Category Archives: Traces of the Trade

Actions of Faith Communities

Learn more about actions some churches are taking to address their own legacies of slavery. You can get involved in the implementation of these efforts in your congregation, regional or national church body.

Episcopal Church
•    At its 2006 General Convention, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution apologizing for its complicity in slavery and urging dioceses and congregations to examine their historic ties to slavery and its aftermath and the economic benefits derived. The resolution also called on the Church to study how it could help “repair the breach.” Full text of the resolution here.
•    An additional resolution urged support of federal legislation to create a national truth, repair and reconciliation process, such as H.R. 40 (see below). Full text here.
•    Watch a powerful interview with the 25th Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold on slavery, race and reconciliation.
•    Bishop Tom Shaw of the Diocese of Massachusetts testified before Congress on the legacy of slavery, December 2007 – Episcopal Life article.
•    Episcopal Bishop of NY “Apology to Africa” Address, 2008.

Unitarian Universalist Association
•    The UUA passed a similar resolution at their 2007 General Assembly – full text here.
•    A study guide for Traces of the Trade, especially for UUA congregations, is available here.
•    For a summary article on UUA actions, click here.

United Church of Christ
In the spring of 2008, the UCC began a process called Sacred Conversations on Race, to respond to the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. What has the role of the black church been as a prophetic voice in America? How can churches take part in anti-racism work? To view their list of resources, including liturgy and worship materials, click here.

Additional anti-racism/racial reconciliation programs of different faith groups:
Canadian Council of Churches (links to member church sites)

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Continuing the Witness: Reconciliation Ministry

Christian Reformed Church
Race Relations Ministries

Churches Uniting in Christ (10 member denominations together)
Combating Racism

Episcopal Church
Office of Anti-Racism & Gender Equality
List of all Episcopal Church resolutions on racism

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Multicultural Ministries

Mennonite Central Committee & Mennonite Church
Anti Racism vision and goals
Damascus Road Antiracism training program
Bread for the Journey Blog of the Mennonite anti-racism program
Set Free Anti-racism program for people of color
Fire & Clay Spiritual retreat for white participants of past anti-racism training
Resources on racism connected to Hurricane Katrina

Presbyterian Church USA
Office for Racial Justice Advocacy
Presbyterian Women’s Antiracism Initiative

Unitarian Universalist Association
Antiracism materials and resources list

United Church of Christ
Anti-racism program

United Methodist Church
General Commission on Religion & Race

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 powerful new perspectives on the black/white divide.

Producer/Director: Katrina Browne. Co-Directors: Alla Kovgan, Jude Ray. Co-Producers: Elizabeth Delude-Dix, Juanita Brown.

From 1769 to 1820, DeWolf fathers, sons and grandsons trafficked in human beings. They sailed their ships from Bristol, Rhode Island to West Africa with rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolfs owned in Cuba or were sold at auction in such ports as Havana and Charleston. Sugar and molasses were then brought from Cuba to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol. Over the generations, the family transported more than ten thousand enslaved Africans across the Middle Passage. They amassed an enormous fortune. 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.

The enslavement of Africans was business for more than just the DeWolf family. It was a cornerstone of Northern commercial life. The Triangle Trade drove the economy of many port cities (Rhode Island had the largest share in the trade of any state), and slavery itself existed in the North for over 200 years. Northern textile mills used slave-picked cotton from the South to fuel the Industrial Revolution, while banks and insurance companies played a key role throughout the period. While the DeWolfs were one of only a few “slaving” dynasties, the network of commercial activities that they were tied to involved an enormous portion of the Northern population. Many citizens, for example, would buy shares in slave ships in order to make a profit.

The film follows ten DeWolf descendants (ages 32-71, ranging from sisters to seventh cousins) as they retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade, visiting the DeWolf hometown of Bristol, Rhode Island, slave forts on the coast of Ghana, and the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba. Back home, the family confronts the thorny topic of what to do now. In the context of growing calls for reparations for slavery, family members struggle with the question of how to think about and contribute to “repair.” 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—