Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History (PB) (2009)

In 2001, Thomas DeWolf discovered that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in U.S. history, responsible for transporting at least ten thousand Africans. This is his memoir of the journey in which ten family members retraced their ancestors' steps through the notorious triangle trade route--from New England to West Africa to Cuba--and uncovered the hidden history of New England and the other northern states.

A difficult but necessary examination of the slave trade, racism, and privilege in the United States, Inheriting the Trade is a powerful call for white America to reassess what they have been taught about their own ancestors, about slavery and wealth, and about America both past and present.