.traces of the trade.

Last night in my Feminist Memoir class, we ventured through the underground tunnels of Wright State to the Student Center and watched a documentary called, "Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North."  It was a moving film about a family's journey from Rhode Island to the West Indies, Cuba, and then back to Rhode Island, tracing the journey of their slave-trading ancestors and the slave ships themselves.  The prominent DeWolf family of Rhode Island trafficked Africans from 1769 to 1820, and even owned plantations in Cuba years after the Civil War.  Katrina Browne, the producer and director of the film, was a direct decedent of the DeWolf family and since undertaking the 9-year project of making the documentary, she has been an activist and speaker, sharing the film with groups across the U.S. and critiquing the Yankee "white privilege" from which she comes.  I've included the trailer below from when it aired on PBS.  You can also visit the website here.

When we finished watching the film, Katrina Browne had us think of one word to describe our feelings after the film, and mine was "grief."  What grieved me the most was that, in the documentary, she pointed out that not only the DeWolf family could be blamed, but that the entire town profited and lived as consumers of the slave-trading family.  Even those who may not have known about the family's business as slave traders, helped and were, in turn, responsible because of their roles as citizens of the town.

Katrina also pointed out that there are more people enslaved today than ever before and that it's a problem we have to live with everyday, though most of us are not directly affected by it.  It's something that our own descendants will uncover and be grief-stricken about us.  Even though she discussed several ways to start making a small difference - buying "fair trade" goods, raising awareness about these kinds of issues, etc. - it leaves me baffled and wondering where to start.  And perhaps that's where most of us are right now, wondering where to begin "making a difference..."  Either way, it's something that we all need to be seriously considering as citizens of the world and as living parts of God's creation.

"Lord, make [us] instrument[s] of your peace. Where there is hatred, let [us] sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. Divine Master, grant that [we] may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."  (Prayer of St. Francis)