PULLMAN, Wash. – A free, public showing of an Emmy-nominated film documenting experiences of descendants of America’s largest slave-trading family will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, in CUE 203 at Washington State University. Hosted by the Common Reading Program, “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North” explores topics that relate to this year’s Common Reading book – “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” – in use by thousands of first-year WSU students.
Filmmaker Katrina Browne, a descendant of the slave-trading DeWolf family, follows the experiences of nine relatives – from sisters to seventh cousins – and herself as they retrace the steps their human-trafficking ancestors took between New England, Africa and the Caribbean. The film also captures what next steps the family contemplated taking, once back in America, in the way of “repair.”
They learned that generations of DeWolf fathers, sons and grandsons had sailed ships filled with rum from Bristol, R.I., to Ghana to trade for more than 10,000 African men, women and children from 1769 to 1820. Captives were taken to DeWolf plantations in Cuba or auctioned at such ports as Havana, Cuba and Charleston, S.C. Sugar and molasses were brought from Cuba to family-owned rum distilleries in Rhode Island. Enormous wealth was amassed.
They learned that generations of DeWolf fathers, sons and grandsons had sailed ships filled with rum from Bristol, R.I., to Ghana to trade for more than 10,000 African men, women and children from 1769 to 1820. Captives were taken to DeWolf plantations in Cuba or auctioned at such ports as Havana, Cuba and Charleston, S.C. Sugar and molasses were brought from Cuba to family-owned rum distilleries in Rhode Island. Enormous wealth was amassed.
The main character of the Common Reading book, Henrietta Lacks, was an African-American former tobacco farmer whose ancestors were slaves. She died at 31 in 1951 of cervical cancer. Tumor cells taken without her or her family’s permission grew into an immortal cell line that has been used in profitable biomedical and other research.
Browne’s film originally was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008. It had its national TV broadcast premier when it kicked off the 21st season of the PBS award-winning independent documentary series P.O.V. in June 2008. It has since been shown at numerous venues around the world.
Common Reading Tuesdays at WSU feature a variety of presentations to student and public audiences throughout the academic year. The subjects tie to topics in the year’s selected book used by freshmen in dozens of first-year classes. For more information, visit http://CommonReading.wsu.edu.