Inheriting the Trade

Thomas Norman DeWolfInheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. HistoryA trailblazing memoir about one family’s quest to face its slave-trading past, and an urgent call for reconciliationIn 2001, at age forty-seven, Thomas DeWolf was horrified to discover that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in United States history, responsible for transporting at least 10,000 Africans. His most infamous ancestor, U.S. senator James DeWolf of Bristol, Rhode Island, curried favor with Thomas Jefferson to continue in the trade after it was outlawed. He died the second-richest man in America in 1837.When Thomas DeWolf’s cousin Katrina Browne learned about their family’s history, she was wracked with guilt. However, unlike others who might ignore their sordid legacy, she resolved to confront it head-on. Browne produced and directed a documentary feature film, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, in which she, Thomas, and eight other family members retraced the steps of their ancestors. Inheriting the Trade is Thomas DeWolf’s powerful memoir of their journey.Their extraordinary voyage through the notorious triangle trade route — from New England to West Africa to Cuba — proved a life-altering experience. Though DeWolf had never reflected on the trade before, he now faced the horrors of slavery in a direct and unmitigated way, forced to contend with the complicated legacy that continues to impact black and white Americans, Africans, and Cubans today.