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The South Kingstown Planters: Country Gentry in Colonial Rhode Island
3 months ago

The South Kingstown Planters: Country Gentry in Colonial Rhode Island

[The following is the main text from my article “The South Kingstown Planters: Country Gentry in Colonial Rhode Island,” Rhode Island History, Volume 45, Number 3 (August 1986), pages 81-93. …
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How Narragansett Beer Survived Prohibition (But Still Couldn’t Escape the Government)
4 months ago

How Narragansett Beer Survived Prohibition (But Still Couldn’t Escape the Government)

[From the Publisher: This article originally appeared on the New England Historical Society’s website at www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com. The New England Historical Society is similar to the Online Review of Rhode Island History, …
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“Boasted Land of Freedom”: Rhode Island Black Leaders and the Early Black Convention Movement, 1830-1835
4 months ago

“Boasted Land of Freedom”: Rhode Island Black Leaders and the Early Black Convention Movement, 1830-1835

We rejoice that we are thrown into a revolution where the contest is not for landed territory, but for freedom; the weapons not carnal, but spiritual; where struggles are not …
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East Greenwich Historic Markers Project Completed
4 months ago

East Greenwich Historic Markers Project Completed

[From the editor: A wonderful recent trend in the Rhode Island history scene has been the placement of historic markers in towns across the state. Historic markers bring back to …
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Wickford’s Historic Marker Project
5 months ago

Wickford’s Historic Marker Project

[From the editor: A wonderful recent trend in the Rhode Island history scene has been the placement of historic markers in towns across the state. Historic markers bring back to …
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Massive Timber Salvage After the Great Hurricane of 1938
5 months ago

Massive Timber Salvage After the Great Hurricane of 1938

An astonishing 75,000,000 board feet of timber lying on the ground—this was the aftermath of the Great Hurricane of 1938 in Rhode Island. The federal government estimated that from this …
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William Gilbane and Thomas Gilbane
5 months ago

William Gilbane and Thomas Gilbane

The Gilbane family, like the Banigans and the Hanleys, were driven from Ireland to America by the potato blight that caused Ireland’s Great Famine. William Gilbane, who was born in …
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French Officers at the Battle of Rhode Island
6 months ago

French Officers at the Battle of Rhode Island

Comte Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector d’Estaing (1729–1794) held positions as admiral in the French navy and major general in the French army. Five weeks after King Louis XVI signed …
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Book Review: CJ Martin, The Precious Birthright: Black Leaders and the Fight to Vote in Antebellum Rhode Island (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024)
6 months ago

Book Review: CJ Martin, The Precious Birthright: Black Leaders and the Fight to Vote in Antebellum Rhode Island (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024)

The Providence author Catharine Read Williams often liked to refer to the tumultuous political and constitutional storm that swept Rhode Island in 1841-42 as a “tempest in a teapot.” …
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Book Review: Abby Chandler, Seized with the Temper of The Times: Identity and Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary America (Westholme, 2023)
6 months ago

Book Review: Abby Chandler, Seized with the Temper of The Times: Identity and Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary America (Westholme, 2023)

In the past fifteen years or so, there has been, happily, an explosion of books published on battles and other military aspects of the American Revolutionary War. In the same …
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