About Christian McBurney

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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The letter penned by Sullivan Ballou, a major in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment hailing from Smithfield, one week before he fought at the first Battle of Bull Run, …
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After a British fleet of seventy-one warships and transports entered Narragansett Bay on December 7, 1776, and the next day landed soldiers that occupied Newport, Rhode Island, as well as …
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God War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England, by James A. Warren (Scribner, 2018).

In God, War, and …
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On May 27, 1791, Thomas Mount, a white man born in New Jersey, was hanged in Little Rest (now Kingston). Hanging was never particularly common in Rhode Island. What makes …
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This is the third article in a row providing book reviews of recent Rhode Island history books. Surprisingly, each of the three books here is a historical novel that …
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The year 2017 was another good one for the publication of Rhode Island history books.  While we cannot possibly review all of them, I review several of them below …
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Rhode Island is fortunate to still have five working grist mills, four of which are open to the public. One of them stone grinds, produces and sells johnnycake meal as …
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[Note from the editor:  An updated version of this article is in a chapter of my book Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War on Rumrunners (History Press, 2023).  The …
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[From the editor: Maury Klein is one of Rhode Island’s most prominent authors writing history books for a national audience. A long-time professor at the University of Rhode Island, he …
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