Holly Fulton is part of the group from the DeWolf family that has been documenting, through film, the slave trade and the role of her family in it.

I’m from the DeWolf family. They were the largest slave trading family out of New England, the biggest and most successful in the US.

Photo: Harold Fields and Holly Fulton

I was not aware of this until probably my late teens. I remember thinking, “Oh, that’s not good,” then I went on with my life. But my family was quiet about this. We were not going to talk about it. Not speaking about certain things was in the fiber of our family.

I started getting into diversity work, and when you do that,you’d better look at yourself. I remember the first time I told a co-trainer, a black woman. It was really hard. But each time I told it to another black person, it got easier.

It’s been great to see the energy spreading in other groups coming together, getting real, getting honest, about race issues, about racism, about slavery – to see that there are other people doing this. Seeing these relatives come together gets me psyched. I hope more things like this will happen. And I hope that the documentary film my family is helping to make will initiate discussion, an interest among people in looking at the things we haven’t looked at in the history of this country.

Harold Fields has been accompanying the DeWolf family as they document their ancestors’ role in the slave trade. He leads a regular dialogue on race in Denver, Colorado.

My hope is to find out what really connects us at the deepest level. It’s good to do some thinking about how it is we’d like to be with each other in the next two or three hundred years. We’re creating that future right now. This has been a great opportunity for healing.. Here we’ve had people who are committed to doing this work who have created a bond that goes beyond immediate family.

I haven’t found a white side to my family but I would love to follow the trail, no matter where it went, because I feel like all of that history has had an influence on what made me who I am. Some of my history is missing because my trail stops in Mississippi with my great-grandfather, who was one of 36 children born into slavery. It’s like cut flowers that can’t thrive because they’re cut off from their roots.