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Anti-Catholic Know-Nothingism in Rhode Island, 1854-1856
4 months ago

Anti-Catholic Know-Nothingism in Rhode Island, 1854-1856

[Note from the editor: The Know-Nothing Party, which became formally known as the American Party, made a splash in Rhode Island briefly from 1854 to 1856. Supporters of the Know …
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A Day in the Life: The Curious Rediscovery of Henry Bowen’s Day Book at the Providence City Archives
4 months ago

A Day in the Life: The Curious Rediscovery of Henry Bowen’s Day Book at the Providence City Archives

The Providence City Archives houses more than 24,000 cubic feet of archival material throughout the city, and only 75 percent of it has been accounted for thus far, so the …
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Why Captain Wallace Failed to Prevent the Revolutionary War
4 months ago

Why Captain Wallace Failed to Prevent the Revolutionary War

From December 1774 to March 1776, Captain James Wallace of the British Navy patrolled Narragansett Bay.  He had two objectives:  first, to minimize smuggling that evaded imperial custom duties; and …
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Barrington’s Nockum Hill, Oliver Cromwell, and the English Civil War: A Prelude to King Philip’s War
5 months ago

Barrington’s Nockum Hill, Oliver Cromwell, and the English Civil War: A Prelude to King Philip’s War

In the Barneyville Historic District of Swansea, Massachusetts, near Old Providence Road and the Palmer River, there is a granite monument erected in 1912 with a bronze plaque that reads …
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John Manley’s Bad Day in Newport in December 1776
5 months ago

John Manley’s Bad Day in Newport in December 1776

Most of this article is an inventory of the items that Newport merchant John Manley owned at the end of 1776 at his modest home in Newport on Touro Street, …
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The Ku Klux Klan Attempts To Take Over Rhode Island Militia
5 months ago

The Ku Klux Klan Attempts To Take Over Rhode Island Militia

Rhode Island’s First Light Infantry (called the FLI for short) was disintegrating fast. It was 1927, more than a century after its 1818 founding, and it was able to count …
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Riding the Rails
6 months ago

Riding the Rails

Today, when only two rail lines exist across Rhode Island, the main Amtrak line and the Providence and Worcester tracks, and stations on these routes are very limited, it may …
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Teaching The American Revolution Using Ken Burns’s Documentary—Episodes 4, 5, and 6
6 months ago

Teaching The American Revolution Using Ken Burns’s Documentary—Episodes 4, 5, and 6

In early 1778, from the headquarters of the Continental Army in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, General George Washington’s aide-de-camp, John Laurens, wrote several letters to his father Henry who had recently …
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What Colonel Christopher Greene Owned (and Did not Own) in 1779 and 1781
6 months ago

What Colonel Christopher Greene Owned (and Did not Own) in 1779 and 1781

Christopher Greene was one of Rhode Island’s greatest heroes of the Revolutionary War, but his life was tragically cut short.  He was appointed a lieutenant in the Kentish Guards, an …
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Governor, Chief Justice, and Signer  Stephen Hopkins
7 months ago

Governor, Chief Justice, and Signer Stephen Hopkins

Stephen Hopkins (1707–85), statesman, pamphleteer, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born on March 7, 1707, in Providence easterly of a former Indian village called Mashapaug. This site …
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