Zealous Toward Social Harmony

Traces of the Trade: a Story of the Deep North

March 16, 2010 at 4:02 pm Leave a comment

The film, “Traces of the Trade: a Story of the Deep North,” documents how a family, rooted in the slave trade, traveled on a similar journey its ancestors made when they enslaved Africans during the 1800s.  Katrina Browne, a DeWolf descendent, created the film out of curiosity about her family’s involvement in American slavery, and so she initiated a reunion of DeWolf descendants.  Along the trip the family learned that not only did their ancestors gain wealth from the slave trade, but they may have also benefited from the accumulation of wealth and privilege as well.  After viewing the film, I believe the DeWolf family should not hold emotional grief for their ancestors’ actions, but they should be aware of their privilege that came from it and use it to bring society closer to racial equality.

In response to the film, I do not believe the family should think they are anyway responsible for their ancestors’ enslavement of Africans.  Through research, Browne found that the DeWolfs brought about 10,000 Africans to the Americas, which made the family the largest slave trade family in American history.  So she was not surprised, and nor was I, when only nine of her relatives out of a possible 200 agreed to take part in the three-week trip to trace the roots of her slave-owning ancestors.  But, I do not understand why the family felt collectively ashamed or embarrassed about their past, as it happened several generations ago.

Due to slavery’s economic factors, the descendents of any slave owners cannot be held accountable for what their family did in the past because it was a way of life.  The DeWolf descendents, who attempted to understand how their ancestors lived, learned how they believed in a different culture and society than today’s norm.  Sadly, the slave culture of the time period was vastly profitable for the White New England slave owners and as the film states, “everyone depended on the trade” in the North.  The DeWolfs used the slave trade to invest their money and increase their profits during a time when slavery was legal, as immoral as it was.

I was surprised to learn about the simplicity of the slave trade and how the DeWolfs had it down to a repetitive system.  The film describes how the DeWolfs’ slave trade began in Bristol, Rhode Island; sailing from there to Ghana, West Africa to trade for slaves; and then bringing Africans to plantations in Havana, Cuba.  In my opinion, the DeWolfs didn’t care how many families they separated or destroyed in Africa because they were just trading goods for property and valuable labor.

Throughout the journey the family descendents realized how their slave-owning ancestors manipulated the slave trade to work in their favor; generating wealth to last generations.  I was shocked to learn that James DeWolf became the second richest man at the time because of the slave trade.  If I were in the descendants’ position, I would be willing to learn about the past, but would not try to make it too emotional or personal.  As the modern DeWolfs traveled to Ghana and experienced places where the slaves were captured and confined to before they were shipped to the Americas by their ancestors, I sensed it was a difficult time for the descendents.   I understand how the DeWolf descendents wanted to trace the slavery process of the past, but it seemed to me that it was too little too late.  How could they possibly comprehend all the suffering that occurred hundreds of years ago by just being in the same setting?

Further, in a macro perspective, I think the DeWolfs’ privilege and wealth ultimately impacted today’s generation of DeWolfs.  Toward the end of the journey, the descendents wondered if they hadn’t been DeWolfs, whether they still would have attended Ivy League institutions and I believe that’s not as likely.  Even though some of the descendents became defensive about the issue of acquired wealth and class status, I think the slave legacy of their ancestors laid a foundation for their privilege.  Generation after generation, the DeWolfs continued the family business even after it was outlawed; the film noted family plantations still existed in 1875.  Therefore, because of the family’s accumulation of wealth, the present day DeWolfs were able to grow in a privileged social environment, which allowed them to obtain resources necessary for a higher education.

Thus, I believe it’s an obligation for the family to use their high social rank to better society.  I commend their efforts shown in the film of several of them encouraging others to get involved in acts of reparation for societal equality.  They owe it to African Americans of today to level the playing field in socio-economic situations, not out of grief or guilt, but because their ancestors manipulated and unjustly controlled African slaves in the past.  However, I do not believe the DeWolfs should be solely responsible for leading equality movements.

In retrospect, the DeWolf descendents should not be held responsible for their ancestors’ involvement in the slave trade, but they should be conscious about their privilege due to their family’s unjust accumulation of wealth.  I believe that the descendents should not have entrenched their emotions with what happened in the past, but rather they should try to move on and focus on the present situation.  Currently they need to devise plans to get more people thinking of ways to change the fate for future generations of African Americans and try to balance the distribution of economic resources.

Entry filed under: Civil Rights, Racism. Tags: Africa, DeWolf, Racism, slave trade, slaves, white privilege.