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Race Relations

Teaching the Story of “Universal Liberty” in Revolutionary Rhode Island: A Review of Edward J. Larson’s American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of the Nation, 1765-1795
2 years ago

Teaching the Story of “Universal Liberty” in Revolutionary Rhode Island: A Review of Edward J. Larson’s American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of the Nation, 1765-1795

We live in a day wherein Liberty & freedom is the subject of many millions’ Concern; and the important Struggle hath already caused great Effusion of Blood; men seem …
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Rhode Island’s U.S. Senators and Congressmen Who Held Enslaved People
2 years ago

Rhode Island’s U.S. Senators and Congressmen Who Held Enslaved People

The Washington Post, in its January 16, 2022 edition, published a first-of-its-kind database revealing that more than 1,700 United States Senators and Congressmen once held enslaved people at some point …
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A Mystery at Canonchet: Who Built the Stone Piles in Hopkinton and Why?
3 years ago

A Mystery at Canonchet: Who Built the Stone Piles in Hopkinton and Why?

“We sometimes speak of stubborn facts. Nonsense! A fact is a mere babe when compared with a stubborn theory.” – Samuel McChord Crothers

On October 7, 2017, the Hopkinton Land …
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An Enslaved Mother Rescues Her Family from being Transported to the South—And Spurs a Law Change
3 years ago

An Enslaved Mother Rescues Her Family from being Transported to the South—And Spurs a Law Change

In the early days of the abolition movement in the United States, by necessity, abolitionist work had to come primarily from white people because, before the American Revolution, most black …
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Were There Slaves Living on College Hill for Twenty Years?
4 years ago

Were There Slaves Living on College Hill for Twenty Years?

This is the story of the Reverend James Manning, Brown’s first president, his wife Margaret, and Lewis Manning, his slave. The manumission of Lewis Manning in 1784 is important for …
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Long Buried and Forgotten: Finding Traces of Slavery in Rhode Island
4 years ago

Long Buried and Forgotten: Finding Traces of Slavery in Rhode Island

The opening page of Rhode Island blacksmith “Nailer Tom” Hazard’s diary includes an entry for June 21, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. At the time, the British occupied Newport. Hazard records …
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Amazing Letter Discovered from a Black Soldier of the First Rhode Island Regiment— Containing a Shocking Request
4 years ago

Amazing Letter Discovered from a Black Soldier of the First Rhode Island Regiment— Containing a Shocking Request

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 …
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Camp Hill, Hardscrabble, and Addison’s Hollow in Early Providence
4 years ago

Camp Hill, Hardscrabble, and Addison’s Hollow in Early Providence

Despite its familiarity to students of Rhode Island history as the site of one of this country’s early nineteenth century race riots, occurring the night of October 17-18, 1824, the …
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The Search for the Site of the Great Swamp Massacre
4 years ago

The Search for the Site of the Great Swamp Massacre

Although the death rate of King Philip’s War, which raged in New England from 1675 to 1676, was higher among Americans than either the American Revolution, Civil War, or World …
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Prudence Crandall, Sarah Harris Fayerweather and Ann Hammond:  Their Pre-Civil War Struggle for Equality for Black People
4 years ago

Prudence Crandall, Sarah Harris Fayerweather and Ann Hammond: Their Pre-Civil War Struggle for Equality for Black People

In the first half of the nineteenth century, while most white New Englanders opposed slavery in the South, they nonetheless did not believe that their freed Black neighbors should be …
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