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Rhode Island

Traces of the Trade

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/tracesofthetrade/ First-time filmmaker Katrina Browne makes a troubling discovery – her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine fellow descendants set off to retrace the Triangle Trade: from their old hometown in Rhode Island to slave forts in Ghana to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba. Step by step, they uncover the vast extent of Northern complicity in slavery while also stumbling through the minefield of contemporary race relations. In this bicentennial year of the U.S. abolition of the slave trade, “Traces of the Trade” offers powerful new perspectives on the black/white divide. An official selection of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Timeline of Rhode Island: 1500’s – 1600’s

  • (1524) Giovanni de Verrazano explored Narragansett Bay and coastline
  • (1614) Dutch trader, Adriaen Block, discovered island, now named for him
  • (1625) Dutch established temporary trading post on Dutch Island, traded with local Indians
  • (1635) William Blackstone first Rhode Island settler
  • (1636) Roger Williams founded Providence on land received from Indians
  • (1637) Anne Hutchison founded Portsmouth after being banished from Massachusetts for heresy
  • (1639) Nation’s first Baptist church founded
  • (1643) Roger Williams received parliamentary patent for Providence, Portsmouth, Newport colony, confirmed fellow settlers’ land claims

  • (1647) Rhode Island united with Providence, formed single government
  • (1652) Colony plagued by local Indian wars
  • (1663) King Charles II granted charter for Rhode Island, Providence Plantations
  • (1675 – 1676) King Philip’s War between Narragansetts Indians and colonists; several thousand Indians died, six hundred colonists died, much property damage
  • (1676) Wampanoag Indian chief, King Philip, executed; King Philip’s War ended
  • (1686) King James II suspended charter, ordered Rhode Island to submit to Dominion of New England
  • (1689) William of Orange became King, Rhode Island resumed government under 1663 charter

1700’s

  • (1724) Property ownership qualifications established for voters
  • (1726 – 1727) Boundary disputes with Connecticut; resolved in 1727
  • (1746 – 1757) Settlement with Massachusetts resulted in annexation of East Bay towns and port of Bristol
  • (1769) British sloop Liberty torched in Newport Harbor in protest of British taxes
  • (1772) British revenue schooner, Gaspee, torched at Warwick
  • (1774) Connecticut, Rhode Island prohibited further importing of slaves
  • (1776) Rhode Island first American colony to declare indendence from Britain
  • (1776) Stephen Hopkins, Chief Justice & Governor of Rhode Island signed the Declaration of Independence
  • (1777 – 1778) British forces occuped Newport; colonial forces fled to Bristol
  • (1778) Battle of Rhode Island partial victory, but failed to oust British
  • (1779) British forces evacuated Rhode Island
  • (1780 – 1781) French troops occupied Newport
  • (1783) Catholics received same rights as Protestants
  • (1784) Emancipation Act passed; provided for gradual abolition of slavery
  • (1786) Farmers struck against merchants who refused to accept paper money

  • (1790) Rhode Island became Nation’s 13th state; Samuel Slater founded first textile mill in U.S.
  • 1800’s
  • (1812) Rhode Island refused participation in the War of 1812
  • (1824) Women weavers from Pawtucket struck
  • (1842) Dorr Rebellion led to constitutional reform
  • (1843) State constitution adopted
  • (1847) State’s first train ran
  • (1861 – 1865) 25,236 Rhode Islanders fought in Civil War; 1,685 died
  • (1866) Racial segregation abolished
  • (1867) President Rutherford Hayes tested new telephone, call from Rocky Point to Providence, distance 8 miles
  • (1884) Naval War College opened
  • (1895) The Breakers, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Newport mansion, completed

Rhode Island (Listeni/ˌrd ˈlɨnd/ or /rɵˈdlɨnd/), officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the 8th least populous, but the 2nd most densely populated of the 50 United States. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west and Massachusetts to the north and east, and it shares a water boundary with New York’s Long Island to the southwest.

Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other state in the whole U.S. and the convention. The state was also the last to ratify the United States Constitution.

Rhode Island’s official nickname is “The Ocean State”, a reference to the state’s geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 14% of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km2), but its total area is significantly larger.

History – Colonial era: 1636–1770

The congregation founded by Roger Williams in 1638 built this Providence historic church in 1776

The original 1636 deed to Providence, signed by Chief Canonicus.

Roger Williams and Narragansett Indians

In 1636, Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views, settled at the tip of Narragansett Bay, on land granted to him by the Narragansett and Pequot tribes. He called the site Providence and declared it a place of religious freedom. Detractors of the idea of liberty of conscience sometimes referred to it as “Rogue’s Island.”

In 1638, after conferring with Williams, Anne HutchinsonWilliam CoddingtonJohn ClarkePhilip Sherman, and other religious dissidents settled on Aquidneck Island (then known as Rhode Island), which was purchased from the local natives, who called it Pocasset. This settlement was called Portsmouth was governed by the Portsmouth Compact. The southern part of the island became the separate settlement of Newport after disagreements among the founders.

Samuel Gorton purchased the Native American lands at Shawomet in 1642, precipitating a military dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1644, Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport united for their common independence as the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, governed by an elected council and “president”. Gorton received a separate charter for his settlement in 1648, which he named Warwick after his patron.

Although Rhode Island remained at peace with the Native Americans, the relationship between the other New England colonies and the Native Americans was more strained, and sometimes led to bloodshed, despite attempts by the Rhode Island leadership to broker peace. During King Philip’s War (1675–1676), a force of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth militia under General Josiah Winslow invaded and destroyed the fortified Narragansett Indian village in the Great Swamp in what is now South Kingstown, Rhode Island, on December 19, 1675.  The Narragansett also invaded and burnt down several of the cities of Rhode Island, including Providence, although they allowed the population to leave first. In one of the final actions of the war, troops from Connecticut hunted down and killed Wampanoag war-leader Metacomet, who the colonists called “King Philip”, in Rhode Island.

The colony was amalgamated into the Dominion of New England in 1686, as King James II attempted to enforce royal authority over the autonomous colonies in British North America. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the colony regained its independence under the Royal Charter. Slaves were introduced at this time, although there is no record of any law legalizing slave-holding, although the colony later prospered under the slave trade, by distilling rum to sell in Africa as part of a profitable triangular trade in slaves and sugar with the Caribbean.

Rhode Island’s tradition of independence and dissent gave it a prominent role in the American Revolution. In 1772, a band of Providence residents attacked a grounded British ship for enforcing unpopular British trade regulations. Rhode Island was the first of the thirteen colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776.  It was also the last colony of the thirteen colonies to ratify the United States Constitution on May 29, 1790, once assurances were made that a Bill of Rights would become part of the Constitution.[27] During the Revolution, the British occupied Newport. A combined Franco-American force fought to drive them off of Aquidneck Island. Portsmouth was the site of the first African American military unit, the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, to fight for the U.S. in the Battle of Rhode Island of August 29, 1778. The arrival of a far superior French fleet forced the British to scuttle their own ships, rather than surrender them to the French. The celebrated march of 1781 to Yorktown, Virginia that ended with the defeat of the British at the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake began in Newport, Rhode Island under the joint command of General George Washington who led American troops and the Comte de Rochambeau who led French soldiers sent by King Louis XVI. In 2009, this was officially recognized by the National Park Service.

National Park Service map of theWashington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, which commenced in Rhode Island.

These allied forces spent one year in Providence, Rhode Island, including at Brown University’s University Hall, preparing for an opportune moment to begin their decisive march. Several patriots residing in Rhode Island were involved in the American Revolution, including Royal Governor Samuel Ward, Royal Governor and first Brown University Chancellor Stephen Hopkins, the Reverend James Manning, General James Mitchell VarnumJohn Brown, Dr. Solomon Drowne, Yale College president Ezra Stiles and first United States Senator from Rhode Island Theodore Foster.

Providence in the mid-19th century.

The Industrial Revolution began in America in 1787 when Thomas Somers reproduced textile machine plans he imported from England. He helped to produce the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, which Moses Brown of Providence took an interest in. Teaming up with Samuel Slater, Moses Brown helped to create the second cotton mill in America, a water-powered textile mill. As the Industrial Revolution moved large numbers of workers into the cities, a permanently landless, and therefore voteless, class developed. By 1829, 60% of the state’s free white males were ineligible to vote.

Several attempts had been made to address this problem, but none were successful. In 1842, Thomas Dorr drafted a liberal constitution which was passed by popular referendum. However, the conservative sitting governor, Samuel Ward King, opposed the people’s wishes, leading to the Dorr Rebellion. Although this was not a success, a modified version of the constitution was passed in November, which allowed any white male to vote if he owned land or could pay a $1 poll tax.

In addition to industrialization, Rhode Island was heavily involved in the slave trade during the post-revolution era. In 1774, the slave population of Rhode Island was 6.3%, nearly twice as high as any other New England colony. By the late 18th century, several Rhode Island merchant families began actively engaging in the triangle slave trade. Notable among these was Rhode Island Senator James De Wolf and his family, as well as brothers John and Nicholas Brown of the Brown family, for whom Brown University is named, although some Browns, particularly Moses Brown, became prominent abolitionists. In the years after the Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled between 60% and 90% of the American trade in African slaves.

Civil War to Progressive Era: 1860–1929

During the Civil War, Rhode Island was the first Union state to send troops in response to President Lincoln‘s request for help from the states. Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men, of whom 1,685 died. On the home front, Rhode Island, along with the other northern states, used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials it needed to win the war. The United States Naval Academy moved to Rhode Island temporarily during the war.

In 1866, Rhode Island abolished racial segregation in the public schools throughout the state.

At the turn of the 20th century, Rhode Island had a booming economy, which fed a demand for immigration. In the years leading up to World War I, Rhode Island’s constitution remained reactionary, in contrast to the more progressive reforms that were occurring in the rest of the country. The state never ratified the 18th Amendment establishing national prohibition of alcohol.

During World War I, Rhode Island furnished 28,817 troops, of whom 612 died. After the war, the state was hit hard by the Spanish Influenza.  In the 1920s and 1930s, rural Rhode Island saw a surge in Ku Klux Klan membership, largely in reaction to the large waves of immigrants moving to the state. The Klan is believed to be responsible for burning the Watchman Industrial School in Scituate, which was a school for African American children.

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