It's a disturbing film that highlights a prime example of American hypocrisy. It's a personal piece for first time filmmaker Katrina Browne that probably alienated members of her own family. It's a historical film about a Euro-American 'traditional' New England family that made an excellent Black History Month program selection for the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Thanks to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford Historical Society, Mass Humanities and other program sponsors.
The film is called Traces of the Trade. It's the story of the DeWolf family of Bristol, RI. This was one of the richest New England families whose descendents inhabit all regions of the USA. Family members include a US Senator, philanthropists, cultural contributors, community leaders and Katrina Browne. Yet, the film's focus is how DeWolf family members got rich from financing and operating what filmmaker Browne calls the largest slave trading enterprise in American history.
One could call Traces of the Trade Katrina Browne's personal journey or personal cleansing. It's a film that took courage to make. As she shares details of her ancestors' building a Triangle Trade, Katrina attempts to make peace with past and present race relations (some might say white guilt). The Triangle Trade was the route DeWolf owned ships took from Bristol, RI to Ghana to purchase slaves, then from Ghana to Cuba, then from Cuba to the USA, often stopping in a Southern port first, then home to RI. Along with owning the ships, DeWolf family members owned sugar plantations in Cuba, property in South Carolina and mansions in Bristol. A DeWolf ancestor first captained the ship. They named one ship Noah's Ark 3rd Generation. The family began financing the Triangle Trade trips by selling shares to their Bristol neighbors.
The film follows Katrina and 9 of her fellow descendents retracing the Triangle Trade route. First they go to Ghana. There they visit some of the 70 slave forts that operated on the west coast of Africa. In one fort they walk through 5 connected 15 by 30 rooms that held up to 1000 people at a time with no beds, no chairs and no lights. One can't over emphasize the inhumane conditions shown were created by Africans who were holding captured Africans before selling them to the European and American slave traders.
From Ghana the 10 fly overnight to Cuba. As the camera pans the nighttime ocean, Katrina describes the Middle Passage on which 11 million Africans were taken and where an estimated 1.5 million of them died. In Cuba, sugar plantations produced the base product for molasses, rum and other products sold in the US. Many slaves worked on these plantations, while others were held in Cuba before transport to the US. DeWolf owned ships sold, traded or simply left slaves in Cuba, loaded up sugar products from their plantations then sailed to the US. At Southern ports sugar products were always sold. Early on DeWolf ships delivered slaves directly to US ports but later the family relied on black market connections from Cuba to deliver the human cargo. Either way, at every stop on the Triangle Trade, DeWolf family members profited. Katrina describes one series of transactions that earned her ancestors $36,000 or in today's dollars $553,000.
As Katrina tells the DeWolf family story, she and her fellow descendents try to process their emotions, among themselves and with African-Americans they meet. At times these parts of the film are self indulgent. While the emotions are powerful and one can't doubt their sincerity, the 10 seem to be attempting to resolve what each defines as the race problem. At one point, they ask a Black producer, whose role up to and after this point was entirely off camera, to offer feedback from an 'African-American' perspective. While the request, and the producer's response were sincere, Katrina admitted it broke the protocol that had been established. What troubled this viewer more was the feeling that this producer was being asked at that moment to speak for her entire race, past and present.
What's powerful about the film is the questions it raises and the hypocrisy it documents. Viewers are reminded that it wasn't just the DeWolf family but Northern states (including MA) and even some Northern abolitionists who were profiting from the slave trade. Katrina begins the film by admitting this was a DeWolf story some of her relatives didn't want told. This is a continuation of a family's hypocrisy the group wants to escape. But racial conflicts and hypocritical approaches to race are American societal issues that go far beyond any family. So when the 10 try to individually resolve what each defines as the race problem, it is naive.
The film ends with conflicts unresolved, which is probably best as our societal conflicts over race remain unresolved. Unfortunately conflicts and questions about race often aren't discussed in either a historical or a current climate. Viewers of this film will find it hard not to think about the issues raised. Hopefully this film will lead to more interracial dialogue.
To learn more about this film, the filmmakers or to purchase a DVD copy, please visit
http://www.tracesofthetrade.org.
I love this film as well! I learned so much about the American hypocrisy really great.