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Race Relations

Book Review:  Dark Work, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
9 years ago

Book Review: Dark Work, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island

Book Review: Dark Work, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island by Christy Clark-Pujara (New York University Press, 2016)

Precious little was ever published in the nineteenth century on …
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The South Kingstown Town Council Refuses to Free Patience, a Slave
10 years ago

The South Kingstown Town Council Refuses to Free Patience, a Slave

With the ideology of equality and natural rights permeating American culture after the Revolutionary War, the system of slavery that had been quietly introduced in the American colonies in colonial …
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The End of School Segregation in Rhode Island
10 years ago

The End of School Segregation in Rhode Island

No doubt about it, in the decades leading up to the Civil War, a small, but dedicated group of African-American activists, including George Downing of Newport and Ichabod Northup, Ransom …
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Newport Gardner: From Slave to Musical Composer
10 years ago

Newport Gardner: From Slave to Musical Composer

Newport Gardner was born Occramer Marycoo, perhaps in Ghana, in 1746. When he was fourteen, he was captured and taken as a slave to Newport, Rhode Island, where he was …
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Rhode Island Women of Color During the Great War
10 years ago

Rhode Island Women of Color During the Great War

World War I was a transformative moment for America. It would propel our still young nation into a world-wide conflict and require an unparalleled national mobilization of troops and supplies. …
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Pettaquamscutt Rock Commemorated, May 11, 1958
10 years ago

Pettaquamscutt Rock Commemorated, May 11, 1958

[Note from the Editor: The following piece, celebrating Pettaquamscutt Rock in South Kingstown, was penned in 1958 by William D. Metz, who starting in 1945 and until his retirement in …
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Newport Philips: A North Kingstown Slave Negotiates his Way to Freedom
11 years ago

Newport Philips: A North Kingstown Slave Negotiates his Way to Freedom

I have no idea exactly when during the mid-eighteenth century that Newport Philips entered this world but I do know the ”where” and the ‘what” of his beginnings. What he …
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Father of “12 Years a Slave” Protagonist Hailed from North Kingstown
11 years ago

Father of “12 Years a Slave” Protagonist Hailed from North Kingstown

Rhode Island has many claims to fame.  It is unusual, however, to discover a new one.  With “12 Years a Slave” winning the 2013 Academy Award for best picture, its …
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