Colonial

I was going through the colonial records of South Kingstown at the South Kingstown Town Hall last year when I stumbled across a census document with decent detail that wound …
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[The following is the main text from my article “The South Kingstown Planters: Country Gentry in Colonial Rhode Island,” Rhode Island History, Volume 45, Number 3 (August 1986), pages 81-93. …
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Eighteenth-century American society allowed women to take on some roles outside of homemaker. Women were plaintiffs in court cases, administrators of wills, held powers of attorney, and were property owners. …
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Samuel Casey of Little Rest (now Kingston) was one of the most skilled silversmiths in colonial times in all of the colonies.  His craftsmanship of silver tankards and teapots made …
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We viewed the sea from a high rock…below us of three or four miles extent, a pleasant green meadow, thro’ the middle of which run a pritty winding river. Hamilton …
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Long-simmering tensions in southeastern New England over land and the mistreatment of Indigenous people finally exploded into all-out conflict in June 1675. King Philip’s War, as it became known, began …
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In the vault at the South Kingstown Town Hall, tucked into the inside back cover of Town Meeting Records March 1798 to 1836 South Kingstown, there are several typewritten copies …
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At the current time, informed by our shared experience with Covid-19, most Americans now have more than just a passing familiarity with how our government and health-care system responds to …
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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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After a slow beginning in the 17th century, the colony of Rhode Island came to dominate the slave trade in British North America in the 18th century.

Slavery by the …
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