About Christian McBurney

While Massachusetts and Connecticut by the early 1800s had instituted reforms reducing the severity of corporal punishment, Rhode Island had not. Consider the crime of perjury before a court. According …
Read More

Looking to round out your Christmas or other holiday gifts to that special person who enjoys reading Rhode Island history? Look no further. And each can be purchased for the …
Read More

Did you know that Slater Mill, one of the most important historic sites in Rhode Island, was transferred in March 2021 to the U.S. National Park Service? I am embarrassed …
Read More

On May 27, 1791, Thomas Mount, a white man born in New Jersey, was hanged in the small village of Little Rest, now called Kingston, in South Kingstown. What makes …
Read More

Rhode Island history books keep flying off the presses!  This is not surprising, given the tremendously impressive and diverse history of Rhode Island.  It may be the smallest state, but …
Read More

Esek Hopkins, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, hailed from Rhode Island. He has two significant honorifics in Rhode Island. First, there is a statue …
Read More

Last spring, Patrick Donovan, the talented and hardworking curator at the Varnum Memorial Armory Museum in East Greenwich, announced his discovery of  a handwritten letter from a formerly enslaved man …
Read More

In light of the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, I thought it might be somewhat of a mildly amusing diversion to tell a few stories of my …
Read More

Five years ago, my wife Margaret and I purchased a home on Queen River in West Kingston, north of historic Usquepaugh and its Kenyon’s Grist Mill. In that time, I …
Read More

[From the editor:  This article first appeared on December 5, 2020. It has been updated by (i) deleting the article’s last paragraph and adding two new paragraphs, including about a …
Read More