According to the Episcopal News Service, “Traces of the Trade” will air on the PBS show POV tonight.  I have been hearing good “buzz” about this documentary ever since it was previewed at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2006, but I have not had an opportunity to see it myself.  I believe it will air tonight at 9:00.  I hope to post more on the topic after seeing it and would encourage readers to respond to it here (in the comments section) if they so desire.  Here’s part of the ENS story for those who haven’t heard about the documentary:

“Traces” […] tells the story of the DeWolf family, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history and also a prominent part of the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island. James DeWolf Perry was the 18th Presiding Bishop.

In the film, Katrina Browne, a DeWolf descendant and the documentary’s producer and director, narrates while cameras follow her and nine other family members as they retrace the route of the “Triangle Trade” in slaves, rum, sugar and other goods between Rhode Island, Ghana, and Cuba. Browne and the others address issues of atonement and reconciliation during their journey.

“In ‘Traces of the Trade,’ we wanted to ask this question: What is our responsibility?” said Browne. “I’m less concerned with understanding the extreme inhumanity of my ancestors than with understanding the mundane, ordinary complicity of the majority of New Englanders who participated in a slave-based economy. That had more parallels to me and my family today: well-intentioned white folks who are still part of systems that do harm. It’s important to roll up our sleeves to deal with what we all inherited from our country’s history.”