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In the hamlet of Kingston, stands—barely—a twentieth century railroad signal tower, outdated, outmoded, and tumbledown, composting in place, partially hidden by the Route 138 bridge, and mostly unnoticed by those …
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“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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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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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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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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[Editor’s Note: I have started to try to determine when the last slave auction was held at Newport involving captives purchased from Africa and brought directly to Newport. In colonial …
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[Editor’s Note: This excerpt (from an 1880 report) explains how some big businesses tried to control the manner in which their employees voted in the presidential election year of 1876 …
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One of the oldest quarry districts in New England can be found in Westerly, where stone commonly known as Westerly White and Westerly Blue became the United States Bureau of …
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In Rhode Island history, little is said (or known) about the Native American defenses against the colonial settlers in southern New England. Human beings had learned, early on in their …
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On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the victor in a tight, four-way race for president. The country was bitterly at odds—more divided than an any point of its history. …
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