“Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North”
An Emmy-nominated film documenting experiences of descendants of America’s largest slave-trading family. Filmmaker Katrina Browne, a descendant of the slave-trading DeWolf family, follows the experiences of nine relatives - from sisters to seventh cousins - and herself as they retrace the steps their human-trafficking ancestors took between New England, Africa and the Caribbean. The film also captures what next steps the family contemplated taking, once back in America, in the way of “repair.” They learned that generations of DeWolf fathers, sons and grandsons had sailed ships filled with rum from Bristol, R.I., to Ghana to trade for more than 10,000 African men, women and children from 1769 to 1820. Captives were taken to DeWolf plantations in Cuba or auctioned at such ports as Havana, Cuba and Charleston, S.C. Sugar and molasses were brought from Cuba to family-owned rum distilleries in Rhode Island. Enormous wealth was amassed.