I’m so excited to contribute my skills and knowledge as Director of Education and Public History to the Traces mission.  My areas of responsibility include working with schools, students and teachers, as well as public history organizations.

Our goal is to encourage museums and historic sites to create a more comprehensive interpretation of slavery and the slave trade at their sites.  We will support schools in their efforts to be more inclusive in their teaching of the North’s complicity in the slave trade and the legacies we are left with today.  We will be using the upcoming sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2011-2015) as an organizing hook for reaching people in public history arena, since the Civil War problematically solidifies the stereotype of Northern heroes and Southern villains.  Pre-Civil War, not just the South’s but the nation’s economy was dependent upon slavery.  On December 15, 1860, a meeting near Wall Street (in New York City) to discuss the secessionist threat drew a crowd of over two thousand people, including cotton merchants, bankers, and shipping magnates.  The organizer, Richard Lathers, in his opening remarks declared that their “sympathies have always been with Southern rights and against Norther aggression.”  We will work with 150th state commissions and local groups to offer programming that shows this more complex history.  Recent screenings in the South helped Katrina see that there is a need not only for black/white dialogue, but white Northern/white Southern dialogue given the self-righteousness of Northerners to this day, that is not fully earned.

Kristin can be reached at kgallas@tracesofthetrade.org

Having worked for many years on racial reconciliation issues within evangelical networks, I am excited to come on board as the Traces Director of Faith-Based Programs.  I look forward to introducing Traces to those networks.

In my book Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican… or Democrat I talk about how the roots of the evangelical movement in the 19th century involved altar calls at which people would express their faith, and sign up for the abolition movement at the same time. There is much to learn from the efforts of InterVarsity, the Promise Keepers, the Christian Community Development Association and others who have worked on present day racial and economic divides.

I am also eager to connect Traces to secular and faith-rooted efforts to combat modern-day slavery.  It is unconscionable, but all too true, that there are more slaves in the world today than at any point in America’s Antebellum period. Finally, I was baptised in the Episcopal Church as a child and look forward to opportunities to further the work in that arena and within the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Good things are afoot!  For example, as part of its slavery atonement efforts, the Diocese of Delaware recently passed a resolution mandating that all Episcopal parishes in Delaware watch Traces of the Trade. The language of faith communities is a language of emotion, story, community, ethics, ritual and reconciliation.  May God use Traces to touch our hearts and cause us to lift our voices!

Lisa can be reached at lsharper@tracesofthetrade.org

Inheriting the Trade
by Tom DeWolf

“The Living
Consequences”:

James DeWolf Perry appears in Traces of the Trade, and currently speaks and writes about the legacy of the DeWolf family and slavery.

James shares his thoughts about current and historical issues relating to slavery and race on his blog, The Living Consequences.

Feedback!

“As a descendant of slaves and those who gained from slavery, I found your program refreshing.  I felt like I was witnessing an actual breakthrough in a usually stale conversation.”

“The film was very personal and then when we talked we were able to share our own personal experiences.  I thought I really understood my community, my peers, and now I know that there is still so much more work to do.  I’m really excited to do the work. ”

You can share your feedback with us, too.  We will include some in each subsequent newsletter.