Family Secrets - The Slave Trade in Early America

How would you feel if you discovered your ancestors were responsible for transporting over 10,000 human beings from Africa into slavery in the early part of our country's existence?  Most of us research our family history and discover many people we look up to and admire, but there are also some who inspire the opposite feelings.  Research shows there are some of both kinds of people in my family, and I try to treat each fairly...but I'm not so sure how I would feel if these were my ancestors.  This article in the Denver Post discusses how a few descendants of the DeWolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island decided to break the "no-talk rule" and deal with their family's past.  In the process they came face to face with their ancestor's misdeeds which lead to a book "Inheriting the Trade" and a documentary film "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North."  The film documents the journey of 10 family members "along the infamous Triangle Trade route that made [their] family rich: sugar from Cuba became rum in New England that was traded for slaves in Africa."  I just ordered the book from Amazon and will write about my impressions of it.

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