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Newport’s Last Slave Auction: Rochambeau’s Prizes
2 years ago

Newport’s Last Slave Auction: Rochambeau’s Prizes

[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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Business Owners Try to Control How Their Employees Vote in 1876 Election
2 years ago

Business Owners Try to Control How Their Employees Vote in 1876 Election

[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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The Smith Granite Company of Westerly: A Short History
2 years ago

The Smith Granite Company of Westerly: A Short History

By  •  Business

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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Indian Forts in Early Rhode Island
2 years ago

Indian Forts in Early Rhode Island

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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Rhode Islanders Insist on No Compromise with the South after Lincoln’s Election
3 years ago

Rhode Islanders Insist on No Compromise with the South after Lincoln’s Election

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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Rhode Island Fails to Vote for Lincoln for President at Nominating Convention!
3 years ago

Rhode Island Fails to Vote for Lincoln for President at Nominating Convention!

I believe that one of the most remarkable (and fortuitous) events in American history was Abraham Lincoln’s nomination as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1860. Early in …
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Governor’s 1708 Report Tells Where the First Black Enslaved People Who Arrived in Rhode Island Came from and About the Arrival of the First Slave Ship from Africa
3 years ago

Governor’s 1708 Report Tells Where the First Black Enslaved People Who Arrived in Rhode Island Came from and About the Arrival of the First Slave Ship from Africa

[The following is perhaps the earliest official report on slavery in Rhode Island and the colony’s ties to the African slave trade. Historians and students of history of Rhode Island …
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A Retrospective on Spartina, a Novel Based in South County
3 years ago

A Retrospective on Spartina, a Novel Based in South County

The classic novel Spartina by John Casey was published thirty-five years ago, in 1989, by Alfred A. Knopf. It won the 1989 National Book Award. It was reprinted by Vintage …
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Water Rights and Dams in Early Rhode Island
3 years ago

Water Rights and Dams in Early Rhode Island

By  •  Business

Besides granite and trees, the early colonists found an abundance of water when they moved into the areas around Narragansett Bay. While salt water enabled colonists to ship raw materials …
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Roger Williams: Founder of Economic Development
3 years ago

Roger Williams: Founder of Economic Development

Most Rhode Islanders know Roger Williams as the founder of the colony, as well as the great advocate for separating church and state. But we can also see him as …
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