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GUEST: Thomas Norman DeWolf, author of “Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in the US”

In the wake of Barack Obama’s Pennsylvania speech about race in America, we have done numerous stories about confronting white privilege on this program. Last week we spoke with Shelley Tochluk about her book, Witnessing Whiteness: First Steps toward an antiracist practice and culture.” Today we hear from Thomas Norman DeWolf, a writer and public official based in a mostly white county in Oregon. Some years ago DeWolf, through a distant relative, learned that he was descended from one of the most notorious slave trading families in US history. Along with several family members, DeWolf retraced the steps of his ancestors through the notorious Triangle Trade from New England to Ghana in West Africa, to the sugar plantations of Cuba, and back. Thomas DeWolf has written about his experiences in confronting his own racial privilege with the knowledge of his family’s past, in a book called “Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in the US.”

For more information, visit www.inheritingthetrade.com