"Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North"
In the feature documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, 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 and gain a powerful new perspective on the black/white divide.
From 1769 to 1820, the DeWolf family trafficked in human beings. Fathers, sons and grandsons sailed from Bristol, RI to West Africa, carrying rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to Cuban plantations owned by the DeWolfs or sold at auction. Ships were then loaded with sugar and molasses, bound for the family's rum distilleries in Bristol. Over the generations, the family owned 47 ships that transported thousands of Africans across the Middle Passage into slavery. By the end of his life, James DeWolf had been a U.S. Senator and was reportedly the second richest man in the United States.
In this critically acclaimed film, this Northern family discovers that their ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Join them as they come face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England's hidden enterprise. The questions the DeWolf descendants face are shared by all of us: What is the legacy of slavery? How does Northern complicity change the equation? What's owed for the actions of our country's ancestor's? What would repair - spiritual and material - really look like? What would it take?
A conversation with filmmaker and family member Katrina Browne, and family member Holly Fulton and her husband William Peebles, follows the screening of this powerful and deeply personal story. Browne wrote, directed and produced the project with co-director, editor, and writer Alla Kovgan and co-director and executive producer Jude Ray. In December, the Women Film Critics Circle honored Browne with its "Courage in Film making" award, citing the documentary as one of the three best of 2008. Read more at www.tracesofthetrade.org. This event is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
Sponsored by the Women of Color Leadership Network, Health Education of University Health Services, the Committee for the Collegiate Education of Black and other Minority Students, and Everywoman's Center, with support from the Department of Sociology, the Student Government Association, Student Bridges and the Black Student Union.
