World Premiere: Screening in the U.S. Documentary Film Competition
Filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine cousins retrace the Triangle Trade from Rhode Island to Ghana to Cuba, uncovering the North�s dreadful secret and gaining a powerful new perspective on the black/white divide.
In Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne uncovers the deeds of her forebears, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. From 1769 to 1820, three generations of DeWolfs transported over 10,000 Africans into slavery. They sailed the ships, made the rum to be traded in West Africa, operated sugar and coffee plantations in Cuba, had an auction house, an insurance company, and a bank. They received a political favor from President Thomas Jefferson so they could continue trading long after it was outlawed. Contrary to the national myth of Southern guilt and Northern innocence, Browne's ancestors were from Rhode Island. While the DeWolfs were unique in terms of the dynasty they created, they were part of a complex slave-based economy that involved an enormous portion of the Northern population. Middle class citizens bought shares in slave ships; New England farmers sold foodstuffs to plantations in the West Indies; immigrant textile workers processed Southern cotton in Northern mills. In "Traces of the Trade" Browne takes a remarkable journey with fellow family members that brings them face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England's hidden economy. Browne writes to 200 fellow descendants of her prominent family, inviting them to join her in retracing the steps of the Triangle Trade. Nine sign up. The group (ages 32-71) includes siblings and seventh cousins, many of whom have never met. They visit the DeWolf warehouse and family mansion in Bristol, Rhode Island, and their discovery of old documents forces a rethinking of American history as the 4th of July parade rolls by. They journey to the slave forts on the coast of Ghana and meet with African-Americans who are on their own homecoming pilgrimages. Uncomfortable questions are put directly to the family. In Cuba, they find the ruins of a family plantation, and tensions in the group boil over. Browne pushes the family forward as they bumble their way through the minefield of race politics. Back home the debate about reparations for slavery heats up nationally and the DeWolf name is making it into newspapers. They decide to tackle the issue head on, meeting with African-American leaders who are for and against reparations, and who help reframe the debate. Then they take action: testifying at a Convention of the Episcopal Church as it considers its own complicity in slavery. Meanwhile, Browne and her family come closer to the core: their love/hate relationship with their own Yankee culture and privileges; the healing and transformation needed not only "out there," but inside themselves. The issues the DeWolf descendants are confronted with dramatize questions that apply to the nation as a whole: What, concretely, is the legacy of slavery for diverse whites, for diverse blacks, for diverse others? Who owes who what for the sins of the fathers of this country? What history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens? How does Northern complicity change the equation? What would repair, spiritual and material, really look like and what would it take? January 2008 is the Bicentennial of the U.S. Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The law was in fact signed by President Thomas Jefferson on March 2, 1807, and went into effect January 1st, 1808. Inspired by the 2007 British Bicentenary of their abolition of the trade (for which the film Amazing Grace was released, and the equivalent of $40 million in government funds was allocated) momentum is now building for commemorations and programming in the U.S. Leaders in Congress, the Smithsonian and other museums, humanities councils, religious denominations, universities, and beyond are organizing events. The bicentennial date is not widely known in this country because of amnesia about the role of the North in slavery. To tell the story of the slave trade, and its abolition, and its illegal continuation, is to tell the story of the politics and economics of Northern ships, with Northern trade goods, and Northern financing. This is an opportune moment to set the record straight. Note: Beacon Press is publishing a memoir of the journey written by family member Tom DeWolf's 'Inheriting the Trade' will be released in January, 2008 for the Bicentennial.
Clip Description
Katrina Browne and nine family members retracing the ship routes of their New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. They grapple with themselves, each other, and their African descended colleagues to make meaning of history and chart a course for their future.
