An honest look at a slave-trading family's past

Thomas DeWolf tells of his voyage into some ugly chapters of family history.

posted February 19, 2008 at 2:50 p.m. EST

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But if the discussion is abstract, the journey is not. The group of 10 family members stand in the places where their ancestors once trod and learn much in the process.

In Rhode Island, they have their eyes opened to the degree to which New Englanders were involved in the slave trade. (And it wasn't just a handful of wealthy merchants – money for the voyages were raised by selling stock to any number of ordinary citizens.)

In Ghana they stand in the prison cells that once held the terrified captives. Thomas in particular is sickened by the discovery that a slave prison coexisted in the same building as a church. The European clergy, apparently, found a way to make peace with the activity going on below them.

In Cuba there is less to see. The plantations the DeWolfs once owned there have disappeared almost without a trace. But even the sight of some crumbling ruins is enough to make an impression.

Then, finally, the journey is done. The cousins return to the US, share some final thoughts and reflections, and then – sadder but presumably wiser – return to their separate lives. For Thomas, "the summer of 2001 faded into a dot on my life's road map."

And if it had, this book would have had lost much punch.

But the summer did not disappear. Instead, it was overlaid with a whole new level of meaning when, in 2005, past indiscretions of Thomas's surfaced and threatened to lay waste to his life.

I won't give it all away here. Suffice it to say, Thomas was forced to take a good look at himself and he did not like what he saw. And as he thought back over his righteous indignation over the acts of his ancestors, he recognized that, "when I pondered the fundamental issues of power, privilege, and selfishness, I realized I wasn't quite as different from them as I imagined."

Thomas's actions do not equate with those of his ancestors, but nonetheless it takes an honest man to write such words and think such thoughts.

And it is that spirit of honesty and the willingness to confront the ugly parts of human experience that give "Inheriting the Trade" its value. Nowhere in the book does any DeWolf find any real answers to their questions about redressing the wrongs of their ancestors. But honest self-examination remains an excellent place to start.

• Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor's book editor.

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