POV

Where can we get this film in Atlanta, Georgia?

by Njere Alghanee
July 29, 2009, 5:32 PM

I just want to say that this is absolutely 'wonderful'.

I am a 38 year old black male. I am happy that someone is tackling America's ugly and violent past as it relates to how my people were treated.

When I first learned that slavery was never considerd 'illegal' it shocked me. What shocked me more than that was when I realized that real slavery did not really end until 1945 or more around the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

In order for the U.S. to cover up it's tracks and not have the fact that there were still slave camps here revealed to the world, President Roosevelt hastily pushed through changes that he knew needed to be done regarding slavery in weeks that were ignored for over a century.

Ultimately, I foresee a mass exodus of black people from this country as we become more educated, insightful about the system of slavery in this country(that was not an accident or fluke) and as the truth of how we are, were and will continued be treated continues to be revealed...

Thank you,

Jesse L. Rhodes

by Jesse Rhodes
August 19, 2009, 2:59 PM

Again, another piece of white guilt, I'm very sorry that your family was involved with the slave trade. Too bad they did not have the foresight to unburden you with their sin, however, not all white families or folk were involved with this trade. Should they feel this guilt as well?? My family did not arrive on these shores until the early 20th century...I teach in an inner city Baltimore school.......should I be forced to feel your guilt?? Um no, your guilt should be private, with your family, while the rest of us try to move foward. Brining up concepts and suggestions with your family background is beyond redicoulous and seriously, a mental correction to the horrors of your ancestry. Keep your family to yourself, while the rest of us try to move on.

by jay
August 19, 2009, 3:00 PM

For the record, no white guilt here despite what you think. My family emigrated from England to Australia LONG before the turn of the last century. They lived and worked for scores of years with the Aborigines in peace and harmony. I came to the states as a young man. Chose THIS country for citizenship and proudly served in the Navy as did my father.

This comment has been edited by the moderator for content.

by Ron B.
August 19, 2009, 3:47 PM

Ms.

I really appreciated your film, and I hear your awareness, concern and even a bit of anguish as the film progressed. I also heard hope.
Personally, I was raised in a predominately black neighborhood and was schooled in places where I was decidedly in the minority. What I experienced in both places was the luxury of exclusivity; the bliss of ignorance. I never had to know anything personal about or deeply interact with white people (except what I learned in history and through my teachers at school), and in college I discovered that white people concurrently knew nothing about me. We both seemed shocked about the fact that we effectively built the house yet we live as total strangers inside of it. I think this reflects the tragedy of America: our insistence on shinier, newer, and more narcissistic things and of our history's habit of replacing darker, uglier stories (i.e. truths) with those which happily soothe and cajole. I believe it’s akin to a New Testament verse (I too often mangle) about people who ‘heap teachers unto themselves’, and who eventually lead themselves to destruction.
What I hope is that you have not taken on guilt (the reality is that you can no more account for your ancestor’s actions than can I) but that you have found your cross or maybe your road to it. What I mean is that God is probably more upset that we persist in doing and being as God once warned the Israelites against: arrogant, overfed, unconcerned, and haughty (Ezekiel16:49-50). It is not necessarily in our genes, but in our ignorance, in our complacency, in our unconcern, in our decrepit traditions, in our whitewashed history (no pun intended), that such evils as then slavery, then Jim Crow, then overt racism, now covert and clean and media-savvy racism, unforgiveness and hatred are allowed to persist. Our job is to see it, to speak truth to it, and to bear the cross – in whatever way in which we are appointed – of eradicating these and other evils.
This is why I appreciate your story and your honest approach. I hope that it sparks more than just uncomfortable debates; because while these are necessary to provoke awareness, we must also be moved to action. When we realize that the ‘we’ to whom we refer when speaking about our family history is both as tangible and as ephemeral (and as utterly simple) as this uniquely shared experience, then perhaps the leap won’t be so large to see ‘our’ children loved, respected, educated and nurtured in ‘our’ schools; ‘our’ young men and women trained and cultivated instead of being summarily imprisoned; ‘our’ beauty heralded for its breadth, width, and height; ‘our’ individuality championed over any banal stereotype….I mean to say that I hope your film leads to more candles being lit and more injustice and ignorance being snuffed.

by Christina from Washington, DC, DC
September 9, 2009, 9:26 PM

Long Island University Student

This was undoubtedly the best documentary i have ever seen in reference to Slavery and Whites expectance of what has happened as a result of the slave trade. I would love to have this shown at my University. Does anyone know how i can get in contact with the film maker?

by Ty. Christen Joseph from Staten Island, N.Y.
September 22, 2009, 6:49 PM

To Ty Christen

Hi Ty. You can sign up to screen "Traces of the Trade" at your university -- for free! -- by signing up for our community network here: http://www.amdoc.org/outreach/events/index.php

by Ruiyan Xu from New York, New York
September 23, 2009, 11:13 AM

Ms Brown, thank you so much for having the courage to talk about slavery! I watched the film and felt a sigh of relief, because finally a decendent of a slavemaster is telling the story of slavery. White people need to hear this story from other white people because when a black person talks about it we are viewed as angry, bitter, etc. So many people think this stuff about oppression is made up. Your film provides facts and incite about the economics of salvery. I also read your column on cnn which was wonderful. Please keep up the good work. If there is anything I can do to help please do not hesitate to ask.

by rob thomas from phoenix, az
September 25, 2009, 5:24 PM

As a Northerner who has lived for many years in the South, I agree with your statement that after the civil war, the North erected a false front as "patriotic abolitionists" to cover their own sin. In fact both the North and South were built by bone breaking labor on the part of both free whites and enslaved blacks.

I think that the overall theme of your movie could be stated as The Power of Denial. The DeWolfs, Bristol, and in fact all of New England prefers to remain in denial about the great wealth that they wrested from the evil of slavery. I also found it ironic that the people of Ghana, all of West Africa, and also the Black Americans shown in Ghana at the festivals are also in denial about their own people's complicity in this great evil. As your movie corrrectly stated, most of the slaves were brought from several hundred miles inland. In fact, NO white men dared enter more than a mile or so into the dark continent until well into the 19th century. Virtually all of the black population in the slave diaspora were captured and sold into slavery by other Black Africans. Conversely their would have been no African slave trade if their brothers had not sold them into slavery, as if animals, for profit. Yes the Africans who sold their brothers were motivated by profit, as were the slave traders. The human greed is the same. But the fact remains that there would have been no black african slaves without other black africans kidnapping and selling their brothers and sisters for rum and money. Those africans who kidnapped and sold their brothers bear the most guilt and that will eventually have to be faced.

by Robin
October 14, 2009, 2:54 AM

As a DeWolfe descendant from Providence, I suspect that we are related. My only legacy is in knowing that my grandparent(s) had some connection with Haiti and a place called Mount Hope. I want to know more about 'our' family.

by Duke Morrow from Canton, , MI
October 30, 2009, 4:23 PM