The Living Consequences

On Friday, I’ll be in Newport, R.I. to participate in a panel discussion on “The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Rhode Island.”

I’ll be speaking about the Rhode Island slave trade and the example of the D’Wolf family of Bristol, R.I., who were the nation’s leading slave traders. My fellow panelists will be Jim Campbell of Brown University, who will discuss what Brown has uncovered about its own connections to slavery; and Keith Stokes, of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, who will talk about the lives of enslaved Rhode Islanders.

The panel will be held on Friday, June 6, at 4:00pm at the Colony House, Washington Square, Newport, R.I.

The event is sponsored by the Newport Historical Society and the Newport International Film Festival, and is being held in conjunction with screenings of Traces of the Trade at the festival this week. The documentary will be screened on Wednesday, June 4, at 3:00pm (Opera House 1), on Thursday, June 5, at 8:00pm (Jane Pickens Theater), and on Saturday, June 7, at 1:00pm (Opera House 1).

My cousin, Tom DeWolf, will also be holding a reading and book signing for his new book, Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History, on Wednesday, June 4, at 11:00am at the Redwood Library, 50 Bellevue Avenue in Newport.