slave trade and what people of good intention are doing about it.
Released in 2008 after nine years in production, “Traces of the Trade” has been used for education and dialogue all over the U.S. and other countries.
A short voluntary discussion will follow the film. Admission is free.
For more information, call the library at 525-4411.
For more about the film, visit www.tracesofthetrade.org.