On Tuesday evening, Sept. 8, the Freedom Center is offering a free showing of a most unusual documentary film, entitled “Traces of the Trade,” about one family’s journey of discovery about its slave-trading past.

The subject would be remarkable enough if the family were from a Southern state of the old Confederacy. But the family in “Traces of the Trade” is from Rhode Island — in the heart of New England — and in fact was purported to operate the largest slave trading business in American history.

The film was produced and directed by Katrina Browne, whose forefathers — the DeWolf family — carried on a slave trade from 1769 to 1820. They sailed their ships from Bristol, Rhode Island to West Africa with rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolfs owned in Cuba or were sold at auction in such ports as Havana and Charleston. Sugar and molasses were then brought from Cuba to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol. Over the generations, the family transported more than ten thousand enslaved Africans across the Middle Passage. They amassed an enormous fortune. By the end of his life, James DeWolf had been a U.S. Senator and was reportedly the second richest man in the United State

The film follows ten DeWolf descendants (ages 32-71, ranging from sisters to seventh cousins) as they retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade, visiting the DeWolf hometown of Bristol, Rhode Island, slave forts on the coast of Ghana, and the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba where slaves were sold at auction. The film grippingly chronicles the descendants trip of discovery and how they came to terms with their past.

“Traces of the Trade” will be shown at 6 p.m. in the Harriet Tubman Theater. There is no admission charge, but to RSVP, please call 513-333-7554.

More information and background about the film is available at http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/synopsis/.