The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery is pleased to announce that three representatives of the 2009 Emmy®-nominated documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North will be traveling to Cuba with the Freedom Schooner Amistad next week. We are honored to be able to hold the Cuba premiere of the film during the Amistad’s visit.   The ship is visiting Cuba from March 22-31 as part of the United Nations commemoration of March 25 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.  For the press release from Amistad America please see: http://www.amistadamerica.org/content/view/1994/257/.

Traces of the Trade (Sundance 2008; POV/PBS 2008) chronicles Katrina Browne’s discovery that her ancestors from Rhode Island were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.  As Browne and nine cousins retrace the Triangle Trade from Rhode Island, to Ghana, to Cuba, they uncover the hidden history of Northern complicity in slavery and grapple with the persistence of the black/white divide today. Havana was a regular stop on the D’Wolf “slaving” route—for selling Africans at auction—especially during the illegal period.  Rhode Island and Cuba were central players during the period after the U.S. ban of 1808 and British ban of 1807.  James and George D’Wolf eventually developed five sugar and coffee plantations on the island in order to control all sides of their “vertically integrated” triangle of commerce.

The Traces of the Trade premiere will be on Saturday, March 27 at Casa de Africa in Havana, hosted by Miguel Barnet, a preeminent Cuban cultural leader and ethnographer.  This will be the first visit of family members since filming for the documentary took place in 2001 (which involved working with a Cuban crew and Cuban scholars).  During next week’s visit, the team will also seek to locate two more D’Wolf plantations and perhaps meet Afro-Cuban descendants of people who had been enslaved there.  Joining Producer/Director Katrina Browne in Cuba will be James DeWolf Perry, VI, a cousin in the film, an expert in the transatlantic slave trade, and a direct descendant of James D’Wolf (patriarch of the slave-trading dynasty, and a U.S. Senator); and Tulaine Marshall, a leader in Boston and in the community and youth development sectors nationally.  Ms. Marshall serves as partnership coordinator between the film and Amistad America and facilitates use of the film for inter-racial dialogue.

Katrina Browne: “We are deeply moved to be part of this historic visit of the replica ship Amistad to Cuba.  The successful revolt of Sengbe Pieh and the other captured Africans, in the waters off of Cuba in 1839, took place against a backdrop that our family now knows about all too well.  It’s important to understand the details of that de-humanizing global economy that built so many nations.  Its reverberations are still with us.  We hope this visit will be a chance to deepen the dialogue.”

Katrina Browne, Producer/Director, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

Executive Director, The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery

kbrowne@tracesofthetrade.org o: 617-349-0019          c: 617-290-5275

Ms. Browne will be in Cuba from March 22-30, so may not be reachable then.

Marga Varea, Events and Development Director, the Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery mvarea@tracesofthetrade.org o: 617-349-0019          c: 617-710-5436

Producer/director Katrina Browne was present to accept the “Spirit of Freedom: Documentary” award, one of four categories in which 68 films from 26 countries competed.

Actor Johnny Depp was honored with the film festival’s career achievement award.

The DeWolf family’s slaving voyages included at least one stop in the Bahamas.

In this opinion essay, Katrina writes about the significance of the U.S. Senate apology for slavery and discrimination, and offers her thoughts, as a descendant of U.S. slave traders, about what comes next.

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North is an Emmy-nominated documentary film which has become the basis for outreach efforts focused on advancing the cause of racial justice and reconciliation and expanding understanding of the history and legacy of the North’s role in slavery.  Thanks to a recent major grant, we are in a position to expand our work beyond the first-year of release, to pursue more systemic institutional impacts.

The various positions/function areas described below are not full-time.  We list them all together here with the hope that applicants might be interested in, and capable of, filling various roles— possibly combining small part-time positions in such a way as to create fuller part-time positions, or a full-time position.  For example, the Program Director role could be combined with the Training Coordinator position for a 20-30 hr/wk position.  We are also open to applicants who are only interested in one position.  We hope that these positions will grow with more funding.

To Apply: Please submit a cover letter, resume, three references, and a writing sample to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org. When emailing, please put in subject line: Candidate – last name, first name (such as “Candidate – Jones, Julia”).

Deadline: The preferred application deadline for these positions is September 1, 2009. After that date please send an email to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org to see if positions might still be available.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FILM AND OUTREACH:

Traces of the Trade tells the story of first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne’s New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.  At Browne’s invitation, nine fellow descendants decide to journey with her to retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade.  The family travels from Bristol, Rhode Island where the family business was based, to slave forts in Ghana where they meet with African-Americans on their own homecoming pilgrimages, to the ruins of a family-owned plantation in Cuba.  At each stop, the family grapples with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but for themselves as white Americans.  They come face-to-face with their love/hate relationship to Yankee culture and privilege, and struggle with how to take public action given all that they now know.

The issues the DeWolf descendants are confronted with dramatize questions that apply to the nation as a whole: What, concretely, is the legacy of slavery—for diverse whites, for diverse blacks, for diverse others?  What history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens?  How does Northern complicity change the equation?  What would repair—spiritual and material—really look like and what would it take?

Traces of the Trade premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, and was broadcast in June, 2008 on PBS’s premiere documentary series P.O.V.  It is now being used as a tool for education, dialogue and action across the country.  Educational DVD distribution is through California Newsreel.  We are committed to being an anti-racist organization internally and externally.  For more info: www.tracesofthetrade.org

POSITIONS:

Managing Director (20-25 hours/week)

Member of senior management team with filmmaker & Ebb Pod President Katrina Browne, and the Program Director.  We envision the Managing Director and Program Director as leading and managing the day-to-day operations of the organization, while Browne fulfills external functions, such as public speaking, press work, and initiating program and fundraising opportunities.

• Supervise Program Director, Office Manager, and Business Affairs & IT Officer.
• Oversee strategic planning processes for creating clear deliverables and timelines.
• Manage budget, expenditures and other financial matters.
• Partner with Browne in developing and implementing fundraising plans.
• Partner with Program Director on the completion of semi-annual staff evaluations and staff development/training plans.
• Refine personnel policies with involvement of Office Manager.
• Manage board of advisors and accountability group to anti-racist people of color.
• Handle routine senior administrative and legal matters.
• Provide leadership and handle other responsibilities as they arise in order to meet on-going organizational needs.

Program Director (10-15 hours/week)

• Supervise all program-related staff/consultants (Training Coordinator, Faith-Based Coordinator, Education Coordinator, Public History Coordinator, Event Coordinator), assisting in creation of clear timelines and deliverables.
• Hire an independent evaluation consultant; work with them and program staff to develop tools to measure impacts; ensure that tools are utilized, data collected, and reports generated.
• Manage partnerships for on-going organizing of “general public” events with the film (vs. events for specialized audiences/professions handled by the specialized program staff).
• Pursue re-broadcasts of Traces via local public television stations, in collaboration with P.O.V., such that they can serve as focal point for organizing local dialogues with local partners.  Explore potential of city-wide post-airing dialogues similar to “Big Read” concept.
• Manage regional partnerships, such as focused efforts in Connecticut and Michigan with various collaborators.

For the four program-related positions that follow, all of the following apply as duties:

• Develop strategic plan and program deliverables for impacting particular field based on organization’s goals.
• Bring anti-racism goals and perspectives to all aspects of the work.
• Work with Training Coordinator to develop dialogue/training models for program area and maintain best practices.
• Work with Events Coordinator to determine which “Traces family” members to match with which events and provide event design/technical assistance as needed by event hosts.
• Work with Program Director to develop evaluation tools and implement their use.
• Work with Managing Director to manage budgeting and expenses.
• Write programming text when necessary for fundraising proposals and foundation reports.
• Maintain relationships with relevant orgs/partners for respective content area; attend professional conferences to present, network and generate new opportunities.

1. Training Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)

• Refine the theoretical framework for using Traces as a tool for racial justice and reconciliation.
• Refine concrete training/dialogue models for use of the documentary and DVD extras, flowing from framework, and building on existing resources (POV discussion guide; theories in the field; etc.).  Continuously update training materials so that they are dynamic, evolving, and sensitive to changing social conditions.
• Cultivate a group of lead trainers, who, along with Traces family members, will be available as trainers/facilitators of film-based trainings/dialogues at professional conferences and in various workplaces settings (non-profit, corporate, governmental, philanthropic).  Match trainers/ facilitators with events based on expertise and help design events.
• Generate content for materials that market our available services.
• Organize and conduct trainings for facilitators and Traces family members.
• Act as a liaison with facilitator networks/individuals in fields of racial reconciliation/dialogue, anti-racism, corporate diversity training, multicultural education, etc.

2. Faith-Based Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)

• Work with current religious partners (Episcopal Church, Unitarian Universalist Association), partnerships in formation (United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Reformed Church in America), and new denominational partners (to be cultivated), to use Traces to advance their white privilege and anti-racism work, and work related to history/legacy of slavery in their denominations (including possibly via resolutions).
• Expand our outreach from mainline Protestant denominations to evangelical, Catholic and Jewish religious communities, and other relevant faiths.
• Coordinate our participation in Traces screening/dialogue events at congregations, regional religious bodies, religious conferences, etc.
• Coordinate with Policy Coordinator on how to mobilize people of faith towards public policy/ action-oriented goals in truth & reconciliation, racial justice and modern anti-slavery.
• Continue to expand faith-based guides and resources (available through website).

3. Education Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)

• Either in-house, or through sub-contract(s) with partners, develop curricula and other materials for middle school and high school classroom use of Traces with sensitivity to educational standards; develop accompanying teacher training module.
• Develop professional development workshop for teachers on how to teach about slavery in ways that further productive racial identity formation for students (in demographic-appropriate ways); help teachers reflect on how their own racial identity impacts their teaching.
• Coordinate our participation in school-based Traces events in middle schools, high schools, undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Catalyze action to impact how slavery is taught in middle through high school by influencing state departments of education, school boards, independent school networks and text book companies, so that the role of the North in slavery is more systematically taught over long-term.
• Work with independent schools to use the film as a catalyst for dialogue on issues of race, class and privilege.

4. Public History Coordinator (5-10 hours/week)

• Utilize Traces as a tool for catalyzing a greater number of Northern museums (e.g. house museums) and historic sites that have ties to the history of slavery to bring that forward in their interpretive work for the public.
• Create a professional development workshop for public history staff and volunteers (e.g. docents) on the role of the North in slavery and best approaches with the public.  Help participants reflect on how their own racial identity impacts their work with the public.
• Use the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2011-2015) as basis for programming that “complicates” the myth of North=good guys, and South=bad guys.
• Take leadership role in a nascent collaboration between Northern public history institutions to organize programming for Sesquicentennial (which will include writing grant proposals).
• Coordinate our participation in Traces screening/dialogue events at museums, historic sites, public history conferences, etc.

GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Education/Experience:

• Background in the areas listed for the specific position (3 years or more preferred).
• Undergraduate degree required; graduate degree in relevant field a plus.
• 3-5 years experience in a detail-oriented, fast-paced non-profit office environment a plus.
• Experience with documentary film/outreach projects a plus.

Skills/Qualities:

• Ability to work as part of a team, coordinating among multiple people.
• Ability to communicate well both orally and in writing, with people representing a range of backgrounds, positions, and institutions.
• Commitment to racial justice and reconciliation; sensitivity to dynamics of race and class.
• Conscientious, detail-oriented, dependable, and efficient.
• Strong skills in project coordination and oversight.
• Innovative, quick learner, ability to adapt to new challenges.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment and assume responsibility for decisions, consequences, and results having an impact on people, costs, and/or quality of service.

Technical knowledge:

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite of software programs.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience.

Location: Cambridge, MA

To Apply: Please submit a cover letter, resume, three references, and a writing sample to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org. When emailing, please put in subject line: Candidate – last name, first name (such as “Candidate – Jones, Julia”).

Deadline: The preferred application deadline for these positions is September 1, 2009. After that date please send an email to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org to see if positions might still be available.

Hiring policy: Ebb Pod is an equal opportunity employer.  Candidates of color are strongly encouraged to apply.

This nomination is part of the 30th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, which will be presented in a ceremony in New York City on September 21.

The individuals included in the nomination, for their original research for the film, are:

Jennifer Anderson
Africanus Aveh
Andrew Barr
Catherine Benedict
Katrina Browne
Boris Iván Crespo
Elizabeth Delude-Dix
Heather Kapplow
Alla Kovgan
James DeW. Perry
Beth Sternheimer

Congratulations to the members of the research team, and to all the others who made it possible for this research to appear in the documentary and to air on national television last year.

CONTACT:

Katrina Browne, Producer/Director, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North
Office: 617-349-0019; cgibson@tracesofthetrade.org
Holly Cowan, PR Collaborative
Office: 202-339-9598; holly@prcollaborative.com

DESCENDANTS OF LARGEST SLAVE-TRADING FAMILY IN U.S. HISTORY COMMENT ON OBAMAS’ VISIT TO CAPE COAST CASTLE, GHANA

The President and First Lady’s visit to Cape Coast Castle has troubling personal resonance for the descendants of the DeWolf family from Rhode Island.  From 1770-1820, three generations of DeWolfs created a slave-trading dynasty, making them responsible for bringing more Africans to the Americas than any other U.S. family.  Documents show that James DeWolf, the family’s “leading” slave trader came specifically to Cape Coast Castle (among other forts) to purchase human cargo.

IN FILM, FAMILY HIGHLIGHTS THAT IT WAS NORTHERN SHIPS THAT PRIMARILY CONDUCTED THE U.S. TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

At the invitation of DeWolf descendant and first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne, 9 relatives joined her to retrace their family’s triangle trade on camera, from Rhode Island to Ghana to Cuba.  The resulting film Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North uncovers the vast extent of Northern complicity in slavery, contrary to widespread amnesia about that role.

Producer/Director Katrina Browne: What most Americans don’t realize is that it was Northern merchants who were largely responsible for the slave trade, not Southern ones.

Family member James DeWolf Perry:  It was Northern ships, with Northern trade goods, and Northern financing that propelled the slave trade.  The North sent out 85% of all U.S. slaving voyages; New England sent 75%; and small Rhode Island was responsible for 58% of all U.S. voyages. Outside of R.I., the busiest ports were Boston and New York City.

Footage in the film shows the 10 white descendants as they walk through the same dungeons and ramparts that the Obama family visited Saturday. The film also shows the family grappling with their relationship to the legacy of slavery today, inviting white Americans to ask these questions as well.  The film premiered in January 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to critical acclaim with a national broadcast on PBS’s award-winning series P.O.V. in June 2008.  Traces is now being used for dialogue across the country in schools, universities, churches, museums, community groups, etc.

NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARD NOMINATION ANNOUNCED

Browne and the research team (Jennifer Anderson, Catherine Benedict, Beth Sternheimer, and others) have just received a News & Documentary Emmy nomination for OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: RESEARCH.

Browne:  We are thrilled and honored to be nominated for an Emmy in Research in recognition of our work to bring forward this buried history.  On the heels of the U.S. Senate’s passage of a resolution apologizing for slavery, we hope the First Family’s visit to Cape Coast will help Americans learn about the role of the North, which establishes irrefutably that slavery was a NATIONAL institution, worthy therefore of a NATIONAL apology.

A greater understanding of this history and how it has shaped all of us in this country, can lead the way towards further dialogue and repair.  While overt racism has largely diminished, white Americans still have a historic head start so the playing field isn’t level, and all groups carry “racial baggage” that makes full trust and harmony still elusive.

Information: www.tracesofthetrade.org.

Press availability: Browne, other DeWolf descendants, and black colleagues connected to the film. A statement responding to the U.S. Senate’s recent apology for slavery and racial discrimination is also available.

The interview, conducted by Michel Martin, can be heard online here.

Katrina, as a descendant of the nation’s leading slave-traders, was interviewed with Daniel Smith, a former civil rights activist and the son of a man born into slavery.

Katrina and Mr. Smith both emphasized that the Senate apology for slavery is merely a first step in the process of acknowledging the nation’s history of slavery and racial discrimination, and in addressing racial inequities in areas such as education and health care.

This position entails coordinating screening events and programs associated with the film. The organization, using the film as a resource, is committed to advancing the cause of racial justice and reconciliation. Events will include screenings, speaking engagements, workshops, etc. featuring the filmmaker, family members from the film, and staff members. Events will take place at schools and universities, museums, workplaces, community centers, religious congregations, film festivals and other venues.

For more information, please see the job’s position announcement.

The historic resolution, offered by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), was debated by the full Senate for an hour this morning, with no senator objecting to the measure, before being approved on a voice vote. The concurrent resolution now proceeds to the House for that body’s approval, before becoming a joint expression of the sentiment of Congress.

S. Con. Res. 26 “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws.” It further states that “African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws–long after both systems were formally abolished–through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible.”

The resolution then “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States.”

For more information and background on this resolution, readers may visit my own blog, “The Living Consequences.”

The resolution acknowledges the nation’s long and brutal history of slavery and racial discrimination and apologizes to black Americans “on behalf of the people of the United States.”

The text of the resolution outlines the history of slavery and Jim Crow discrimination, noting that blacks continue to suffer from the “consequences” of this history, in ways both tangible and intangible, to this day.

S. Con. Res. 26, “A concurrent resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans,” currently has eight co-sponsors: Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).