What kinds of skeletons may be lurking in your family’s closet? As a descendent of a distinguished founding family in Rhode Island, Katrina Browne decided to investigate her roots. The De Wolf family tree includes senators, architects, writers and ministers. As faithful Episcopalians, the De Wolfs donated most of the stained glass windows in Katrina’s home church in Bristol, Rhode Island. So how did they get so rich and powerful? When Katrina would talk to her relatives, she got vague responses about an “import/export business.” What were the De Wolf’s buying and selling? Katrina discovered she is a descendent of the largest slave trading family in New England.

Traces of the Trade follows Katrina’s efforts to respond to her lamentable roots. What do we do with family secrets? How do we process shame, guilt and responsibility? Nine De Wolf descendents accepted Katrina’s invitation to retrace the De Wolf’s family business, from Rhode Island to Ghana to plantations in Cuba. Traces of the Trade kicks off PBS’s essential documentary series, P.O.V. on Tuesday night at 10 pm. It demonstrates that slavery was not just a southern problem, but an ongoing shame even in “the Deep North.” You can see the trailer here.

As a seminary student, Katrina had no experience actually making movies. But she was a savvy fundraiser and organizer. She hired sharp documentarians to accompany her cousins on their journey. I saw the world premiere of Katrina’s doc at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The question and answer time following the film was quite memorable. She was accompanied by family members, including Tom DeWolf, who wrote an accompanying book calledInheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History.

Traces of the Trade contains some haunting scenes from inside the historic holding cells in Africa. How tragic to recall how Christians forced Africans into slavery even while baptizing them in God’s name. In Ghana, Katrina and her cousins encountered African-Americans who were also in Africa to retrace their family trees. While the De Wolf descendents wanted to talk about reconciliation, the black families honestly did not come to Ghana to make up with the relatives of slave masters. How do we confront this savage and devastating reality? While talk of reparations has been quite politicized, Traces of the Trade makes it clear just how damaging and far-reaching the roots of the slave trade remains.

One particularly comic/tragic scene finds the cousins back in America, wrestling with their complicity. How guilty should they feel about what others’ have done? One descendent suggests that he came by his station in life honestly, through hard work and good grades. His Ivy League education was not the result of his forefathers’ exploitation of others. Or was it? A quick survey of the academic pedigree of the De Wolf descendents tells a different story. Harvard, Yale, Brown, Stanford—Katrina and her cousins have to admit that their family looks rather privileged after all.

With race looming as a significant factor in the upcoming presidential election, Traces of the Trade arrives at an important juncture. America has a prime opportunity to acknowledge its faults and forge a new future. Traces of the Trade is a film made by white people for white people about our tangled relationship to black people. It is a personal film about an issue that affects us all whether we acknowledge it or not. As a seminarian, Katrina Browne concludes Traces of the Trade with a sermon. Katrina offers a call for reconciliation that challenges the Episcopalians gathered in pews donated by the De Wolf family. Even the most staid Episcopalians demonstrate that they can be moved to tears and repentance. That makes Traces of the Trade a bit of a miracle. Thanks to Katrina Browne and PBS for bringing this unavoidable aspect of our history into sharper relief.