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Till We Meet Again: A Farewell (For Now) from Robert Grandchamp
6 months ago

Till We Meet Again: A Farewell (For Now) from Robert Grandchamp

I have lived with the ghosts of the past for over twenty years. Since early in 2000 when I discovered that I had a great-great-great uncle, Alfred Sheldon Knight, who …
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Boys Hired to Deliver the Providence Journal from 1833 to 1873 Reveal Their Pranks and Challenges
7 months ago

Boys Hired to Deliver the Providence Journal from 1833 to 1873 Reveal Their Pranks and Challenges

[From the editor: This article quotes at length from a chapter on child newspaper carriers from the early years of the Providence Journal. The children were required to appear early …
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Victims of Newport’s Stamp Act Riots Reimbursed (Not)
7 months ago

Victims of Newport’s Stamp Act Riots Reimbursed (Not)

Bostonian merchants, sailors and dockworkers hated the Stamp Act enacted by Parliament in early 1765.  What right did Parliament have to tax Americans when they were not represented in Parliament?


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“I Had Like to Have Forgot to Mention a Famous Sham Battle”
7 months ago

“I Had Like to Have Forgot to Mention a Famous Sham Battle”

With the Naval War College on Aquidneck Island, we island residents have a familiarity with the idea of “wargaming” or rehearsing the decisions leaders would make during warfare involving joint …
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Mary Cowley: Eighteenth Century Rhode Island Entrepreneur
8 months ago

Mary Cowley: Eighteenth Century Rhode Island Entrepreneur

Eighteenth-century American society allowed women to take on some roles outside of homemaker. Women were plaintiffs in court cases, administrators of wills, held powers of attorney, and were property owners. …
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Railroad Signal Tower 133+ at Kingston Station Reconsidered
8 months ago

Railroad Signal Tower 133+ at Kingston Station Reconsidered

In the hamlet of Kingston, stands—barely—a twentieth century railroad signal tower, outdated, outmoded, and tumbledown, composting in place, partially hidden by the Route 138 bridge, and mostly unnoticed by those …
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Lafayette in Rhode Island
8 months ago

Lafayette in Rhode Island

“The moment I heard of America, I lov’d her.” The Marquis de Lafayette wrote this in a letter from his camp near Warren, Rhode Island, on September 23, 1778. It …
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Why Did Rhode Island Merchants Resist Non-Importation in 1767?
10 months ago

Why Did Rhode Island Merchants Resist Non-Importation in 1767?

It’s a great puzzle of the Revolutionary era.  Before 1767, Rhode Island was one of the most gung-ho colonies in resisting British intervention.  Newporters had fired on imperial customs enforcers, …
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“We got the worst of it yesterday:” A Rhode Island letter from Spotsylvania Court House
11 months ago

“We got the worst of it yesterday:” A Rhode Island letter from Spotsylvania Court House

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ranks as one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on the American continent. Fought from May 9 to 21, 1864, in central Virginia, it …
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The Westerly Post Office Mural Mystery
11 months ago

The Westerly Post Office Mural Mystery

For Westerly, selecting and installing a mural for the Westerly Post Office during the term of the New Deal Program from 1934 to 1943 to install art in public areas …
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