Rhode Island – General

Note from the author: This article is a slightly edited reproduction of my September 2019 welcoming address to the National Conference of the American Speakers of the House held in …
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One of the most exciting European visitors to colonial America was the Very Reverend Dr. George Berkeley (1685-1753), who spent most of three years in Rhode Island. The rest of …
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This is a short history of modern pandemics, starting with the Great Influenza of 1918, and ending with the modern coronaviruses, SARs, MERs and COVID-19. Most of the last part …
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Rhode Island once had a mass transit system that crisscrossed the state. Workers took horsecars and electric streetcars from their tenements to the mills and factories during the week. On …
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Seth Luther was one of the most memorable figures in the early days of unionism in Rhode Island. When he died in 1863, a Providence Journal obituary said that he …
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[From the editor: This charming article displays the author’s wonderful humor and eye for detail. Its author, Rachel Chase Boynton, was born in December 1894, the daughter of Captain Halsey …
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I have been thinking an awful lot about Russell Smith lately. I have pondered the life of this early nineteenth century ship carpenter, thinking about the unimaginable trials and tribulations …
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The Great Swamp Fight on December 19, 1675, in King Philip’s War, forever destroyed the power of the Narragansett tribe. What is less well known are earlier destructive raids, including …
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During the period when slavery was lawful in America, it is claimed that the underground railroad assisted more than 100,000 African-American slaves reach freedom.  (The underground railroad was not a …
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On February 6, 2019, Dr. Patrick T. Conley, president of the Heritage Harbor Foundation, announced that the Foundation has awarded $86,155 in grant money for 2019 to twelve local organizations. …
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