Traces of the Trade Premieres Tonight on WGBH

DeWolf descendants looking at family records from the slave trade at the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society, Bristol, RI. (Credit: Holly Fulton)

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North explores the slave-trading background of the DeWolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island. Katrina Browne, who created the documentary, discovered while doing library research that her ancestors had been the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. The news affected her deeply and she contacted hundreds of distant DeWolf relatives to give them the news and try to start a dialogue on the subject. Only a few responded to her messages.

Eventually, Browne and some of her relatives--many of whom had never met before--embarked upon a trip retracing the triangle trade of their ancestors. Progressing from Rhode Island to Ghana to Cuba and back, the DeWolfe descendants see slave quarters, touch shackles, discuss slavery, and try to reconcile their present-day position with their ancestors' evil deeds.

The documentary is affecting, and it makes the important point that slavery is not simply an evil of the south. Northerners may not have lived on large plantations supported by slave labor, but they also profited from slavery, whether directly (like the DeWolfes) or indirectly. Trades of the Trade raises important questions about privilege, racial tensions, and reparations.

Near the end of the documentary, Browne portrays her own efforts to heal wounds via religion, resulting in a recognition by the Episcopal Church of its role in the slave trade. It's something, but is it enough? Watch and see how the film affects you and your thoughts on ways to address racial tensions.

Traces of the Trade premieres tonight on WGBH, 44, at 9pm, and airs again on WGBH 2 at 10pm on Monday, June 30.