TRACES OF THE TRADE
NOTE: This is a special quickie spoiler sent in by The Sundance Spoilette, directly from the festival.
Descendants of the biggest slave trading family in the United States examine the ugly truth about how their ancestors created the family fortune.
We see how the family’s history in Rhode Island has been, um, whitewashed and that the DeWolf family was the cornerstone of the community where they were prominent citizens (including ministers in the Episcopal Church). Their beautiful ancestral home is a museum; the stained glass windows they contributed to the church glow brightly.
A handful of relatives boldly retrace the details of the family business, revealing how entire communities in the northern U.S. were economically dependent on the slave trade.
They go to Guinea in Africa and see what life and death was like for those who were kidnapped and sold.
They go to Cuba where their family owned plantations to grow sugar to make rum to trade for slaves.
Each of the family members is changed by the journey, and many are now active in trying to create more conversations about the repercussions of slavery and the underlying racial tensions in the U.S. One of them has written a book about the experience.
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