OUR BLACK ANCESTRY

Inheriting the Trade

A memoir about one family's quest to face its slave-trading past and an urgent call for reconciliation In 2001, Thomas DeWolf discovered that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in United States history, responsible for transporting at least 10,000 Africans. His ancestor, U.S. senator James DeWolf of Bristol, Rhode Island, continued in the trade after it was outlawed, dying the second-richest man in America in 1837. Website: www.inheritingthetrade.com

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Thomas DeWolf's cousin Katrina Browne produced and directed the documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, which follows eight family members as they retrace their ancestors' steps through the notorious triangle trade slave route—from New England to West Africa to Cuba. The film premiered in the documentary competition of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and aired on PBS. Website: www.tracesofthetrade.com

Slaves In the Family

Writer Edward Ball's family had an extensive plantation and slave-holding past. But he realized that he knew virtually nothing of the black people who supported their livelihood and were such an intimate part of their daily lives. From plantation records, interviews and travels to Africa and the American South, Ball constructed a story of the the pride and shame that make up the history of slavery in America.

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MUSIC

Margaret Garner

A new American opera based on one of the most significant fugitive slave stories in pre-Civil War America. Fleeing Kentucky's Maplewood Farm in 1856 to Ohio, Margaret Garner made the horrific decision to sacrifice her own children when facing recapture, rather than see them returned to the bonds of slavery. Her trial became the subject of intense national debate, addressing crucial issues in constitutional law and posing key questions at the core of the rift in the Union. The project is the operatic debut for the highly acclaimed creative team of Grammy-Award winning composer Richard Danielpour and librettist Toni Morrison, celebrated novelist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature. http://www.margaretgarner.org


FILMS

Daughters of the Dust

Julie Dash's exquisitely alive film chronicles the last days of the Gullah, an Americanized West African people in danger of losing their identity. A rapturously textured, wholly mesmerizing glimpse into the Gullah culture.

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Beloved

Based on a Toni Morrison novel, this complex film is a haunting story of the horrors of slavery and its enduring psychological consequences. It traces traces the life of Sethe, a former slave who has built what seems to be a peaceful life in Ohio. Through flashback scenes, we learn the horrors of her enslaved life, and the terrible event that led to her home being haunted by the ghosts of the past. Starring Oprah Winfrey, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise and Danny Glover.

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WEBSITES

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

After 20 years of social work and 12 years of research, Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. It is a theory that explains the etiology of many of the adaptive survival behaviors in African American communities throughout the United States and the Diaspora. She explores replacing behaviors which are today maladaptive with ones that will promote, ensure and sustain the healing and advancement of African American culture. Her theory is presented in a book, DVD and a national speaking tour. Website:

http://www.posttraumaticslavesyndrome.com/h_index.html

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Coming To the Table

The Coming to the Table initiative is an effort to involve direct descendants of slavery, black and white, in exploring their unique role in addressing the legacy of slavery, on a personal and societal level. It brings together African American and white descendants whose ancestors were linked by a "slave/slaveowner" relationship. The initiative seeks to look at the history of slavery and its legacy through the stories of those whose ancestors were directly involved in the institution of slavery. www.comingtothetable.org

TELEVISION

Black In America

The powerful CNN documentary about being black in contemporary America. Produced by Soledad O'Brien.