When we think of slavery in the United States, images of southern plantations most likely come to mind. But northern states, including New England, played a substantial role in the slave trade. Starting in the seventeen hundreds more than half of the slaving voyages left the US from ports in Rhode Island, including Providence, Bristol, and Newport. Rhode Island is beginning to confront that history with the creation of The Center for Reconciliation at the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island in Providence.
On The Point, Mindy Todd talks about the project with Elon Cook, Program Manager at the Center for Reconciliation. Elon Cook will be the keynote speaker at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday Breakfast, hosted by No Place for Hate in Falmouth on Monday, January 16 at 9:30 a.m. Also, At 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 26, the public is invited to a free community screening of the film "Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North," about the Rhode Island-based DeWolfe family, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.
