The largest slave trader in American history sat in the US Senate

Evidence

James DeWolf Perry spoke next. Similar to the Moore sisters, he’d heard stories of his ancestors that focused more on their celebrated accolades—they’d come to America on the Mayflower, some were Revolutionary War heroes, and his namesake, James DeWolf, became a United States senator for Rhode Island. But when he and other family members began to dig deeper, they learned that he was also the largest slave trader in American history. This was the subject of the documentary that Katrina directed, and that James participated in with nine other DeWolf descendants. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1001

Categorization

• XREF: Complements Lanier’s reconstruction of the Agassiz line; both families’ enslavement histories surfaced only in adulthood.