Family Tree: A Reckoning

A few years ago, historian Elizabeth Herbin-Triant uncovered a long-hidden family secret: her family tree included one of Providence’s most prolific slave traders, Cyprian Sterry. Her research into Sterry’s life—marked by great wealth, a role at Brown University, and eventual ruin—led her to explore both her white and African American lineage. In Family Tree: A Reckoning, Herbin-Triant examines how families forget painful histories and asks: What do we gain—as individuals and as a nation—from confronting the full truth of our past?

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