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Rhode Island

SOURCE: Saturday Evening Post
7/5/2022

What is the Meaning of America's Oldest July 4th Celebration?

by Ben Railton

Bristol, Rhode Island's patriotic festivities are the oldest Independence Day festivities in the nation, but the town's history sits at the uncomfortable intersection of independence with the slave trade and wars of extermination against Native Americans.

SOURCE: Smithsonian
10/5/2021

Before Rhode Island's State House was Built, a Providence Mob Destroyed the Neighborhood

A drunken sailor's brawl in 1831 kicked off four days of rioting targeting the free Black population of the Snowtown neighborhood; the stigma attached to the area allowed the state of Rhode Island to raze the area to build the state capitol.

SOURCE: History.com
2/3/2021

America’s First Black Regiment Earned Their Freedom by Fighting Against the British

Philip Morgan says the decision to enlist both free and enslaved Black troops resulted both from Rhode Island's difficulty mustering a sufficient all-white force and George Washington's fear that Lord Dunmore's offer of freedom to enslaved men who joined the British army would undermine the slavery-based economy of Virginia and the southern colonies.

SOURCE: History.com
6/29/2020

Slavery Persisted in New England Until the 19th Century

Historians Margaret Ellen Newell and Christy Clark-Pujara show that slavery was both practiced in many northern colonies and states and was integral to their economic development.

9-20-15

There’s a Reason Newport Should Be Celebrated

by Rockwell Stensrud

At a time when many are questioning what America stands for in a world consumed by sectarian strife, it is well to remember where freedom of conscience was first practiced.

SOURCE: University of Rhode Island
12-18-13

Rhode Island profs win prestigious fellowships to pen European history books

Two University of Rhode Island professors have won highly competitive national fellowships in the humanities for their work on 18th-century Europe.