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18TH-CENTURY PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, CONTINUED
“So long as the past and present are outside one another, knowledge of the past is not of much use in the problems of the present. But suppose the past lives on in the present: suppose, though encapsulated in it, and at first sight hidden beneath the present’s contradictory and more prominent features, it is still alive and active; then the historian may very well be related to the non-historian as the trained woodsman is to the ignorant traveller.”
— R.G. Collingwood, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939, page 100
“I go the way that Providence dictates with all the assurance of a sleepwalker.”
—Adolf Hitler, 1936, München
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1750
Stephen Hopkins helped to found the 1st public library in Providence, Rhode Island.1
1751
18th of 10th month (New Style): Job Scott was born in the part of north Providence, Rhode Island that has since become Smithfield, to Friends John Scott and Lydia Scott. After a period of what has been said to be youthful folly he “requested the care, and became a member of the Monthly Meeting of Smithfield, then extending to Providence.”
1752
Near Providence, Rhode Island, Obadiah Brown opened a water-powered mill for the grinding of cocoa beans — so that locals would be able to enjoy this favorite beverage fresh without relying on grinders in Boston or New-York.
The Reverend Doctor James MacSparran of Rhode Island completed his AMERICA DISSECTED. REV. DR. MACSPARRAN
November 29, Wednesday (New Style): Woonsocket or Quinsnicket was the Smithfield Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends’s upper meetinghouse and Saylesville its lower meetinghouse. Its area, in the Revolutionary period, encompassed not only Providence, Rhode Island, which did not yet have its own meetinghouse, but all of central Massachusetts. Friend Jeremiah Wilkinson’s farm was across the Blackstone River from the Woonsocket upper meetinghouse in Cumberland, on a rise known as Cherry Hill north of Camp Swamp and south of Hunting Hill, about four miles from the Saylesville lower meetinghouse. On this day a baby girl was born, a “birthright” Friend named after one of Job’s daughters, Jemimah. She was probably the 8th surviving child of Friend Elizabeth Amey Whipple Wilkinson: • 1739 William Wilkinson • 1740 Patience Wilkinson • 1740 Amy Wilkinson • 1741 Jeremiah Wilkinson • 1743 Simon Wilkinson • 1745 Benjamin Wilkinson • 1750 Marcy Wilkinson
1. Please don’t presume that “public” here means available for the use of free citizens of color.
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• 1752 Jemimah Wilkinson • 1755 Stephen Wilkinson • 1757 Jeptha Wilkinson • 1760 Elizabeth Wilkinson • 1764 Deborah Wilkinson
At any rate, Friend Jemimah Wilkinson would be part of a farm family of eight sons and four daughters, and would be about 12 or 13 years of age at the death of her mother.2 WILKINSON FAMILY
1753
POOR JOB, 1753. AN ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1753 by Job Shepherd, Philom. Newport, Rhode Island: James Franklin.
Benjamin West moved to Providence and opened a school. Unable to make enough money this way, he would open a dry-goods store and bookstore.
2. The HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, no author cited, issued by Albert J. Wright, Printer, Boston and Philadelphia, in 1878, gives the date of birth not as the 29th of November but the 19th. Another branch of the Quaker Wilkinson family in Rhode Island, headed by Oziel Wilkinson, presumably related to the ironworking Wilkinsons of Birmingham, England, moved to Pawtucket and became involved with Friend Moses Brown and with Samuel Slater in the creation of the 1st water-driven cotton-yarn mill in America, and thus had nothing to do with the disownment of Friend Jeremiah Wilkinson’s daughter Jemimah Wilkinson and those associated with her (although that family would get into trouble with the Quakers as well, when one of its daughters, Hannah, got married with Samuel Slater, a non-Friend). Oziel Wilkinson and Company would in 1794 begin a metal- working mill near the Pawtucket Falls and in 1810 would erect a 3 1/2-story mill made of rubblestone for the manufacture of cotton yarns. His son David Wilkinson, in the machine shop on the ground floor, would invent cotton-working machinery. In 1816, the ironmaster David Wilkinson and his nephew Samuel Greene would manufacture the “Scotch” loom designed by William Gilmore, Rhode Island’s first marketable power loom.
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In the prospering Rhode Island colony, at the corner of Benefit and College Streets in Providence, an Athenaeum (private lending library) was initiated. This was the 4th such institution to be created along North America’s eastern coastline.
Publication of the Reverend Doctor James MacSparran of Rhode Island’s AMERICA DISSECTED. AMERICA DISSECTED
In London in about this year, a plan of the British dominions of New England in North America was engraved by Richard William Seale and hand colored and “Published by the executors of Dr. William Douglas of Boston in New England, from his original draught.” Dr. William Douglass (1700-1752) was a Scottish physician practicing in Boston who had studied in Edinburgh, Leyden, and Paris. Here is a detail from that map:
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1754
John Checkley died in Providence, Rhode Island. The inventory of his estate listed no war club or other valuable historical Metacom artifacts; in fact it indicates only some “Indian toys.”
The inhabitants of Providence, Rhode Island were petitioning their authorities toward obtaining a “large water engine.”
Passing through Providence, Patuxet near Warwick, and Warwick, Rhode Island, the Reverend Jacob Bailey recorded his impressions of these locales. “JUST PASSING THROUGH”
June 14, Friday (New Style): Portions of the town of Cranston were annexed to the city of Providence, Rhode Island.
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1755
The population of Providence, Rhode Island amounted to, in the categories of the day: 747 men, 741 women, 655 boys, 754 girls, 262 blacks, 275 men able to bear arms, and 406 enlisted soldiers.
John Green’s Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England was based largely upon the previously published map by Dr. William Douglass. Dr. Douglass (1700-1752) had been a Scottish physician practicing in Boston who had studied in Edinburgh, Leyden, and Paris. Here are two details from his earlier map:
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EAST GREENWICH RI MOUNT HOPE PORTSMOUTH TIVERTON WARWICK RI REHOBOTH BRISTOL WARREN SWANSEA
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CONCORD (In the lower right corner of this new 1855 offering we are offered the First Comers at Plymouth — being met on the shore by an Indian holding a pole with a liberty cap atop it!) CARTOGRAPHY
Also in this year, a map by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville:
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Also in this year, a map by Thomas Kitchin:
1756
The new Back Street in Providence, Rhode Island, that ran along the face of the hill to the east of and parallel to the city’s Towne or Main Street, was complete, but only as a narrow and twisty way, running along pre- existing plot lines and avoiding pre-existing private backyard graves, nor did it go all the way to connect at its north end with North Main Street. The town would still need to seek the “benefit” of a straightening of this back street, by relocating a number of family graves to the common burial ground, and by making a connection between the two streets at their northern end. (The straightened and connected back street would come eventually to be known as “Benefit Street.”)
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1758
In Providence, Rhode Island, along a footpath meandering through the gardens and orchards of the original Roger-Williamish strips of house lots that had extended indefinitely back from Town Street (Main Street), a narrow winding “Back Street” had been carved out. However, initially there had been no connection, at its northern end, with North Main Street. In this year that northern-end connection was put in, but at the same time, a gate was put across this entrance “to pacify all objectors and to insure the quiet of the neighborhood.” Evidently only local residents with keys would be allowed, for the following half a century, to make use of this connection between Back Street and North Main Street! (To straighten and widen this street it would eventually be necessary to relocate some graves from family burial plots to the Main Burial Ground. Upon this straightening and widening, “Back Street” would in 1772 be renamed Benefit Street, in gratitude to these dead folks whose slumbers had been disturbed for “the common benefit of all.”)
The county house on Meeting Street in Providence, Rhode Island, that had been erected in 1730, burned down. Lost in the blaze were all the books of the Providence Library Company. The town would be authorized to appoint fire-wards. A new county house would be erected nearby, on Benefit Street (it is now known as “the Old State House”).
June 21, Wednesday: Esek Hopkins was born in Providence, Rhode Island, son of Esek Hopkins and Desire Hopkins.
December 7, Thursday: Joseph or Jofeph Tillinghast or Tillinghaft the son of the deceased Elisha or Elifha Tillinghast or Tillinghaft (we note immediately that at this point in time the English were very much in the process of giving up the long á, written as an y without a cross-stroke) acting to fulfil the oft-expressed desire of his merchant father –that if he should die before his personal servant Primas or Primus or primus Tillinghast, the “Negro Man Slave” should serve no other man– and acting “also in Confideration of the sum of One Hundred and Sixty Six pounds in money of the Colony aforesaid to me in hand already paid by the said Primus Tillinghast,” did “Manumit Set free let go discharge and acquit him the said Primus Tillinghast from all manner of Slavery bondage Duty and Servitude whatsoever.” The record appears in the title transactions of Providence, Rhode Island for February 13, 1760 on page 38 of Volume 17:
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gÉ tÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá á{tÄÄ vÉÅx \ ]ÉáxÑ{ g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x VÉÄÉÇç Éy e{Éwx\áÄtÇw ZxÇàÄxP PÅtÇ fÉÇ TÇw [x|Ü tà _tã àÉ XÄ|y{t g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà Ätàx Éy át|w cÜÉä|wxÇvx ÅxÜv{tÇà Wxvxtáxw tÇw tÄáÉ ÉÇx Éy à{x TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá Éy à{x ZÉÉw Wxuàá e|z{àá qtÇw VÜxw|àá Éy à{x ft|w XÄ|y{t g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà ã{É W|xw \Çàxáàtàx áxÇw ZÜxxà|ÇzA j{xÜxtá cÜ|Åtá vÉÅÅÉÇÄç vtÄÄxw cÜ|Åâá g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà t axzÜÉ `tÇ fÄtäx _tàx à{x ÑÜÉÑxÜàç Éy Åç ft|w Ytà{xÜ XÄ|á{t g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà? uç {|á Y|wxÄ|àç tÇw _ÉÇz VÉÇà|ÇâtÇvx |Ç à{x fxÜä|vx Éy Åç át|w Ytà{xÜ tÇw tÄáÉ uç {|á Wâà|yâÄÄ tÇw ZÉÉw Ux{tä|ÉâÜ àÉ {|Å tÇw tÄÄ {|á YtÅ|Äç áÉ yâÜ [sic] ÑÜÉvâÜxw àÉ {|ÅáxÄy à{x ZÉÉw _|~|Çz _Éäx tÇw xyàxxÅ Éy Åç át|w‰ Ytà{xÜ à{tà {x ÉyàxÇà|Åxá |Ç t ÑâuÄ|v~ ÅtÇÇxÜ |Ç {|á _|yx g|Åx WxvÄtÜxw g{tà {x W|w ÇÉà |ÇàxÇw à{tà {|á át|w ÅtÇ fxÜätÇà ÑÜ|Åâá [sic] f{ÉâÄw xäxÜ fxÜäx tÇç bà{xÜ ÑxÜáÉÇ uxá|wxá {|ÅyxÄy tÇw à{tà |y {x Åç át|w Ytà{xÜ f{ÉâÄw w|x y|Üáà à{xÇ à{x ft|w cÜ|Åâá á{ÉâÄw zÉ YÜxx? ÉÜ Éà{xÜ jÉÜwá \ÅÑÉÜà|Çz à{x átÅx g{|Çz‰ aÉã ^ÇÉã çx à{tà \ à{x át|w ]ÉyxÑ{ g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà Å|Çw|Çz tÇw wxá|Üx|Çz à{tà à{x \ÇàxÇà|ÉÇ Éy Åç át|w Ytà{xÜ |Ç à{|á Ux{tÄy á{ÉâÄw ux àÜâÄç ÉuáxÜäxw ÑÜxÜyÉÜÅxw [sic] TÇw yâÄy|ÄÄxw tÇw tÄáÉ |Ç VÉÇy|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x áâÅ Éy bÇx [âÇwÜxw tÇw f|åàç f|å ÑÉâÇwá |Ç ÅÉÇxç Éy à{x VÉÄÉÇç tyÉÜxát|w àÉ Åx |Ç {tÇw tÄÜxtwç Ñt|w uç à{x át|w cÜ|Åâá g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà WÉ tá TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜ tá tyÉÜxát|w tÇw yÉÜ Åç áxÄy Åç [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw TwÅ|Ç|yàÜtàÉÜá `tÇâÅ|à fxà yÜxx Äxà zÉ w|áv{tÜzx tÇw tvÖâ|à {|Å à{x át|w cÜ|Åâá g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà yÜÉÅ tÄÄ ÅtÇÇxÜ Éy fÄtäxÜç uÉÇwtzx Wâàç tÇw fxÜä|àâwx ã{tàáÉxäxÜ tÇw à{tà {x à{x ft|w cÜ|Åâá g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà á{tÄÄ ux tÇw exÅt|Ç t YÜxx ÅtÇ tÇw tuyÉÄâàxÄç tvÖâ|ààxw xåÉÇ{xÜtàxw tÇw W|yv{tÜzxw@ Éy tÇw yÜÉÅ tÄÄ tÇw qtÄÄ ÅtÇÇxÜ Éy fÄtäxÜç UÉÇwtzx Wâàç tÇw fxÜä|àâwx ã{tàáÉxäxÜ? yÉÜxäxÜ {xÜxtyàxÜ âÇàÉ Åx à{x át|w ]ÉáxÑ{ g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà Åç [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw TwÅ|Ç| PyàÜtàÉÜá tÇw âÇàÉ xäxÜç Éà{xÜ cxÜáÉÇ ÉÜ ÑxÜyÉÇ ã{tàáÉxäxÜ tÇw tá Åâv{ tá |Ç [Åx in margin]_|xà{ ZÜtÇà|Çz hÇàÉ à{x ft|w cÜ|Åâá g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà à{tà {x á{tÄÄ ux xÇà|àÄxw âÇàÉ tÇw {täx tÇw xÇ}Éç tÄÄ áâv{ cÜ|ä|Äxwzxá \ÅÅâÇ|à|xá YÜxxwÉÅá tÇw‰ TwätÇàtzxá àÉ tÄÄ \ÇàxÇàá tÇw ÑâÜÑÉyxá |Ç à{x átÅx ÅtÇÇxÜ tá |y {x {tw uxxÇ uÉÜÇ YÜxxA \Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ fxà Åç {tÇw tÇw fxtÄ à{|á fxäxÇà{ Wtç Éy WxvxÅuxÜ |Ç à{x g{|Üàç fxvÉÇw lxtÜ Éy à{x ex|zÇ Éy [his] [the]{|á `t}xáàç ZxÉÜzx à{x fxvÉÇw uç à{x ZÜtvx Éy ZÉw ^|Çz Éy ZÜxtà UÜ|àt|Ç TÇw áÉ yÉÜà{ tÇw |Ç à{x çxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ _ÉÜw bÇx g{ÉâytÇw fxäxÇ [âÇwÜxw tÇw Y|yàç x|z{àA f|zÇxw fxtÄxw tÇw WxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç ÑÜxyxÇvx Éy ]ÉyxÑ{ g|ÄÄ|Çz{tyà((L.S.)) ftÅ V{tvx g{x tuÉäx f|zÇxÜ tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x tuÉäx AAAA TÜv{|utÄw lÉâÇz } \ÇáàÜâÅxÇà tà à{x g|Åx Éy f|zÇ|Çz àÉ ux {|á ÉãÇ iÉÄâÇàtÜç tvà tÇw Wxxw ‰‰‰‰ UxyÉÜx Åx ftÅM V{tvx ]âá cxtvx? exvÉÜwxw çx DFAà{ Wtç Éy YxuÜâtÜç DJIC yá ]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ VÄxÜ~x‰
MANUMISSION SLAVERY
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Providence, Rhode Island Records of Title Transfer Involving Non-White Persons Date Vol Page Party #1 Type Party #2
December 7, 1758 17 38 Joseph Tillinghast Man. Primus Tillinghast
August 7, 1762 14 512 Greenwich Navy Man. Nimbo (Wench) [Membo, Mimbo]
January 11, 1770 19 181 Benjamin Cushing Man. Caesar [Cefar]
October 14, 1774 19 262 Joseph Crawford Man. Five Negroes
October 14, 1774 19 263 Joseph Crawford Ind. Anthony
October 14, 1774 19 265 Joseph Crawford and wife et al Ind. Manuel
October 14, 1774 19 265 Joseph Crawford Ind. Patience
October 14, 1774 19 266 Joseph Crawford Ind. Primus
October 14, 1774 19 266 Joseph Crawford Ind. Peggy
December 15, 1774 19 315 Caleb Greene Man. Peter and Venter
October 16, 1775 19 310 Executor Benoni Pearce of will of Man. Pero James Brown
January 1, 1776 19 277 Nicholas Cook Man. Mingo
October 18, 1776 19 317 Gideon Manchester Man. Colette
January 7, 1777 19 309 Executor of will of Jeremiah Brown Man. Anthony (Negro)
December 12, 1777 19 339 Samuel Butler Man. Quaco
March 14, 1778 19 329 Benjamin Cushing Man. Prime
May 28, 1778 19 315 Joshua Hacker Man. Andrew Hacker
December 2, 1779 19 333 Juba Man. From two Privateers
March 31, 1781 19 340 Nicholas Power, et al Sale Caesar Power
April 2, 1781 19 345 Joseph Bucklin sold London to Sale London Bucklin Elkana & Moses Wilmarth, for him to perform their military obligation
April 16, 1781 19 340 Nicholas Power Man. Prince Power
May 16, 1781 19 341 Efek Hopkins sold Peggy to Flora Sale Peggy Hopkins Wanton, her own mother, for $100.00
May 29, 1781 19 342 Mary Crouch Man. Peter Crouch
January 24, 1782 22 43 Mary Chickley [Cheekly, Cheekley] Man. Cato
September 18, 1782 19 378 Ezekiel Durfee [Durfey] Sale Arthur Tickey [Tikey]
November 7, 1783 19 542 Richard Mumford Man. Cato Mumford
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Providence, Rhode Island Records of Title Transfer Involving Non-White Persons Date Vol Page Party #1 Type Party #2
April 15, 1784 19 449 Amaziah Waterman Man. His Negroes
May 25, 1784 19 447 Joseph McClellan Man. Plato McClellan
October 13, 1784 22 43 Mary Stiles Man. Caesar [Cato]
December 18, 1784 19 492 Jabez Bowen Man. Prince Bowen
April 20, 1785 19 516 William Morris Man. Catherine
March 13, 1786 22 109 Jonathan Arnold Man. Lilly (Wench)
May 11, 1786 22 35-36 Ruth Hopkins Man. Tony Hopkins
May 26, 1786 22 48 Benjamin Cushing Man. Prime Cushing
July 14, 1790 22 290 John I. Clark, et al Man. Quam
February 15, 1792 25 144 Isaiah Burr Sale Baccheus Overing
May 3, 1799 27 4 Five heirs of Joseph Brown Man. Power of Attorney for Obadiah Brown to free Phillis Brown
May 6, 1799 27 5 the five heirs of Joseph Brown Man. Phillis Brown
August 22, 1808 30 432 Jabez Bowen Jr. and N. Brown Man. Robert, (Negro boy)
July 22, 1820 42 604 Mary T. Olney Man. Lewis Olney
May 4, 1829 57 148 Jacob Wood Man. Hetty [Smith]
April 28, 1832 63 183 Mann Page Lomax Man. William Howard
April 28, 1832 70A 331 Mann Page Lomax Man. Daniel Rollins
April 28, 1832 70A 332 Mann Page Lomax Man. Maria Rollins
April 28, 1832 63 274 Mann Page Lomax Man. Kitty Howard
April 28, 1832 63 274 Mann Page Lomax Man. Martha Howard
December 2, 1837 70A 436 George Collins Man. Jesse Kimball
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1759
The Reverend Andrew Burnaby passed through Newport, Rhode Island. REV. ANDREW BURNABY
(He found the common people among the Rhode Islanders to be “cunning, deceitful, and selfish,” and noted that “they live almost entirely by unfair and illicit trading.”)
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
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A new “County House” was erected on Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, to replace the one on Meeting Street that had burned down in the previous year.
(This new construction would be paid for with a lottery, and through the issuance of municipal bonds.)
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1760
In Providence, Rhode Island there were the beginnings of a “Back Street” running parallel to the Towne Street, a few hundred upslope yards to the east. This new road wasn’t very straight as it needed to dodge some backyard graves (it is now known as “Benefit Street” because of the graves that would later need to be relocated in order to benefit the town by a straightening of the street).
March 15, Saturday: Moses Brown’s apprenticeship ended and he received his inheritance from his father, James Brown, who had died in 1739 while Moses was still an infant. The inheritance included a farm from his father’s estate of 145 acres in Providence Neck on which there had been four slaves, so, possibly, it also included some or all of these slaves. Moses, a Baptist of Rhode Island, would during this year be accepted as a full partner in Obadiah Brown & Co. He would take charge of the firm’s spermaceti works, an 11-acre operation at Tockwotton below Providence that utilized slave labor.)
November 27, Thursday: John Brown got married with Sarah Smith (1738-1825). Now at the John Brown mansion in Providence, Rhode Island, the docents allege that Mrs. Brown was a Quaker, but if they are speaking of this Sarah Smith whom John Brown married in 1760, Sarah was the daughter of Daniel and Dorcas (Harris) Smith. Was that family Quaker rather than Baptist? Well, did Quakers engage in the distilling of alcohol? –There is no record that might indicate such, nor is there any record that any young woman was disowned by the Friends for “marrying out,” as inevitably would have followed. (This marriage is recorded in Volume I, page 170 and in Volume II, page 5 of the Providence city records: they were “m. by Elder Samuel Winsor.”)
However, when a Los Angeles newsman who forthrightly admits that he is no historian, Charles Rappleye, came to town a few years back in the search for a story to tell in order to make some money, he made the mistake of crediting the preposterous account offered to him by these docents. So now, this is what he has written on pages 26 and 27 of his SONS OF PROVIDENCE: THE BROWN BROTHERS, THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a trade press book put out without any fact checking in 2006: When John was wed, in 1760, at the age of twenty-four, he reached outside his family congregation and chose a Quaker, Sarah Smith, the daughter of a successful merchant and distiller. Their wedding was a gala celebration attended by most of the town’s elite; the Browns borrowed coaches and carriages to ferry their
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guests from the nuptials to the reception. The next day, John moved his new bride into a new home, one of the first brick buildings to be erected on Towne Street. He furnished it with new chairs and looking glasses imported from Philadelphia, along with burnished walnut desks and bookcases made by John Goddard at Newport, regarded ever since as exemplars of colonial craftsmanship.
(Several times now, in casual conversations in Providence, I have had people recommend this book to me. I have been unfailingly polite in such situations, and by polite I mean unfailingly nonresponsive. However, allow me to state here now, once, and this is for the record: if you have read this book and think it worthy then you are either too stupid or too totally uninformed to be allowed to remain alive. — In a just world you would already have been eaten by alligators.)
1761
It is always instructive to evaluate what particular events of a period a later era came to regard as of significance. For example, these were the particular events of 1761 in Rhode Island that the Rhode Islanders of 1844 would consider to have been worthy of recording: 1761. Weybosset bridge was destroyed by a heavy gale of wind and the highest tide ever known before that time. To rebuild it, the General Assembly made a grant, and authorized a lottery. It was rebuilt with a draw to admit the passage of vessels, as many were built then as far north as St. John’s church, and West India cargoes were unladen at wharves in that vicinity. Newport was still much ahead of Providence in the valuation of taxable property, as appears by a State tax assessed this year, Newport paying £3,200, and Providence £972.
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1762
William Goddard began the Providence, Rhode Island Gazette, using £300 from his mother Sarah Updike Goddard. The newspaper would be housed in a schoolhouse building at 24 Meeting Street (the one that would in 1828 be the site of the first school open to black Americans). 1762. The first printing office was established by William Goddard. The first play performed in New-England, was in this town, this year. Such performances were afterwards prohibited by law.
David Douglas’s company of actors, the first such group to reach New England, put on performances at the Histrionic Academy on the north side of Meeting Street in Providence, Rhode Island, between Benefit Street and Prospect Street.
In Providence, Rhode Island the “Old State House” was being completed at 150 Back Street as the home of the state’s general assembly. (Back Street had been created in 1760. In 1772 it would be straightened and widened and redesignated as “Benefit Street.” This State House would be superseded at the beginning of the 20th Century by the current white marble statehouse across the valley on Smith Hill, the one which boasts the second largest unsupported stone dome in the world.)
In Providence, Rhode Island the Town Street that is now Main Street was for the first time given a paved surface (the new surface was of cut stone).
June 17, Thursday: Obadiah Brown died. Moses Brown was made the executor of his estate. The Obadiah Brown & Co. firm of Rhode Island was divided among the surviving four brothers Moses Brown, Nicholas Brown, John Brown, and Joseph Brown (James Brown, Junior having died early), and renamed as Nicholas Brown & Co.
In roughly this timeframe, Moses Brown copied the coat of arms of a Brown family of Essex, England (with which the Brown family of Providence had no apparent tie), to create a design for the wedding silver he was ordering from a Boston silversmith. The design featured a spreadeagle above three lion paws, with a motto “Gaudeo” meaning “I rejoice.” Later, John Brown would also adopt this as his coat of arms (except that for “Old Thunder,” a more appropriate motto might have been “Audeo,” meaning “I hear my roar”).
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August 7, Saturday: A “free Negroe” and “Labourer” in Providence, Rhode Island named Greenwich Navy, having purchased a “Negroe whoman” named Membo or Mimbo, “a wench,” from Joseph Tellinghast the son, heir, and one of the administrators of the estate of the deceased Providence merchant William Tellinghast,3 “for Sundry Good Causes and Considerations me hereunto moving,” duly granted this “wench” her freedom.4 On January 15, 1766 this transaction would be duly recorded on page 512, the final page, in fact the flyleaf, of Volume 14 of the title transactions of the town. Since this record is severely out of its date sequence in books that were kept in date sequence, clearly it was written onto the blank last leaf of this completed 14th volume in order not to waste any space in Volume 17, the volume then current. Clearly, this transaction was considered at least by the clerk of the town, James Angell, to be more a ceremonial than a real property transaction (we notice that he even blotted a word he had begun to misspell), and clearly, the reason for such improper treatment was racial condescension. –However, out-of-sequence recording does award the record the honor of being the very 1st such “manumitt” now to be discovered in turning the pages of the transactions of this town:
3. No record of such a sale appears on Providence’s books. The heir and administrator Joseph Tellinghast may or may not have acted in good faith — perhaps eventually we will locate such a transaction entered in the records of some other town? Things all seems to have worked out for the Navys, for when later on page 22 of Volume 20 “I Greenwich Navy ... Free Negro man” sells a plot with a small shop on it to James Brown, there is at the bottom of said document a signed release by which “And Membo Navy wife of the faid Greenwich Navy doth also release requit and Surrender,” etc. 4. According to Mary Beth Corrigan’s “It’s a Family Affair” in WORKING TOWARD FREEDOM (ed. Larry Hudson, 1994), generally, when free blacks in the Upper South owned black slaves, this was for “philanthropic reasons” — i.e., as a step toward providing freedom to kin. During the 1850s, approximately 10% of the slaves who had been freed by manumissions in deeds (in contrast to manumission in wills) had been freed by a member of their own family who had purchased their enslaved kin in order to free them. Of the 900 or so former slavemasters who would petition for compensation upon the manumission of their Washington DC slaves by the US Congress, approximately 888 would be white slavemasters and 12 would be free blacks slavemasters. All but one of these black slavemasters, however, merely “owned” members of their families — usually these were adult males who “owned” wives or children. Note that the black slavemasters who had to that point retained ownership of family members could have been simply unable to afford the rather steep fees of $50 for a certificate of freedom.
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^ÇÉã tÄÄ `xÇ uç à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá à{tà \ ZÜxxÇã|v{ atäç t yÜxx‰ axzÜÉx Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç çAx VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx tÇw VÉÄÉÇç Éy‰ e{Éwx \áÄtÇw _tuÉâÜxÜ yÉÜ tÇw |Ç VÉÇá|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x ZÉÉw j|ÄÄ tÇw tyyxvà|ÉÇ ã{|v{ \ {täx tÇw wÉ uxtÜ gÉãtÜwá `xÅuÉ [blank space] t axzÜÉx ã{ÉÅtÇ? ã{|v{ \ câÜv{táxw Éy à{x TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá Éy à{x Xáàtàx Éy j|ÄÄ|tÅ gxÄÄ|Çz{táà Wxvxtáxw tÇw yÉÜ fâÇwÜç ZÉÉw Vtâáxá tÇw VÉÇá|wxÜtà|ÉÇá Åx q {xÜxâÇàÉ ÅÉä|Çz? WÉ uç g{xáx cÜxáxÇàበ`tÇâÅ|àà à{x át|w axzÜÉx jÉÅtÇ? tÇw tuáÉÄâàxÄç yÜxx tÇw w|áv{tÜzx {xÜ yÜÉÅ tÄÄ ÅtÇÇxÜ Éy fÄtäxÜç? UÉÇwtzx ÉÜ fxÜä|àâwx ã{tàáÉxäxÜ {xÜxuç câuÄ|á{|Çz tÇw WxvÄtÜ|Çz àÉ tÄÄ ã{ÉÅ |à Åtç VÉÇvxÜÇx [sic] à{tà à{x át|w `|ÅuÉ [blank space] uç ä|Üàâx Éy à{|á \ÇáàÜâÅxÇà Éy `tÇâÅ|áá|ÉÇ |á uxvÉÅx t yÜxx fâu}xvà Éy {|á `t}xáàç tÇw‰ uç tÄÄ cxÜáÉÇá áÉ àÉ ux XáàxtÅxw[sic]tÇw gt~xÇ[blotted “hera”?]{xÜxtyàx܉ A\Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy \ wÉ {xÜxâÇàÉ fxà Åç [tÇw tÇw fxtĉ à{x fxäxÇà{ Wtç Éy Tâzâáà |Ç à{x fxvÉÇw lxtÜ Éy {|á Åt}xáàç ex|zÇ ZxÉÜzx à{x g{|Üw ^|Çz Éy ZÜxtà UÜ|àt|Ç q çxTW DJIE f|zÇxw fxtÄxw tÇw WxÄ|äxÜxw \Ç à{x cÜxáxÇvx Éy ]ÉáxÑ{ TÜÇÉÄw ZÜxxÇã|v{ atäç ((Seal)) ]ÉÇtà{tÇ [|ÄÄ } exvÉÜwxw ]tÇâtÜç DHAà{ DJII‰ Uç ]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ VÄxÜ~x
MANUMISSION SLAVERY
1763
AN ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST, 1763, and THE NEW ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1763. By Benjamin West. Done on the press of William Goddard, the only one in Providence, Rhode Island. He would republish this almanac annually until 1793. This is the first of the Providence series of West almanacs, which continued until 1781. The title was enlarged in 1764. The Almanac contains an ephemeris and gives the time of high tide. The court holdings and church meetings are given under the
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respective months. A table of the value and weight of coins and a table of Post Roads are included. This makeup becomes the rule for subsequent West almanacs.
At a press in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 2,000 copies of THE SECOND GERMANTOWN BIBLE were being printed. The printer, Christopher Sauer, Jr., had been three years of age when his father had brought the family over from Germany. He apparently was deeply religious and early in life was a leading member of the Church of the Brethren in Germantown, in which he was later ordained as an elder. In the preface he wrote “The Holy Scripture can be well linked to a good and well prepared article of food, which, to a rich person who hath a distaste for all food and desireth not to partake thereof, is a tasteless and strengthless dish, from which he deriveth not the slightest nourishment.” This was the 1st Bible printed on American-made paper — the watermark “WP” and a crown combined with Arms of Virginia identifies the paper as manufactured by William Parks of Williamsburg, Virginia. HISTORY OF THE PRESS
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In Rhode Island politics in this year, Stephen Hopkins was in charge.
Ann Smith Franklin, sister-in-law of Benjamin Franklin, died.
The Sabin tavern, at South Main and Planet Streets in Providence very near to the governor’s residence, was constructed. (On June 9, 1772 a group of local men would meet there to determine the fate of the British revenue schooner Gaspee that had run aground at Namquit Point.)
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1764
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST, 1764, and THE NEW ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1764. By Benjamin West. Providence, Rhode Island: William Goddard.
Nathaniel Ames, Senior’s final almanac: AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY; OR ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST, 1764. Boston: Printed and Sold by R. & S. Draper ... Edes & Gill ... Green & Russell ... T. & J. Fleet.... The introductory essay defended astrology as having a “philosophical foundation.” Mention was made of the glassicord “Musical Instrument of Glass invented by Mr. Franklin.” This publication offered health advice, “some hints concerning the Sanatorian Doctrine [Santorio Santorio, 1561-1636, an Italian physician] of Perspiration, a Discharge from our Bodies, tho’ insensibly made, that is greater than all the sensible Evacuations put together, since Health in all Persons every Moment depends upon a right Discharge of this Matter....”
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY: OR, ALMANACK FOR 1764. By Nathaniel Ames. Newport: Re-printed and sold by Samuel Hall. A reprint of Ames’s Boston Almanac. This Newport series of Ames’s continued several years.
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In Nova Scotia, the townships of Granville, Windsor and Shelburne were formed; and the Acadians were permitted to hold lands in the province upon taking the oath of allegiance. There were war debts that now had to be paid. Parliament modified its Molasses Act to produce revenue in concert with its Revenue Act, as the Sugar Act, the first to raise revenue not only from England but from its colonies as well. England had come out of the period known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe and the French and Indian Wars in America (it lasted eight years over here) in the position of being the most far-flung empire which the world would ever see. From France, England had taken not only the amorphous hinterland known as Canada but also several islands in the West Indies. From Spain, England had taken a region centering around what would be known as Florida. But England had come out of the period of hostilities, of course, as said, with an immense debt load, and Americans of course immediately objected to sharing in this burden, on grounds that since under British law such revenue measures could be taken only upon the consent of the representatives in Parliament assembled, and with Americans having no representation in that body, we should not be taxed with out being represented. Everybody knew, the condition of the Parliament being what it was, that that was very much like saying that they shouldn’t be raping us without kissing us first, but never mind because what we needed was a nice slogan, and ample indignation.5 The only real possibilities being • either kill a whole bunch of Englishmen, • or else do the unthinkable, stop putting sugar in our tea; since we had just come out of a period in which we and the Englishmen had been killing a whole bunch of Frenchmen and a whole bunch of Indians, the easiest solution was a minor behavioral adjustment: • substitute for the killing of Indians the killing of Englishmen. This Revenue Act having brought taxation without representation to Boston, obviously a Committee of Correspondence had to be formed.
5.It isn’t too hard to create slogans when you really need them: witness a slaveholder standing up in public, in broad daylight like, and going “Give me liberty or give me death!” But you have to be careful to avoid afterthoughts during this process — the first inspiration is usually the best one.
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As his contribution to the resolution of this crisis, Governor Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island prepared THE RIGHTS OF COLONIES EXAMINED, and this was printed in Providence:
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January 7, Saturday: Because the men known as Székely refused to join the Hapsburg armed forces, Austrian soldiers killed 200 of them at Madéfalva, Hungary (Siculeni, Romania). The surviving Székely would flee into Moldova and Bukovina.
Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opéra comique La rencontre imprévue to words of Dancourt after Le Sage and d’Orneval was performed for the initial time, in Vienna’s Burgtheater.
The Providence, Rhode Island Gazette and Country Journal itemed coyly that: r LAST Sunday Evening M.M OSES BROWN, of this Place, Merchant, was married to Miss NANCY BROWN, (Daughter of the late OBADIAH BROWN, Esq;) an agreeable young Lady, with a handsome Fortune.6
MOSES BROWN
Summer: Captain Esek Hopkins, who would become the 1st Commodore of the US Navy, on behalf of the firm of Nicholas Brown and Company of Providence, was fitting out the square-rigged brigantine Sally at Newport for a slaving voyage to the Guinea coast of Africa. Enormous profits were being anticipated, for if a big cargo of a couple of hundred healthy young human beings could be delivered from the slave castles on the coast of Africa, where they could be obtained on the cheap in exchange for Rhode Island rum, to the sugar plantations of the West Indies, the profit for a single voyage might run up toward several hundred thousand pounds. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE TRIANGULAR TRADE
6. I do not know why Moses Brown’s first cousin Anna Brown, daughter of Obadiah Brown, his first of three wives, is described in this journal announcement as “Miss Nancy Brown.” –Is “Nancy” sometimes a synonym for “Anna”? This portrayal is copied from a watercolor originally painted by Joseph Partridge of Providence, Rhode Island in the 1820s on the basis of a sketch made during Moses’s life — a watercolor which was donated to the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1907 by Obadiah Brown Hadwen and now hangs in the John Brown mansion. It omitted the growth on the end of Friend Moses Brown’s nose, which has been described as the size and color of a small cherry, and since the Kouroo contexture uses a “warts and all” approach, that detail has been added back into the portrayal.
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In general, in Rhode Island harbors alone during this year, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, some 20 vessels were being fitted out for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 –as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of 2,180 souls were transported during this year in Rhode Island bottoms alone. Examples from this year include the Rhode Island brig Betsey carrying a cargo of 120 slaves, the Friendship carrying a cargo of 180, the brig Osprey carrying 100, and the Polly carrying 160.
1765
THE NEW ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1765. By Benjamin West. Providence, Rhode Island: William Goddard. It contains an advertisement about paper manufacturing in Rhode Island, as do some of the subsequent almanacks.
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY: OR, ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST, 1765. By Nathaniel Ames (the younger). Boston: Printed and Sold by R. & S. Draper, Edes & Gill, Green & Russell, T. & J. Fleet, etc. Two pages were devoted to “Some Practical Rules for Husbandry.” This was the first almanac produced by the son after the death of his father, and in a Note to the Reader, the young man writes of his being “forced as it were, to make my unexpected, premature Appearance in Public....” The publication included “An Elegy on the Death of the late Dr. Ames.” Sold also by B. Hall at Newport. Hammett gives the imprint “Newport: Samuel Ball” but doubtless intended to describe this almanac.
At this point the American colonies had about 28,000 tons of shipping employing some 4,000 seamen. Our exports of tobacco were nearly double in value our exports of bread and flour, with fish, rice, indigo, and wheat next in order of value. Our major shippers were the Cabots and Thomas Russell of Boston, Thomas Francis Lewis of New-York, and Samuel Butler of Providence, Rhode Island.
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1765. Some spirited instructions were passed at a Town meeting to the town’s representatives in the General Assembly, against the right of Great Britain to impose taxes without the Colony’s consent. They were strong, bold and explicit. They were shadows of “coming events,” which led to the declaration of Independence. The General Assembly acted up to them, and their acts, and similar ones followed by other Colonies, produced the repeal of the odious Stamp act the next year.
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The Brown Brothers of Providence, Rhode Island, richie rich, were accustomed to treating persons as things. They routinely had no qualms about exchanging things for persons, and persons for things:
Thus we should treat it as no aberration, no fluke, no mere unfortunate happenstance, that in this year their negrero brigantine Sally experienced difficulties. (When you are accustomed to treating persons as things and vicey versa, for instance treating persons as cargo, cargo being something that is sometimes damaged in transit, you can expect that some of the persons you are dealing in will be damaged or lost in transit. It goes without saying.) For the papers of the Sally, Governor Stephen Hopkins had used the blank back of a pass that had been issued by the British admiralty in regard to another vessel on another voyage quite completed. The front of the parchment having been used, the back was available as colonial document paper. I have inspected that parchment and its seals; it is very much the worse for wear and is now preserved at the John Carter Brown
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Library at Brown University. It reads like this: Uç à{x [ÉÇÉÜtuÄx fàxÑ{xÇ [ÉÑ~|Çá XáÖâ|Üx? ZÉäxÜÇÉÜ? tÇw VÉÅtÇwxÜ [sic] |Ç V{|xy Éy à{x VÉÄÉÇç Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇwA à{tà à{|á Wtç \ wxÄ|äxÜxw à{|á ctyá àÉ Xyx~ [ÉÑ~|Çá `táàxÜ Éy à{x UÜ|ztÇà|Çx ftÄÄç\ vxÜà|yç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç át|wVÉÄÉÇç Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw Éy à{xUâÜà{xÇ Éy ÉÇx[âÇwÜxw tÇw àãxÇàç y|äxgÉÇá ÅÉâÇàxw ã|à{f|åZâÇá tÇw Çtä|ztàxw ã|à{ yÉâÜàxxÇ`xÇ? tÄÄfâu}xvàá Éy[|áUÜ|àtÇÇ|v`t}xáàçe{Éwx \áÄtÇw uâ|Äà? tÇw uÉâÇw yÉÜ TyÜ|vt tÇw à{x jxáà \Çw|xáA YÉÜ ã{|v{ ctyá à{x át|w `táàxÜ {tà{ z|äxÇ UÉÇw tÇw àt~xÇ à{x [hole in parchment]btà{ àÉ xÇà|àÄx {|Å àÉfâv{ctyá à{xÜx ux|Çz t Çxã [??]|Ç át|wVÉÄÉÇçA âÇwxÜ Åç [tÇw tÇw fxtÄ tà TÜÅx [??] tà e{Éwx \áÄtÇw à{|á x|z{à{ Wtç Éy Z|äxÇfxÑàxÅuxÜ ÉÇx g{ÉâátÇw fxäxÇ [âÇwÜxw tÇw f|åàç yÉâÜ? tÇw |Ç à{x yÉâÜà{ lxtÜ Éy [|á `t}xáàçá ex|zÇ ZxÉÜzx à{x à{|Üw ^|Çz Éy ZÜxtà UÜ|àt|Ç9vA fàxÑ[ÉÑ~|Çá ((Tax Stamp with “68” and “GR” and a crown and a quite large and ornate “GR”))
Of the 167 Africans she was transporting in chains, 109 were lost.7 THE BROWN BROTHERS THE MIDDLE PASSAGE SLAVERY
7. The other ships were the Mary and the Wheel of Fortune. To repel pirates, the Sally carried 7 swivel guns and a keg of powder, two pairs of ship pistols, 8 “small Arms,” 2 “Blunder Bursers,” and 13 “Cutleshes,” and to keep the male Africans under control, also, 3 long chains with a dozen “pad Locks,” 40 “hand Cufs,” and 40 “Shekels.” We can infer that this ship was not named in honor of Sally Hemings, President Thomas Jefferson’s common-law wife/real-law slave, and mother of a number of his children — as she had not yet been born.
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August 20, Tuesday: Aboard the Sally along the African coast had been accumulated a cargo of 196 of whom 9 had been resold and 20 had already died, the ship’s cargo standing at 167 souls. Negotiation for slave cargo was concluded by the purchase of an additional woman slave and the release of “1 woman all most dead” to their African interpreter, Anthony. It had taken Captain Esek Hopkins fully nine months to collect, on behalf of the firm of Nicholas Brown and Company of Providence, enough captive black Africans along the coast of Guinea in exchange for Rhode Island triple-distilled spirits of rum, to set his sails to run before the winds over the Middle Passage for the slave plantations of the West Indies. The venture still offered prospects of ample profit. TRIANGULAR TRADE
(In order to hold such a person up for public censure, in 1957 at an otherwise undistinguished traffic intersection we have installed in Providence this statue:
Also, in order to hold such a person up for public censure, we have named a public high school after him.)
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August 28, Wednesday: During the Middle Passage of the Sally from the Guinea coast of Africa toward the slave plantations of the West Indies, Captain Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island had encountered a considerable amount of illness and disability among the white seamen of his crew. Also, three more members of the cargo had succumbed. He had therefore pressed four of the seemingly compliant male blacks of the cargo into service abovedecks, and they had seemed to be making themselves helpful with the sails. In the language of the time “he was obliged to permit some of the slaves to come on deck to assist the people.” However, these four men had been merely biding their time, and on this day attempted to set free the other surviving blacks of the cargo. To reassert control the crew needed to fire upon their assets, killing eight outright and wounding a number of others, two of whom would also eventually die during the remainder of the voyage. In addition, some of the blacks leaped overboard in the midst of the ocean and, their heads bobbing in the swell, could not be retrieved. The venture’s opportunities to offer profit to the Providence firm of Nicholas Brown and Company were beginning to seem rather marginal.8 TRIANGULAR TRADE
During the remainder of the voyage, some additional members of the cargo would perish through refusal to accept nourishment.
1766
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, FOR 1766. By Benjamin West, Philomath. Providence: Sarah and William Goddard. Contains chronology of French and Indian War, and “a short view of the present State of the American Colonies.”
8. At the end of the voyage, only 108 of the original 196 would be deliverable to their new slave lives in America. The slaves had been acquired along the coast of Africa for about £5-£10 each or a total of about £1,500 and the survivors were disposed of for about £20 each or a total of about £2,000, a gross profit of about £500, but from such a gross figure must be subtracted all the considerable expenses of the voyage and of crew salaries and of not being able to use the ship for any other purpose for a year. All told, the Browns of Providence would lose £9,000-£10,000 during this particular sailing venture. Moses Brown would later point out that overall, their firm’s slave trade with the Mary, the Wheel of Fortune, and the Sally had resulted in loss rather than in the adding to of the Brown family assets, despite the fact that of the brothers, John Brown individually would see fit to continue in this trade. We need not mention how Disagreeable the Nuse of your Luseing 88 slaves is to us & all your Friends, but your Self Continuing in Helth is so Grate Satisfaction to us that we Remain Cheirful under the Heavy Loss of our Ints.
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(These “Lady’s and Gentleman’s Diaries” would have an enviable publication run of a total of 118 consecutive years.)
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY: OR, ALMANACK FOR 1766. By Nathaniel Ames. Newport: Reprinted and sold by Samuel Hall.
AMES’S ALMANACK REVIVED AND IMPROVED: OR, AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY FOR 1766. BY A LATE STUDENT AT HARVARD COLLEGE. Boston: R. & S. Draper; Edes & Gill; Green & Russell; T. & J. Fleet; S. Hall in Rhode Island. A pirated edition because of failure of Ames to agree with printers. (Nichols) Printed in Boston, not in Newport.
In Providence, Rhode Island, Mary Katherine Goddard took over the Gazette from her brother William Goddard.
February: The Sally arrived finally back in its home port in Rhode Island, bringing with it the 4 “likely boys” that the Brown family had requested.9
9. William J. Brown would relate, in his autobiography in 1883, that it had been believed in his family that his grandfather Cudge had been brought over from Africa in one of the Brown negreros. Does that mean that one of these 4 “likely boys” was named Cudge? (The earliest record we have for Cudge was when he got married, in 1768, with Phillis.) PAGE 1: I am not positive, but believe my grandfather was brought from Africa in the firm’s vessel. He had two or three brothers. One was named Thomas, and the other Sharp or Sharper Brown, and they worked for Moses Brown. (The records for Obadiah Brown show ownership of four slaves named Cudge, Sharper, Tom, and Benno. If it is accurate that Brown’s grandfather had been one of these 4 “likely boys” brought to Providence in 1766 in the Sally, and if it is accurate that he had “two or three brothers,” then it would seem rather more than likely that these four –Cudge, Tom, Sharper, and Benno– had not only been brought together from Africa on the Sally, but were blood relatives.)
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March 18, Tuesday: In response to colonial boycotts, the Stamp Act was repealed by England. READ THE FULL TEXT
Hey, guys, we’re not trying to be unreasonable.
The Declaratory Act was enacted, pointing out that nevertheless, Parliament and the King had the right to make laws for the American colonies. READ THE FULL TEXT
News of the repeal would be greeted in Providence, Rhode Island with “32 of the most loyal, patriotic and constitutional toasts.” DRUNKENNESS
1767
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1767. By Benjamin West. Providence, Rhode Island: Sarah Goddard and Company. The first Rhode Island Almanac to have a cut on the title page and the first of West’s Providence Almanacs to contain a cut.
May: John Brown and Moses Brown were engaged in a campaign to bring universal public education to the children of Providence, Rhode Island. At this point Moses called publicly for a property tax that would support this, citing as his justification not the personal needs of the town’s poorer children but instead the chronic need that the town’s businesses was experiencing, for young workers of an improved educational background and greater employee capabilities.10 THE BROWN BROTHERS 10. It is clear from the architecture proposed, that at this time the brothers were thinking of a co-educational school that would teach girls as well as boys, albeit separately, but were also thinking of a racially exclusive school that would of course be utilized only by the children of the white citizens.
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December 2, Wednesday: John Brown spoke before the town meeting of Providence, Rhode Island, advocating universal public education (clearly, in the code of that era, “universal” was being understood by all to indicate “white children only”), and his plan was accepted.
1768
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, FOR 1768. By Benjamin West, Philomath. Providence, Rhode Island: Sarah Goddard and John Carter. It contains a cut explaining the eclipse.
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In addition to his annual almanac for Rhode Island, Benjamin West anonymously published one at the print shop of Mein And Fleming in Boston labeled BICKERSTAFF’S BOSTON ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1768. Its title page woodcut was of “the giants lately discovered in South America.” A full-page woodcut illustrated “A Sachem of the Abenakee Nation, rescuing an English Officer from the Indians.” It included a 4-page gazetteer of the world and a 5-page “Chronological Table of the Discoveries of the Arts and Sciences, interspersed with remarkable Events, since the Deluge.” This was the first of his “Bickerstaff’s” publications.
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY: OR, ALMANACK FOR 1768. By Nathaniel Ames. Newport: Reprinted and sold by Samuel Hall.
In Rhode Island, Josias Lyndon was in charge. 1768. A large elm tree, near Olney-street, was dedicated as the tree of liberty, and an address made by Silas Downer. PROVIDENCE
January 1, Friday: A month earlier, John Brown had carried along the town meeting of Providence, Rhode Island, and a decision had been made that the town would make education available to all the town children. This had become a source of concern for the proprietors of private schools already in existence, and in addition, to the shock of Moses Brown, had become a source of concern for “the poorer sort of people” — precisely the families whose children would most have benefitted. (Was it because these lower income families simply could not afford to lose the pittances of weekly wages that their small working children could bring home?) THE BROWN BROTHERS
This follow-on town meeting attempted to cope with the controversy by voting for the construction of one 2- story brick schoolhouse, with tax monies to be supplemented by private subscription.
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February: After the Providence, Rhode Island town meeting voted the construction of one 2-story brick schoolhouse, with tax monies to be supplemented by private subscription, John Brown and Moses Brown had gone to work and arranged that this Town School House replace the ruins of the old town courthouse. The supplemental moneys would come from family members, and from friends of the Brown family. THE BROWN BROTHERS
Instruction was to take place on the ground floor, with the upstairs floor would be devoted to private offices. Construction would require two years.
Spring: The General Assembly of Rhode Island issued a charter for the Town School House in Providence.
July 6, Monday: At the Ephrata Community in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Johann Conrad Beissel died. He had been born in Eberbach in Germany and had come to Pennsylvania in 1720, and in 1732 had established his semi-monastic community at Ephrata, known as “Camp of the Solitary,” a community which by the time of his death had come to include not only a monastery, “Brother House,” but also a convent, “Sister House.”
COMMUNITARIANISM In Providence, Rhode Island, Moses Brown wrote to document to his brothers formally, that “my health is so impaired as to be much injured by a close attention to any kind of business, and I have concluded to leave the care and charge of my part of the business of the company this summer and fall, among you.” THE BROWN BROTHERS
November 20, Sunday: Cudge Brown, a slave of Moses Brown, got married with Phillis. They would live near what is now the Moses Brown School and Providence Friends Meetinghouse on Providence’s East Side. Their grandson William J. Brown would make a record of this family history in his autobiography, THE LIFE OF WILLIAM J. BROWN, OF PROVIDENCE, R.I.; WITH PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF INCIDENTS IN RHODE ISLAND, a book that would be published in Rhode Island in 1883, and then republished in 1971, and then again, this time in paperback, in 2006:
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PAGES 32-35: My grandfather was married to Phillis, November 20th, 1768, and they went to keeping house, living in one towards the north end of Olney street, owned by Mr. Brown, where he kept his teams. Newport, his oldest son, was born April 22d, 1769. Rhoda, his oldest daughter, was born September 27th, 1776, and Noah, my father, was born September 20th, 1781. James was born November 17th, 1788....11
1ST EDITION 3D EDITION
1769
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1769. By Benjamin West. Boston: Mein and Fleeming. Sold by Benjamin West, (the author) in Providence, Rhode Island. Owing to a disagreement, West had his almanac published in Boston, and Goddard and Carter published one under the pseudonym of Abraham Weatherwise. 11. The cover of the paperback would refer to this volume as “A DIARY OF A FREE BLACK MAN.” William J. Brown, whose ancestry was not only African (Cudge Brown and Phillis) but also native American (Thomas Prophet), did not consider himself a black man but rather a man of color. It should be pointed out, also, that his thrice-published writing, like the memoir of Benjamin Franklin, was not ever a “DIARY” nor even based upon such a record, but instead qualifies as a late-life “autobiography” or “memoir” created directly for publication.
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THE NEW-ENGLAND TOWN AND COUNTRY ALMANACK FOR 1769. By “Abraham Weatherwise.” Providence: Sarah Goddard and John Carter. See note to previous entry. A portrait of John Wilkes appears on the front page, and the title page is the fifth page. Second and Third Editions were issued, according to advertisements in the Providence Gazette. This almanac contains an account of the Stage coach and Passage Boat owners and time tables, and also the bearings from Rhode leland Lighthouse. Compare 1755 Almanac.
Samuel Stearns’s EDES & GILL’S NORTH-AMERICAN ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1769.... Printed and Sold by Edes & Gill. Boston. The author’s note was addressed to “Americans” and indicated that due to “a prudent diffidence,” he would remain anonymous in this first attempt at an almanac (a note in the diary of Nathaniel Ames for February 1768 had indicated that Samuel Stearns wanted to learn “how to make almanacks”). This publication included a two-and-a-half-page allegory which it alleged had been discovered by accident in an old pamphlet, offering a description of the “barbarous oppression” to which the English colonists felt they were being subjected by the mother country. The publication printed the Charter of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay in its entirety, consuming 21 of its pages.
On the site of the old county house that had been destroyed by fire in Providence, Rhode Island, toward the base of Meeting Street, a brick schoolhouse was erected. The lower floor of this structure would be used as a grammar school, while the upper floor would be leased to the College of Rhode Island pending the availability of its University Hall at the top of the hill.
In this year the colony enacted a rather indefinite law granting tax exemption to property devoted to religious, charitable, and educational purposes. (This law would be made more specific in 1829 by limiting the tax exemption for religious and educational property to the buildings devoted to such purposes and the land on which they stood. Then, in 1850, largely in response to the presence of large numbers of Roman Catholics in the state, this tax exemption would be further limited, to three acres of land, so far as such land was used exclusively for religious and educational purposes, but this new stipulation would immediately become a political issue and would be repealed, with all such land “not leased or rented” being again free from taxation, and then in 1852 even this restriction would be removed and all property, whether real or personal, that was used in connection with religion and education, or the income of which was devoted to religion or education, would be made totally exempt from taxation. In 1870 the political winds would blow in the opposite direction and the exemption of the personal property of religious and charitable societies would be again restricted, with any such property having a value greater than $20,000 became taxable. In 1872 the anti-Catholic prejudice would again surface, and the tax exemption would be restricted again to only “buildings for free public schools or for religious worship” and one acre of the ground upon which they stood, and this only if both the land and the buildings were used for no purpose other than free public schooling plus religious worship. Rented property and invested funds of such institutions, and the school property of the Catholic church and other semi- private educations institutions, became taxable. In 1894 the schools of the Catholic church became again free from taxation, and added to that were the buildings of charitable institutions and one acre of the ground on which they stood.) READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
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The Providence Town Meeting voted to set aside a place at which inoculations against the small pox could be carried out. (By some reports, it would be Moses Brown who would introduce smallpox vaccination to Rhode Island, but as yet I have been unable to substantiate such an assertion — or even to verify whether the reference it makes is to the process of variolation or the process of vaccination.)
It should be mentioned that Moses was no dummy. He understood, for instance, that when stem rust damaged his grain crops, the infection was spreading from nearby barberry bushes. (The growing of barberry bushes had for this reason been forbidden in Middletown, Rhode Island since 1766, and in 1772 the General Assembly would extend this ban to all of Rhode Island.) Upon application of any freeholder, the person upon whose grounds they grew was required to cut them up within one month, or, in case of his neglect to do so, they might be destroyed by warrant from a justice, at the expense of the complainant.
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June 3, Saturday: In Rhode Island, Joseph Wanton was in charge.12 From the yard of Friend Stephen Hopkins’s home
(erected 1701, altered 1743)13 a group of notables such as Benjamin West the local “philomath” and Joseph Brown observed the transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun.14
Benjamin West would publish AN ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATION OF VENUS UPON THE SUN THE THIRD DAY OF JUNE 1769, and would soon be awarded honorary degrees by both Harvard College and the College of Rhode Island.
In commemoration, Transit Street and Planet Street in Providence would receive their names. –On “Transit Street” between Benefit Street (Back Street) and Main Street (Town Street), an observatory of sorts for the event had been constructed. ASTRONOMY
12. Wanton’s wig, which had been crafted in England in imitation of the wig of the Speaker of the House of Commons, was so immense that it would have seemed preposterous to perch a hat atop it. He therefore was in the habit of carrying his hat under his left arm while holding in his right hand an umbrella (he was the 1st gentleman in Rhode Island to use an umbrella). 13. This structure has been moved a couple of times and I do not presently have the dates of those removes. Initially it stood on South Main Street, then it was moved to 9 Hopkins Street (which may at that time still have been being called Bank Street), and then it was moved to the corner of Hopkins Street and Benefit Street. 14. Would Friend Stephen Hopkins’s slave Toney, whom he was refusing to manumit, have been playing “barista,” and carrying drinks out from the house and respectfully serving these notable gentlemen?
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June 3, Saturday: Moses Brown would obtain his own copy of the observations made in Providence, Rhode Island on this day (although I really do not know whether he himself took part in the observations):
ASTRONOMY
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1770
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, FOR 1770. By Benjamin West, Philomath. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. “This Year two Things are added: one is a new table, by which the Interest of any Sum of Money; for any time, and at any Rate per Cent may readily be computed. This Table will be esteemed a great Curiosity: - The second is the Rising, Setting and Southing of the Pleiades....”
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January 11, Thursday: Benjamin Cushing of Providence, Rhode Island in consideration of the sum of one Hundred Spanish Milled Dollars cash in his hand, did formally obligate himself to Manumit a slave he had just acquired, named Cesar, “in such manner as the Law Direct,” so that “said Cefar shall thence Forward be forever free from my Service and be free from me at his own Disposal.” The obligation to manumit upon which Mr. Cushing was entering was conditional on this man well and faithfully continuing as his servant for a full five years, until January 10, 1775. This 1770 record would be belatedly entered on the town’s books as of May 21th [sic], 1773, on pages 181 and 182 of Volume 19:
cÜÉä|wxÇvx ]tÇâtÜç DDAà{ TW DJJC j{xÜxtá\ UxÇ}tÅ|Ç Vây{|Çz Éy cÜÉ@ =ä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx9áAt {täx à{|á Wtç câÜv{táxw Éy XÄ|étuxà{ TÜÇÉÄw Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx tyÉÜvwATÅ|Ç|yàÜtàÜ|å Éy tÄÄ tÇw f|ÇzâÄtÜ à{x ZÉÉwá tÇw V{tààÄxá e|z{àá tÇw VÜxw|àá ã{|v{ ãxÜx Éy à{x Xáàtàx Éy bÄ|äxÜ TÜÇÉÄw Ätàx Éy át|w cÜÉä|wxÇvx9áAt t vxÜàt|Ç axzÜÉ`tÇ vtÄÄxwVxytÜ? TÇwj{xÜxtá à{x át|wVxytÜ {tà{ Ñt|w àÉ Åx à{x áâÅ Éy ÉÇx [âÇwÜxw fÑtÇ|á{ `|ÄÄxw WÉÄÄtÜá?g{xÜxyÉÜx \Ç VÉÇy|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy át|w áâÅ? tÇw cÜÉä|wxw à{tà à{x át|w VxytÜ á{tÄÄ ãxÄÄ tÇw yt|à{yâÄÄç tá t fxÜätÇà vÉÇà|Çâx àÉ áxÜäx Åx à{x át|w UxÇ}tÅ|Ç Vây{|Çz yÉÜ tÇw wâÜ|Çz à{x gxÜÅ Éy Y|äx lxtÜá Çxåà xÇyâ|Çz yÜÉÅ à{x tuÉäx wtàx \ wÉ {xÜxuç cÜÉÅ|áx à{tà tà à{x xÇw qtÇw XåÑ|Ütà|ÉÇ Éy át|w gxÜÅ \ ã|ÄÄ `tÇâÅ|à à{x át|w VxytÜ |Ç áâv{ ÅtÇÇxÜ tá à{x _tã W|Üxvàá tÇw à{tà à{x át|w VxytÜ á{tÄÄ à{xÇvx yÉÜãtÜw ———page break——— YÉÜãtÜw ux yÉÜxäxÜ yÜxx yÜÉÅ Åç fxÜä|vx tÇw ux yÜxx yÜÉÅ Åx tà {|á ÉãÇ W|áÑÉátĉ \Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxàÉ áxà Åç [tÇw à{x Wtç tÇw lxtÜ tuÉäx át|w‰‰ j|àÇxyáxá UxÇ}Ax Vây{|Çz `tÜç ^tà{xÜ|Çx ZÉwwtÜw exvÉÜwxw `tç EDAáà DJJF ctâÄ gxÇ [??] [illegible initial]WtÇ`tÜá{WAVÄ~‰ MANUMISSION We do not have a subsequent record in the books of the town, that said Cefar who had tendered 100 Spanish milled dollars to his new master ever actually became a free man — did this black servant fail in his task of well and faithfully continuing to serve this Mr. Cushing for the entire term of five years?
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February: The town and county of Warren having subscribed a total of £4,200 toward the erection of a college building, the Rhode Island College Corporation settled on Providence, rather than upon Warren or Newport, as the permanent home of their Baptist institution of higher education, and during the course of this year the building now known as University Hall would be erected by the contractor, Nicholas Brown & Company, in part by the use of slave labor. The pastor of the First Baptist Church of Providence desired to retire from the duties of his office, and that church invited President Manning to preach provisionally for them. Therefore the Reverend James Manning relocated from Warren to preach provisionally at Providence’s 1st Baptist Church as well as
to continue to lead his Latin School. (During this year the Reverend was manumitting his only black slave. His Warren Latin School, which would soon eventuate as the Providence “University Grammar-School,” and is now known as Brown University, now admits black Americans as students: as I write this, a case is pending in regard to three white male students, accused of manhandling a black female student in front of a dorm while informing her that “You’re just a quota.” The black female student had, it would appear, attracted their ire because allegedly she had neglected to hold the door open for another student who was entering the dorm — these three white male students having decided, it would seem, upon an “open door” policy all of their own.)
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May: In Providence, Rhode Island on an 8-acre parcel of land “above the smoke & stir of this dim spot” atop what is now known as College Hill purchased partly from John Brown and Moses Brown, the cornerstone of the College of Rhode Island’s permanent home, the College Edifice, was laid. The Brown brothers’ firm Nicholas Brown & Company had charge of the construction. At least two slaves contributed their labor to the effort.
BROWN UNIVERSITY This was to be a scale model of Nassau Hall in Princeton, and was to consist of five stories, of brick with a cement covering, sporting a small belfry, in all 150 feet long by 46 feet deep — considerably smaller than the New Jersey original but by far the largest building in this small colony, its previous largest building having of course been the Quaker Great Meetinghouse at Newport. Rotund little John Brown got down into the cellar excavation to help lay the first granite block in the southwest wall. (Nassau Hall at Princeton University)
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1771
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, FOR ... 1771. By Benjamin West. Providence: Printed and Sold, Wholesale and Retail, by John Carter. Three pages of this are devoted to distinguishing between “the folly and absurdity of astrology” and the “advantages and satisfaction derived from astronomy.”
WEST’S SHEET ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR 1771. Broadside. No copy located. Advertised in Providence Gazette. The earliest sheet almanac for Rhode Island.
Nathanael Low’s AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY; OR, ALMANACK FOR ... 1771. PRINTED AND SOLD BY KNEELAND AND ADAMS ... BOSTON. CREATED ABOUT SEVEN MONTHS AFTER THE BOSTON MASSACRE, THIS LEADS OFF WITH A FIERY 2-1/2 PAGE PATRIOTIC ESSAY ABOUT HOW WE “ESTEEM FREEDOM AS OUR NATIVE RIGHT; LIKE FREE-BORN SONS OF LIBERTY THEREFORE LET US ACT” AND THEN FOOTNOTES THE DATE MARCH 5, 1771 WITH “AN HORRID MASSACRE MOST INHUMANLY AND BARBAROUSLY COMMITTED BY BRITISH TROOPS ON THE INHABITANTS OF BOSTON, 5TH DAY, 1770.” CITING THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS, THE PUBLICATION SUGGESTS “IN A PARTICULAR MANNER LET US ABSTAIN FROM THE USE OF FOREIGN TEA. THERE IS NO ONE ARTICLE IMPORTED SO FATAL TO THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY AS THIS....” THERE ARE ALSO “SOME NECESSARY RULES TO BE OBSERVED WITH REGARD TO HEALTH, CHIEFLY FROM DR. CHYNE.”
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY: OR, ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST, 1771. By Nathaniel Ames. Newport. Printed and Sold by the Printers and Booksellers.... Boston. This almanac contained the first appearance in print of Benjamin Franklin’s famous self-composed epitaph.
In Providence, Rhode Island, Towne Street was renamed, becoming Water Street up to Weybosset Bridge, King Street from there to North Court Street, William Street from there to the foot of Constitution Hill, and Prince Street, named to honor the Prince of Wales, from there up to the North Burying Grounds. (At this point the paving of the streets of Providence came to an end and the routes of travel became nothing more than muddy carriage tracks just to the north of the new meetinghouse of the Religious Society of Friends and the old town fort, on this “Prince Street” at the foot of Olney Lane.)
The First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island called the Reverend James Manning to be their regular fulltime pastor.
July 15, Saturday (this is the accurate date): The only son of Moses Brown and Anna Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, Obadiah M. Brown, was born. (It would be in his adulthood that he would add “Moses” as his middle name, and use Obadiah M. Brown as his signature, in order to distinguish himself from his cousin Obadiah Brown the son of Joseph Brown.)
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November 17, Sunday: The Reverend Ezra Stiles estimated in his journal that “The town of Providence is 500 dwelling-houses and about 4000 inhabitants, or half as big as Newport.” RHODE ISLAND
The Reverend Stiles, by Samuel King:
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Winter: By this point the first two floors of the College of Rhode Island’s new College Edifice atop College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island were ready for occupancy. A home for the college’s president and instructor had been constructed just to the northwest. BROWN UNIVERSITY BAPTISTS
The Baptist Reverend James Manning, who was to occupy this home as the college’s 1st president and as one of the two instructors of its 22 students, would soon write a letter describing the interest upon his new institution’s endowment as inadequate to pay the two salaries, and describing the books available in the new institution’s library as neither many nor “well chosen, being such as our friends could best spare.” PRESIDENT JAMES MANNING
1772
Benjamin West was awarded an honorary degree by Dartmouth College.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1772. By Benjamin West, Philomath. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. It contains account of the compass variation for Providence and a table to calculate the number of days from any day of one month to the same day of any other month.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1772. By Benjamin West, A.M. Newport, Rhode Island: Ebenezer Campbell.
WEST’S SHEET ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR 1772. Broadside. No copy located. Advertised in Providence Gazette.
15 THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK, OR ASTRONOMICAL DIARY, 1772. By John Anderson, Philomath. Newport, Rhode Island: Solomon Southwick. This is the first of the series of Anderson Almanacs.
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Water was piped into the southern district of Providence, Rhode Island, “Eddy’s Point,” by way of a string of hollowed-out buried logs. This pipeline turned out to be capable of delivering a hundred gallons of potable water per minute. Other than this, there were four fountains in the city at which residents might obtain water for their households, with a household membership in a “fountain society” costing $10 per year.
In 1758 in Providence, Rhode Island, along a footpath that had meandered through the gardens and orchards of the original Roger-Williamsish strips of house lots that had extended indefinitely back from Town Street (Main Street), a narrow winding “Back Street” had been carved out. At this point the new street was finally straightened and widened by relocating some graves from family burial plots to the Main Burial Ground. The street was renamed Benefit Street in gratitude to the dead folks whose slumbers had been disturbed for “the common benefit of all.” DIGGING UP THE DEAD
A building was constructed on Meeting Street in Providence, Rhode Island that would be known as Shakespeares Head. This building would serve as a meeting place for the local Anti-Slavery Society and would house an abolitionist print shop.16
15. Since in fact there is no record of any “John Anderson” living at Newport, and since in the preface of the 1773 almanac we notice the question being raised “Who is this John Anderson?,” we are probably safe in put- ting this identity down as yet another pseudonym. 16. In this year, it is reported by Alexander Boyd Hawes, Aaron Lopez of Newport, Rhode Island owned or was loading the following ships to sail from Rhode Island for the coast of the continent of Africa to obtain fresh bodies for the international slave trade: the Royal Charlotte, under the command of Captain Benjamin Wright, the Cleopatra, under the command of Captain Briggs, the Charlotte, under the command of Captain Shearman, and the Ann, under the command of Captain English.
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Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Lee, and other leading men of the Virginia colony were desiring to “get rid of the great evil” represented by the presence of black people in America. “The interest of the country,” it was said in a discussion in the Virginia House of Burgesses –by “interest of the country” meaning of course not the interests of people in general but merely the interests of the white male propertied citizens of that colony– “manifestly requires the total expulsion of them” — by “them” meaning of course not merely slaves but black people in general. The governor of Virginia, Francis Fauquier, had in correspondence with the Board of Trade on June 2, 1760 mentioned that some “old settlers who have bred large quantities of slaves and who would make a monopoly of them by a duty which they hoped would amount to a prohibition” had proposed the difficulties be placed in the way of the importation of new Africans. The Virginia Assembly needed to address King George III of England on this because, in council on December 10, 1770, he had warned them not to interfere with the importation of slaves. They pleaded with him on April 1, 1772 to remove his restraints upon their efforts to stop the importation of slaves, which they referred to for some reason as “a very pernicious commerce” (we don’t know, they may have meant that it was damaging the lives of black people, or perhaps they may have meant that it was damaging the lives of white people). The monarch who “stood in the path of humanity and made himself the pillar of the colonial slave-trade” made no reply to this appeal of the Virginians (we don’t know, he may have desired to damage the lives of black people, or he may have simply desired that he and his friends continue to make inordinate profits on their participation in the international slave trade). The conduct of the King would cause the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence to contain a complaint that “He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, capturing and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce.” (This embarrassing paragraph would of
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course need to be stricken from a succeeding draft the Declaration!17)18
George Washington was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses during this year while it drafted a petition to the English throne, labeling the importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa “a trade of great inhumanity” that would endanger the “very existence of your Majesty’s American
17. Although the sentences in question are confidently asserted to have been authored by Jefferson, and confidently asserted to have been stricken from the draft by others, I know of no evidence to support any such speculation. 18. For this and other such maps: http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/search.html
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dominions.”
Maybe this did or maybe this didn’t reflect his personal viewpoint (we know that in this very year the guy was purchasing five additional slaves for labor on his plantations), but we know that a couple of years later he would be personally involved in the composition of the July 1774 “Fairfax Resolves,” one of which was that slaves not be imported into British colonies. He would be one of the signatories “declaring our most earnest Wishes to see an entire Stop forever put to such a wicked cruel and unnatural Trade.” One resolution to this conundrum would be simply that he was one of those who were in favor of slavery and also in favor of restricting fresh imports — because this would effectively protect the market value of slaves already here, and their saleable future progeny.19 INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Next to South Carolina, Virginia had probably the largest slave-trade. Her situation, however, differed considerably from that of her Southern neighbor. The climate, the staple tobacco crop, and the society of Virginia were favorable to a system of domestic slavery, but one which tended to develop into a patriarchal serfdom rather than into a slave-consuming industrial hierarchy. The labor required by the tobacco crop was less unhealthy than that connected with the rice crop, and the Virginians were, perhaps, on a somewhat higher moral plane than the Carolinians. There was consequently no such insatiable demand for slaves in the larger colony. On the other hand, the power of the Virginia executive was peculiarly strong, and it was not possible here to thwart the slave-trade policy of the home government as easily as elsewhere. Considering all these circumstances, it is somewhat difficult to determine just what was the attitude of the early Virginians toward the slave-trade. There is evidence, however, to show that 19. In this year, it has been estimated by Alexander Boyd Hawes, a record number of ships, 28, were sailing from Rhode Island for the coast of the continent of Africa to obtain fresh bodies for the international slave trade. If an average cargo of slaves was 109 – as we have estimated on the basis of a number of known cargos– then a total of well over 3,000 souls were being transported in Rhode Island bottoms alone.
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although they desired the slave-trade, the rate at which the Negroes were brought in soon alarmed them. In 1710 a duty of £5 was laid on Negroes, but Governor Spotswood “soon perceived that the laying so high a Duty on Negros was intended to discourage the importation,” and vetoed the measure.20 No further restrictive legislation was attempted for some years, but whether on account of the attitude of the governor or the desire of the inhabitants, is not clear. With 1723 begins a series of acts extending down to the Revolution, which, so far as their contents can be ascertained, seem to have been designed effectually to check the slave-trade. Some of these acts, like those of 1723 and 1727, were almost immediately disallowed.21 The Act of 1732 laid a duty of 5%, which was continued until 1769,22 and all other duties were in addition to this; so that by such cumulative duties the rate on slaves reached 25% in 1755,23 and 35% at the time of Braddock’s expedition.24 These acts were found “very burthensome,” “introductive of many frauds,” and “very inconvenient,”25 and were so far repealed that by 1761 the duty was only 15%. As now the Burgesses became more powerful, two or more bills proposing restrictive duties were passed, but disallowed.26 By 1772 the anti-slave-trade feeling had become considerably developed, and the Burgesses petitioned the king, declaring that “The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under its present encouragement, we have too much reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your Majesty’s American dominions.... Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your Majesty to remove all those restraints on your Majesty’s governors of this colony, which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce.”27 Nothing further appears to have been done before the war. When, in 1776, the delegates adopted a Frame of Government, it was charged in this document that the king had perverted his high office into a “detestable and insupportable tyranny, by ... prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us permission to exclude by law.”28 Two years later, in 1778, an “Act to prevent the further importation of Slaves” stopped definitively the legal slave-trade to Virginia.29
20. LETTERS OF GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD, in VA. HIST. SOC. COLL., New Ser., I. 52. 21. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IV. 118, 182. 22. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IV. 317, 394; V. 28, 160, 318; VI. 217, 353; VII. 281; VIII. 190, 336, 532. 23. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, V. 92; VI. 417, 419, 461, 466. 24. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, VII. 69, 81. 25. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, VII. 363, 383. 26. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, VIII. 237, 337. 27. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, 1672-1865, in VA. HIST. SOC. COLL., New Ser., VI. 14; Tucker, BLACKSTONE’S COMMENTARIES, I. Part II. App., 51. 28. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IX. 112. 29. Importation by sea or by land was prohibited, with a penalty of £1000 for illegal importation and £500 for buying or selling. The Negro was freed, if illegally brought in. This law was revised somewhat in 1785. Cf. Hening, STATUTES AT LARGE OF VIRGINIA, IX. 471; XII. 182.
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Spring: John Merritt,30 an English gentleman of fortune who owned about 213 acres of pastureland on the back side of Prospect Hill above Providence, Rhode Island, looking out to the east over the Seekonk Estuary, an estate known as “Elmgrove” featuring a 3-story Greek-style mansion with a columned porch and several outbuildings, died. Moses Brown, who by this point had put together a collection of parcels amounting to about a hundred acres adjacent to this estate on Providence Neck, purchased everything at auction for £1,250 sterling.
NOTE: The outline of the present Wayland Historical District corresponds roughly with the original extent of the Moses Brown farm, known as Elm Grove (north from East Manning and Pitman streets to the current
30. Referred to incorrectly by Charles Rappleye in SONS OF PROVIDENCE: THE BROWN BROTHERS, THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION as “William Merit”: see http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/guides/Aaas/ast010A.pdf.
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Laurel Avenue, and east from Arlington Avenue, Lloyd Avenue and Hope Street to the Seekonk River). The Elmgrove mansion was near the corner of Wayland Avenue and Humboldt Avenue (the street with the S- curve). On a following screen is a satellite image of the district in which this mansion was situated. An 1875 map documents the existence of ten dwellings and five outbuildings within that area, but nowadays there are only three of these residences still in existence: the Sam T. Browne house, the John M. and Lydia Rounds house, and the David W. Hoyt house. (I have not been able to establish the year in which Moses Brown’s Elmgrove mansion burned or was razed.) When the Moses Brown farm was originally platted in about 1850, it was divided into lots averaging 5,000 square feet in area (Orchard Avenue, a unique section, has house lots averaging more than 15,000 square feet). Most of this development was in the south part of the district. The lots did not sell well because there was a legal shadow over the property, Moses Brown having intended that Moses Brown Jenkins inherit the farm when he turned 21 in 1856. Development stalled until an agreement was reached between Moses Brown Jenkins and his sister. Then in 1872, the lots on streets that were drawn in later, mostly in the northern portion of the district, typically averaged, by way of contrast, less than 4,000 square feet. During the days of horse trolleys, the north-south streets such as Hope and Brooke predominated over the east- west streets such as Angell and Waterman simply because the draft horses were unable to pull a trolley directly up College Hill (to get to the crest of College Hill, the lines needed to proceed up the ridge, starting at Wickenden Street and aiming north). It was not until the 1860s that Angell and Waterman streets became prominent. In 1891, with cable-car lines being put on Angell and Waterman, the Moses Brown Farm Plat was again replatted, and it was in 1895 that the one block of Miles Avenue was created (Blackstone Boulevard was also created during the 1890s, with in 1904 a trolley line running down its center where now there is a walkway). The Miles Avenue Garage, occupying both sides of Miles Avenue, first appears in a map dating to 1918. The owner was C.O. Gorman, who also owned apartment buildings directly to the east and south of his auto-repair facility.
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June: By this point Moses Brown and his family had moved into the mansion “Elmgrove” on Providence Neck above Providence, Rhode Island, looking out to the east over the Seekonk Estuary, the estate which he had purchased that spring at auction.
It was the portion of the building to the east that had been constructed by the English gentleman. Once, while a Quaker was being entertained in that portion of the edifice, he would object to the niceness of its Corinthian architecture and the elegance of its fittings. Friend Moses would pull out his clasp knife, open it, and hand it to the man, inviting him to mar “whatever offended his spiritual eye” — ever afterward, he would display this damage to the family’s guests with “pleasant humor.”
June 8, Monday: In Narragansett Bay, the HMS Gaspee gave chase to Captain Lindsey’s sloop Hannah as it sailed from Newport toward Providence. Captain Lindsey deliberately sailed across the shoals off Namquit Point, which he understood that with the tide on the ebb, he would be able to clear but the Gaspee would not. As hoped, the British revenue vessel ran hard aground.
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June 9, Tuesday-10, Wednesday: A troop of men from Rhode Island led by Abraham Whipple burned the British 8- gun revenue cutter Gaspee — which had run aground off Namquit Point south of Providence.31 John Brown or his slave Aaron Briggs shot and wounded Lieutenant William Dudingston (1740-1817), the ship’s captain. Arnold states in his account of the destruction of the Gaspee that this skipper “had practiced every arrogance upon vessels in the bay, detaining them often without a colorable pretext, stopping even market boats, and in some cases plundering people on shore.” Despite the offer of a huge reward for information, there would of course be no local people arrested.
Although the taking of the Gaspee has been held to be the first assault by the American colonists against the crown, actually this was much the same sort of thing as the Newport locals having fired a cannon at the St. John in July 1764,32 having seized and burned a boat of the Maidstone in May 1765,33 and having scuttled the British armed revenue sloop Liberty in 1769.34
All the hostilities against naval vessels bearing the king’s colors occurred because of specific problems the specific vessels had been creating, and nothing in the action taken in June 1772 makes it differ remarkably from these previous resistances.
Karl W. Doerflinger, an illustrator of East Providence, has recently created an over-the-gun-cabinet-in-the- living-room version of the burning of the Gaspee:
31. Arnold’s HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, page 309. 32. Arnold’s HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, page 252. 33. Arnold’s HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, page 255. 34. Arnold’s HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, page 297.
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June 10, Wednesday morning: Justin Jacobs displayed himself on the Weybosset Bridge of Providence, Rhode Island attired in the beaver hat of Lieutenant William Dudingston of the Gaspee complete with its gold emblem. Sounder heads soon persuaded the young man that greater discretion than that would be called for.
September: One afternoon, while Moses Brown and his wife Anna Brown were visiting friends in Boston, Anna collapsed. The doctors were mystified. The remainder of her short life would be spent in a sickbed.
Charles Rappleye, in SONS OF PROVIDENCE: THE BROWN BROTHERS, THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006, page 129), has recently alleged that the involvement with Quakerism at the 2d Friends meetinghouse inside Providence, Rhode Island (the structure at North Main Street between South Court Street and Meeting Street, a structure that would be sold and relocated in 1844 and then rebuilt on that site), an involvement with Quakerism that had begun in about this timeframe, was not limited to Moses Brown and Anna Brown, but extended to Anna’s sister Mary Brown and to John Brown’s wife Sarah Smith Brown: Late in her life, Anna had begun to attend Quaker services, along with her sister Mary and John Brown’s wife, Sarah. The meetinghouse was in Providence, though the services were conducted under the auspices of Smithfield, a small town to the east35 that was home to the Monthly Meeting. With Anna bedridden and declining, Moses began attending there as well.
Adequate sources are not sited, and the only source I have been able to imagine for the above conceptualization of the situation by Rappleye, is that he has perhaps incautiously extrapolated from Mack Thompson’s MOSES BROWN: RELUCTANT REFORMER (Chapel Hill NC: U of North Carolina P, 1962), adding to Thompson’s description his own entirely unfounded presumption that Mrs. John Brown had before her wedding been a Quaker girl — for on page 74 of Thompson we find the following: After Moses moved her from Boston to Providence, he sat throughout the fall and winter by his wife’s bedside and watched her die. Anna knew that she was dying and as her time approached she turned more and more to God for comfort; Moses turned with her. In search for some explanation for his wife’s affliction, and no doubt in an attempt to find some comfort for his grief, he began to attend religious services at the Quaker meetinghouse in Providence. Anna could not, of course, accompany him, but he brought Friends to visit her and silent meetings were held by 35. Yet another incautious error: the two Smithfield meetinghouses are to the north and northwest of Providence, definitely not to the east of Providence.
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her bedside; together they moved away from the Baptist Church and toward acceptance of Friends’ doctrines. Thompson added on page 77 that: Why Moses turned to Quakerism for spiritual comfort rather than to the family church is difficult to determine. Undoubtedly he was influenced by his wife who became a spiritual Quaker before she died, and by her sisters, Mary and Phebe, and John’s wife, Sarah, who were attending Friends’ meetings as early as the winter of 1773, and perhaps earlier. Even that old rascal Uncle Elisha had “got religion,” and was attending Friends’ meetings. Perhaps Moses followed their lead.
August 25, Tuesday: The Reverend Ezra Stiles estimated in his journal that “The town of Providence is now, 1772, about 400 houses, 500 families. I estimate 100 families real Baptists; 140 political Baptists and nothingarians; 140 Mr. Snow’s Congregation, 2/3 Baptists, 1/3 Presbyterians; 60 Pedobaptist Congregationalists; 40 Episcopalians; 20 families Quakers, a few Sandemanians, and perhaps 20 or 40 persons Deists.” RHODE ISLAND
1773
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY, FOR 1773. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
ANDERSON IMPROVED: BEING AN ALMANACK AND EPHEMERIS FOR 1773. By John Anderson. Newport: Solomon Southwick. There is a large ornamental cut on the front page and the title page is page three. The Anderson series are arranged in this
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style. The man of signs also appears.
January: The municipal government of Providence granted the Baptists a building lot, sixteen rods by twenty, to be laid out in the cove, opposite Steeple Street.36 The Baptist meetinghouse that had been erected in 1726, with its lot, was by leave of the Rhode Island General Assembly sold, with the proceeds to be put toward the new structure.
36. We suspect that although the Baptists had applied for the grant of this, actually they had no particular intention of building their new meetinghouse there, because they already had their eye on another and better location. They seem to have had their eye already on the lot on which they eventually did build their new meetinghouse, but there was a problem. According to William Read Staples, “The tradition is, that they then had in view the lot on which their present house stands, which belonged to John Angell, and was improved by him as an orchard. He, they thought, would not sell it to be used as a site for a Baptist meeting house, for any consideration. After the grant of the town to them, they procured one of the members of the Episcopal church to purchase the orchard and convey it to them.” VIEW THE PAGE IMAGES
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February 5: In Providence, Rhode Island, Anna Brown, wife of Moses Brown, who had collapsed some five months earlier, died.
In Newport, Captain Pollipus Hammond died shortly before midnight. This 72-year-old’s eyes were closed by his friend, the Reverend Ezra Stiles. The gravestone of this negrero skipper still stands for our edification in the Common Burying Ground:
“Here lieth the body of the ingenious Capt. Pollipus Hammond who died February 5, 1773. The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.”
(His friend the Reverend Stiles, pastor of the 2d Congregational Church on Clarke Street in Newport, had invested in a slave trading voyage in 1756 that had returned him a 10-year-old boy. The Reverend would not free his slave until becoming president of Yale College in 1777. Noting that Hammond had disengaged himself from the international slave trade during his mid-50s, this slaveholding Reverend reassured himself with the conceit that had his dead friend “his Life to live over again, he would not choose to spend it in buying and selling the human species.”) THE TRAFFIC IN MAN-BODY
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April 26, Monday: Ebenezer Knight Dexter was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
At the time, he didn’t have this much hair:
DEXTER ASYLUM
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May: Construction of a Market House was begun in Providence, using a design by Joseph Brown. (The Masons would add a 3d story in 1797. This would be the Town Hall until 1878.) RHODE ISLAND
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November 4, Thursday: In Providence, Rhode Island, Friend Mary Brown, sister-in-law of prominent businessman Moses Brown who had also converted from the Baptist Church, convinced that “the holding of Negros in slavery however kindly used by their masters and mistresses has a tendency to incourage the iniquitous practice of importing them from their native country, and is contrary to that justice, mercy and humanity required of every christian,” made out for her slave Eve, with Eve’s child also bearing the name Eve, “being all I am possessed off of that Nation and Colour,” a manumission document:
j{xÜxtá \ tÅ fxÇy|uÄx à{x [ÉÄw|Çz Éy axzÜÉxá |Ç YÄtäxÜç [ÉãxäxÜ ^|ÇwÄç hyxw uç à{x|Ü `tyàxÜá tÇw `|yàÜxyáxá {tá t gxÇwxÇvç àÉ \ÇvÉâÜtzx à{x \Ç|Öâ|àÉâá cÜtvà|vx Éy \ÅÑÉÜà|Çz à{xÅ yÜÉÅ à{x|Ü atà|äx VÉâÇàÜç tÇw \á vÉÇàÜtÜç àÉ à{tà ‰ ]âyà|vx `xÜvç tÇw [âÅ|Ä|àç exÖâ|Üxw Éy XäxÜç V{Ü|yà|tÇ \ wÉ uç à{xyx ‰ `tÇÇâÅ|à tÇw fxà yÜxx yÜÉÅ Åç yxÄy Åç [x|Üá Xäx tÇ axzÜÉ jÉÅtÇ ‰ j|à{ {xÜ V{|Äw Xäx ux|Çz tÄÄ \ tÅ cÉyáxyáxw Éyy Éy à{tà atà|ÉÇ tÇw VÉÄÉâÜ tÇw [“ordain” has been written between the lines, in pencil] yÜÉÅ t f|Çvx Éy wâàç yÉÜ {xÜ _ÉÇz tÇw yt|à{yâÄ YxÜä|vx \ {xÜxuç bÜtÇ W|Üxvà tÇw \Ç}É|Ç hÑÉÇ `ç [x|Üá àÉ àÜxtà {xÜ ^|ÇwÄç tÇw ÉÇ tÄÄ bvvty|ÉÇá Tyá|yà tÇw fâÑÑÉÜà {xÜ ã|à{ à{x axxwyâÄ VÉÅyÉÜàá Éy à{|á _|yx gÜâyà|Çz |Ç {xÜ VÉÇà|Çâxw XÇwxtäÉâÜá yÉÜ[xÜfâÑÑÉÜà |Ç[ÉÇÇxyà_tuÉâÜ tá ytÜ tá[“Labour” marked out]tzx tÇwV|ÜvâÅyáàtÇqvxá j|ÄÄ twÅ|à TÇw |Ç exyÑxvà àÉ à{x çÉâÇz V{|Äw uÉÜÇ |Ç `ç ytÅ|Äç \ wxy|Üx tÇw W|Üxvà y{x Åtç ux uÜÉ:à âÑ tÇw Xwâvtàxw fâ|àtuÄç yÉÜ {xÜ yâàâÜx `t|Çàt|ÇtÇvx tÇw wâx \ÅÑÜÉäxÅxÇà Éy à{x wätÇàtzx [sic] Éy t yÉuxÜ tÇw exÄ|z|Éâá Xwâvtà|ÉÇ \Ç j|àÇxyá j{xÜxÉy g{xÜâÇàÉ fâuyvÜ|ux Åç atÅx tÇw Tyy|åà Åç fxtÄ à{|á ‰ [“This” marked out] yÉÜÜà{ [sic] wtç Éy à{x XÄxäxÇà{ `ÉÇà{ TWDJJF \Ç ÑÜxyxÇvx Éy j„ÅUtÜ~xÜ `tÜç UÜÉãÇ [LL] `Éyxá UÜÉãÇ Ü exvÉÜwxw aÉäA DIADJJF Uç ] TÇzxÄÄ VÄxÜ~
(Refer to Moses Brown Papers, Msc. MSS, B-814, Box 2.)
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November 10, Wednesday: Prominent businessman Moses Brown, owner or part owner of ten human beings other than himself (Moses Brown Papers, II, 18), stricken with grief at the premature death of his wife (his 1st cousin Anna Brown, daughter of Obadiah Brown, who had died on February 5th), on his way to becoming a Quaker, made out a manumission document for his slaves awarding them the use of one acre each of his 200-acre farm
MOSES BROWN “Elmgrove” on the back side of Prospect Hill for their sustenance (Bonno, about 34 years of age, Ceafer, 32 years of age, Cudge,37 27 years of age and born in Rhode Island, Prime, about 25 years of age, Pegg, 20 years of age and born in Providence, and Pero, about 18 years of age), and also for all slaves in whom he held a part interest (Yarrow, about 40 years of age,38 Tom, about 30 years of age, Newport, about 21 years of age, and Phillis, about 2 years of age, who had been born in his family):
37. A grandson of Cudge, William J. Brown, would describe Moses Brown as a person who “considered himself a Christian man,” choosing that description over the simpler “Christian man” or the more specific “Quaker.” Why would he write in such manner, in regard to this benevolent rich white man who had freed his grandfather? William would point out that Moses had come to believe that Cudge had paid for himself by his satisfactory labor and that it would therefore be improper to hold him any longer in slavery, despite the fact that Cudge was “his property.” Professor Joanne Pope Melish’s explanation of this would rely upon the concept of compensated emancipation: “Like most antislavery advocates of his time, Moses Brown believed that slavery was sinful but could not conceive of slaves as having rights to freedom that superseded the property rights of their owners. Moses Brown freed his slaves in an act of compensated emancipation — after the labor of his slaves had ‘paid off’ their purchase price.” 38. Yarrow had been owned jointly by the Brown brothers, who worked him at their spermaceti candle works in today’s Fox Point. Moses released his quarter share but John Brown of course refused to reciprocate. From his deathbed Yarrow would have the last word: “Tell him to come and take his quarter or I shall soon be free.”
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j{xÜxtá \ tÅ vÄxtÜÄç vÉÇä|Çvxw à{tà à{x Uç|Çz tÇw fxÄÄ|Çz Éy `xÇ Éy ã{tà VÉÄÉâÜ fÉxäxÜ tá fÄtäxá |á VÉÇàÜtÜç àÉ à{x W|ä|Çx `|Çw ÅtÇ|yxáà |Ç à{x VÉÇyx|xÇvxá Éy tÄÄ `xÇ? {ÉãxäxÜ áÉÅx Åtç áÅÉà{xÜ tÇw ÇxzÄxvà |àá exÑÜÉä|Çzá? tÇw ux|Çz tÄáÉ Åtwx fxÇá|uÄx à{tà à{x [ÉÄw|Çz axzÜÉá |Ç fÄtäxÜçA {ÉãxäxÜ ^|ÇwÄç gÜxtàxw uç à{x|Ü `tyàxÜá {tá t ZÜxtà gxÇwxÇvç àÉ \ÇvÉâÜtzx à{x \Ç|Öâ|àÉâá gÜtyy|v~ tÇw cÜtvà|vx Éy \ÅÑÉÜà|Çz à{xÅ yÜÉÅ à{x|Ü atà|äx VÉâÇàÜç? tÇw |á vÉÇàÜtÜç àÉ à{tà ]âáà|vx? `xÜvç tÇw [âÅ|P PÄÄ|àç \Ç}É|Çw tá à{x wâàç Éy xäxÜç V{Ü|áà|tÇA \ Wb à{xÜxyÉÜx uç à{xáx ÑÜxyxÇàá yÉÜ Åç fxÄy Åç [x|Üá 9vA `tÇÇâÅ|à tÇw áxà YÜxx à{x yÉÄÄÉã|Çz axzÜÉá ux|Çz tÄÄ \ tÅ cÉyáxyáxw Éy ÉÜ tÅ tÇç ãtçá \ÇàxÜxáàxw |Ç i|éA UÉÇÇÉ tÇ TyÜ|vtÇ tzxw tuÉâà FGM çxtÜá VxtyxÜ tzxw FEA çxtÜáA Vâwzx tzxw EJA çxtÜá UÉÜÇ |Ç à{|á VÉÄÉÇçA cÜ|Åx tÇ tyÜ|vtÇ tzxw tuÉâà EHA çxtÜáA cxÜÉ tÇ TyÜ|vtÇ tzxw tuÉâà DKA çxtÜáA cxzz UÉÜÇ |Ç à{|á gÉãÇ tzxw ECM çxtÜáA TÇw bÇx dâÜàxÜ ux|Çz à{x ÑtÜà \ ÉãÇ Éy à{x à{Üxx YÉÄÄÉã|Çz tyÜ|vtÇá ä|é‰ ltÜÜÉã tzxw tuÉâà GCM çxtÜáA gÉÅ tzxw tuÉâà FCM çxtÜáA tÇw axãÑÉÜà„ tzxw tuÉâà EDM çxtÜበTÇw t V{|Äw c{|ÄÄ|á tzxw tuÉâà gãÉ çxtÜá uÉÜÇ |Ç Åç YtÅ|Äç? á{x {tä|Çz à{x átÅx atàâÜtÄ e|z{à? \ {xÜxuç z|äx {xÜ à{x átÅx ÑÉãxÜ tá Åç ÉãÇ V{|ÄwÜxÇ àÉ gt~x tÇw hyx {xÜ YÜxxwÉÅ \Ç}É|Ç|Çz âÑÉÇ Åç [x|Üá t vtÜxyâÄ ãtàv{ ÉäxÜ {xÜ yÉÜ {xÜ ZÉÉw? tÇw à{tà à{tç |Ç vtyx \ ux àt~xÇ {xÇvx? z|äx {xÜ fâ|àtuÄx Xwâvtà|ÉÇ? ÉÜ |y á{x ux uÉâÇw Éâà à[hat] à{xç àt~x vtÜx |Ç à{tà tÇw Éà{xÜ ÜxáÑxvàá tá Åâv{ tá àÉ j{|àx V{|ÄwÜxÇ {xÜxuç xåÑÜxyÄç ÑÜÉ{|u|à|Çz Åç fxÄy tÇw Åç [x|Üá yÜÉÅ TyáâÅ|Çz tÇç yâÜà{xÜ ÑÉãxÜ ÉäxÜ? ÉÜ ÑÜÉÑxÜàç |Ç {x܉ TÇw tá tÄÄ qÑÜâwxÇà ÅxÇ _tç âÑ |Ç g|Åxá Éy {xÄà{ tÇw fàÜxÇzà{ áÉ Åâv{ Éy à{x|Ü [ÉÇÇxáà XtÜÇ|Çzá tá |á ÉäxÜ tÇw tuÉä[e] à{x|Ü ÇxxwyâÄ xåÑxÇvxá yÉÜ VÄÉtà{|Çz 9v? áÉ |à |á Åç w|Üxvà|ÉÇ tÇw twä|vx àÉ çÉâ à{tà çÉâ wxÑÉyá|à |Ç Åç [tÇwá áâv{ t ÑtÜà Éy çÉâÜ jtzxá tá |á ÇÉà yÜÉÅ à|Åx àÉ g|Åx jtÇàxw? àt~|Çz Åç exvx|Ñà à{xÜxyÉÜ? àÉ Ñâà àɉ \ÇàxÜxáà tÇw àÉ tÑÑÄç |à yÉÜ çÉâÜ fâÑÑÉÜà ã{xÇ à{ÜÉâz{ f|v~Çxyá ÉÜA Éà{xÜã|áx çÉâ Åtç ux âÇtuÄx àÉ fâÑÑÉÜà çÉâÜ fxÄäxá? ÉÜ àÉ ux tÑÑÄçw àÉ à{x hyx Éy çÉâÜ V{|ÄwÜxÇ ;|y YÜxx< tÇw |y ÇÉà àÉ à{x ÑâÜv{ty|Çz à{x|Ü YÜxxwÉÅ tÇw |y ÇÉà ãtÇàxw yÉÜ à{xáx hyxáxá àÉ ux Z|äxÇ |Ç çÉâÜ j|ÄÄá àÉ áâv{ ÑxÜyÉÇá ÉÜ yÉÜ fâv{ hyxá tá çÉâ Åtç à{|Ç~ ÑÜÉÑxÜA TÇw yÉÜ çÉâÜ \ÇvÉâÜ|zxÅxÇà àÉ áâv{ fÉuxÜ cÜâwxÇvx tÇw \ÇwâáàÜçA \ {xÜxuç Z|äx àÉ à{x Y|áà f|å ÇtÅxw ;à{x Éà{xÜ à{Üxx {tä|Çz ZÉÉw gÜtwxá< à{x âyx Éy [one] tvÜx É[f] ÄtÇw tá ÅtÜ~xw Éyy ÉÇ Åç YtÜÅ tá ÄÉÇz tá çÉâ \ÅÑ[rove] \à gÉ ZÉÉw ÑâÜÑÉáxA \ ÇÉã ÇÉ _ÉÇzxÜ vÉÇá|wxÜ çÉâ tá fÄtäxá ÇÉÜ Åç fxÄy
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tá çÉâÜ `táàxÜA uâà çÉâÜ YÜ|xÇw? tÇw áÉ _ÉÇz tá çÉâ ux{täx ãxÄÄ Åtç çÉâ xåÑxvà Åç yâÜà{xÜ VÉâÇàxÇtÇvx áâÑÑÉÜà tÇw Tyá|áàtÇvx? TÇw tá çÉâ ã|ÄÄ vÉÇá|wxÜ à{|á tá tÇ \ÇáàÜâÅxÇà Éy xåàxÇw|Çz çÉâÜ _|uxÜàç? áÉ \ {ÉÑx çÉâ ã|ÄÄ tÄãtçá exÅxÅuxÜ tÇw cÜtvà|vx à{|á Åç xtÜÇxáà wxá|Üx tÇw twä|vx à{tà tvvÉÅÑtÇçá |à? à{tà çÉâ âáx ÇÉà à{x _|uxÜàç {xÜxuç zÜtÇàxw çÉâ? àÉ _|vxÇv|ÉâáÇxyáA ÇÉÜ àt~x Évtà|ÉÇ ÉÜ ÉÑÑÉÜàâÇ|àç à{xÜxuç àÉ zÉ |ÇàÉ ÉÜ ÑÜtvà|vx à{x _âáàá Éy à{x YÄxá{? à{x _âáàá Éy à{x Xçx? ÉÜ ÑÜ|wx ÉÇ tÇç bvtà|ÉÇ ÉÜ gxÅÑàtà|ÉÇ? uâà ux ÅÉÜx vtâá|Éâá à{tÇ {xÜxàÉyÉÜx? tÇw ã|à{ _Éäx áxÜäx ÉÇx tÇÉà{? tÇw tÄÄ `xÇ? ÇÉà ÉÇÄç àÉ ÑÄxtáx `xÇ? uâà tá YxtÜ|Çz tÇw exäxÜtÇv|Çz à{tà [ÉÄç ZÉw ã{É fxxá tÄÄ à{x fxvÜ|à Tvà|ÉÇá Éy `xÇ TÇw Üxvx|äx çÉâÜ _|uxÜàç ã|à{ t [âÅuÄx áxÇvx Éy |àá ux|Çz t YtäÉÜ yÜÉÅ à{x ZÜxtà ^|Çz Éy [xtäxÇ tÇw XtÜà{? ã{É à{ÜÉâz{ {|á _|z{à à{tà f{|Çxá âÑÉÇ à{x VÉÇá|vxÇvxá Éy tÄÄ `xÇA UÄtv~ tá ãxÄÄ tá j{|àx? tÇw à{xÜxuç á{xãxà{ âá ã{tà |á ZÉÉw? tÇw à{tà à{x _ÉÜwá ÜxÖâ|Üx|Çzá Éy xtv{ Éy âá àÉ wÉ ]âáà|vx? àÉ@ _Éäx `xÜvç tÇw àÉ jtÄ~ [âÅuÄç ã|à{ ÉâÜ ZÉwA gÉ à{x Vtâáx Éy à{|á Åç Wâàç àÉ çÉâ? ux à{xÜxyÉÜx jtàv{yâÄ tÇw TààxÇà|äx àÉ à{tà W|ä|Çx gxtv{|Çz |Ç çÉâÜ ÉãÇ `|Çwá? à{tà vÉÇä|Çvxá çÉâ Éy f|Ç? tÇw tá çÉâ WâàxyâÄÄç butç |àá xÇÄ|z{àÇ|Çzá tÇw gxtv{|Çzá |à ã|ÄÄ ÇÉà ÉÇÄç vtâáx çÉâ àÉ täÉ|w bÑxÇ cÜÉytÇxÇxyá tÇw j|v~xwÇxyá? tá fàxtÄ|Çz? _ç|Çz? fãtÜ|Çz? WÜ|Ç~|Çz _âáà|Çz tyàxÜ jÉÅtÇ? YÜÉÄ|v~|Çz tÇw à{x _|~x f|ÇyâÄ VÉâÜáxá? uâà ã|ÄÄ gxtv{ çÉâ tÇw _xtw çÉâ |ÇàÉ tÄÄ à{tà |á axvxyátÜç yÉÜ çÉâ àÉ ^ÇÉã? tá çÉâÜ Wâàç àÉ à{x ZÜxtà `táàxÜ Éy tÄÄ `xÇ? yÉÜ {x {tá yt|w ÜxáÑxvà|Çz `tÇ~|Çw @@ hÇ|äxÜytÄÄç? \ ã|ÄÄ Ñâà Åç _tã |ÇàÉ à{x|Ü \ÇãtÜw ÑtÜàá? tÇw jÜ|àx |à |Ç à{x|Ü [xtÜàá tÇw à{tç á{tÄÄ tÄÄ ^ÇÉã Åx yÜÉÅ à{x _xtáà àÉ à{x ZÜxtàxáà? 9 à{xÜxyÉÜx çÉâ vtÇà ÑÄxtw \zÇÉÜtÇvx à{tà çÉâ wÉÇà ~ÇÉã çÉâÜ Wâàç àÉ à{x ZÉw à{tàA Åtwx çÉâA uxvtâáx çÉâ vtÇà tÄÄ Üxtw {|á `|Çw tÇw j|ÄÄ |Ç à{x fvÜ|ÑàâÜxá? ã{|v{ |á |Çwxxw t zÜxtà YtäÉÜ tÇw UÄxyá|Çz àÉ à{xÅ à{tà vtÇA hÇwxÜáàtÇw tÇw butçN Uâà à{xÜx |á t UÉÉ~ ã|à{|Ç çÉâ à{tà |á ÇÉà vÉÇy|Çxw àÉ à{x XÇzÄ|á{ ÉÜ tÇç _tÇzâtzx? tÇw tá çÉâ á|ÄxÇàÄç tÇw exäxÜxÇàÄç ãt|à yÉÜA |àá ÉÑxÇ|Çzá tÇw \ÇáàÜâvà|ÉÇá |à ã|ÄÄ gxtv{ çÉâ tÇw çÉâ ã|ÄÄ ux xÇtuÄxw àÉ âÇwxÜáàtÇw |àá _tÇzâtzx? tÇw tá çÉâ tÜx vtÜxyâÄÄ àÉ ux buxw|xÇà à{xÜxàÉ tÇw byàxÇ f|ÄxÇàÄç Üxtw |à? çÉâ ã|ÄÄ ux tuÄx àÉ fÑxt~ |àá _tÇzâtzx@@ ã|à{ TyÜ|vtÇ tá ãxÄÄ tá XÇzÄ|á{ gÉÇzâxá àÉ çÉâÜ ÑÉÉÜ YxÄÄÉã VÉâÇàÜçÅxÇ gÉ à{x ZÄÉÜç Éy {|Å ã{É {tá jÜÉâz{à çÉâÜ WxÄ|äxÜtÇvx yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç gÉA ã{Éáx ZÜtv|Éâá VtÜx tÇw ÑÜÉàxvà|ÉÇ \ VÉÅÅ|à tÇw YxÜäxÇàÄç exvÉÅÅxÇw ‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰ exvÉÅÅxÇw çÉâ tÇw u|w çÉâ YtÜxãxÄÄ f|zÇxw à{|á DCMà{ Éy à{x DDMà{ `ÉÇà{MDJJF `Éyxá UÜÉãÇ |Ç ÑÜxyxÇvx Éy `tÜç UÜÉãÇ } exvÉÜwxw aÉäÜADEMà{DJJF “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 285 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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November 12, Friday: Prominent businessman Moses Brown, on his way to becoming a Quaker, placed the manumission deed he had made out on all his slaves, and on all slaves in whom he held a part interest, on file on page 73 in volume 6 of the Providence, Rhode Island probate records.
November 16, Tuesday: Mary Brown, sister-in-law of prominent businessman Moses Brown, placed the manumission deed she had made out on her slaves on file on page 75 of volume 6 of the Providence, Rhode Island probate records.
According to Mack Thompson’s MOSES BROWN, RELUCTANT REFORMER (Chapel Hill NC: U of North Carolina P, 1962, pages 107-9):
THE A MERICAN REVOLUTION presented members of the Society of Friends with a terrible dilemma: whether to remain faithful to their religious principles as Quakers or to their political principles as Englishmen or Americans. As Quakers they condemned war as morally and spiritually evil; it resulted in hatred and bestiality and could not possible solve anything - good could not come from evil. In Pennsylvania as early as 1756 many Quakers had withdrawn from participation in political affairs because of the government’s policy of violence toward the Indians and its involvement in the French and Indian War.39 Although Quakers had become unpopular because of their pacifism they had not been molested. In Rhode Island they had fared pretty much the same. The approaching conflict with England, however, placed Quakers throughout American in a much more difficult position. Both royal and revolutionary governments began to question the sincerity of Friends’ neutrality, and the Quaker elders and ministers began to enforce more strictly the Society’s testimony against war. Unlike Friends in the middle colonies, New England Quakers had no great leaders such as the Pembertons to hold the members steady. When the war broke out in New England, Friends there began to grope for leadership and guidance. For Moses Brown the decision as to what course to follow was not an easy one. Privately he sympathized with the American cause. This was to be expected. He had been deeply involved in agitation against British policy during the preceding decade, and it would have been odd indeed if he had become a Tory. Had he not become a Quaker, he would probably have joined his brothers in their support of the Revolution. His position was therefore a difficult one, and he stated his views on public events carefully. In a long letter to his good friend James Warren, member of the Massachusetts revolutionary Provincial Congress, he tried to define his position: “My religious principles thou art I presume sinsible does not admit of my interfering in war, but my love for my country, and sence of our just rights is not thereby abated, and if my poor abilitys could be 39. Thayer, Theodore. ISRAEL PEMBERTON: KING OF THE QUAKERS (Philadelphia PA, 1943, pages 18-96, 113-22)
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aney way subservient to a happy change of affairs nothing on my part shall be wanting.”40 Publicly, Moses was until early 1776 an advocate of compromise and reconciliation. He sounded more like a British sympathizer than a neutral Quaker. In April 1775 he pleaded for “a restoration of all those benevolent and kind offices that hath for more than a century subsisted between this and our mother country.”41 In an appearance before the Providence town meeting he endorsed the sentiments of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Dartmouth, who urged an “accomodation of the unhappy differences subsisting between the two countries.” At the same meeting he persuaded the council to postpone the erection of an artillery battery until the General Assembly could meet to discuss proposals for reconciliation. At one point in his campaign he traveled to Boston to lay before the Massachusetts military governor, General Gage, more than half a dozen letters from men in Providence and Newport urging peaceful reconciliation.
December 20, Monday: The voters of the town of Lincoln approved a text prepared by the Hon. Eleazer Brooks, to be published on their behalf to the voters of the town of Boston. “Gentlemen, — We have read your letter, enclosing the proceedings of the town of Boston at their late meeting; as also another letter enclosing the proceedings of a collective body of people, not only of Boston, but the adjacent towns; in which, after some very pertinent observations on the alarming situation of our public affairs, you desire our advice and to be acquainted with the sense of this town respecting the present gloomy situation of our public affairs. We rejoice at every appearance of public virtue, and resolution in the cause of liberty; inasmuch as, upon our own virtue and resolution, under Divine Providence, depends the preservation of all our rights and privileges. “We apprehend that we, in America, have rights, privileges, and property, of our own, as well as the rest of mankind; and that we have the right of self- preservation, as well as all other beings. And we are constrained to say, that after the most careful and mature deliberation, according to our capacities, weighing the arguments on both sides, we apprehend our rights and privileges have been infringed in many glaring instances, which we mean not to enumerate, among which the late ministerial plan, mentioned in your letter, is not the least. “The Act imposing a duty on tea is alarming, because, in procuring the same, our enemies are dealing by us, like the great enemy of mankind, viz. endeavouring to
40. May 11, 1775. MOSES BROWN MSS (John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Volume II, page 32) 41. Roelker, William Greene. “The Patrol of Narragansett Bay (1774-76),” Rhode Island History 8 (1949): 45-63
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enslave us by those things to which we are not necessitated, but by our own contracted ill habits; although, if tea were properly used, it might be of some advantage. When we speak of our enemies, as above, we mean those persons on either side of the water, who by many ways, either secret or open, are sowing the seeds of strife and discord between Britain and her colonies; or are in any way the active instruments of our distress. “Now since it must be granted, that our rights and privileges are infringed, and that we have the right of self-defence; the important question is, by what means to make such defence. Doubtless the means of defence in all cases ought to quadrate with the nature of the attack; and since the present plan seems to be to enslave us, we need only (had we virtue enough for that) to shun the bait, as we would shun the most deadly poison. Notwithstanding, considering so many are so habituated to the use of tea, as perhaps inadvertently to ruin themselves and their country thereby; and others so abandoned to vice, expecting to share in the profits arising from the ruin of our country, as to use all means in their power to encourage the use of tea; we cannot, therefore, but commend the spirited behaviour of the town of Boston, in endeavouring to prevent the sale of the East India Company’s teas, by endeavouring to persuade the consignees to resign their office, or any other lawful means; and we judge the consignees, by refusing to comply with the just desire of their fellow- citizens, have betrayed a greater regard to their private interest than the public good and safety of their country, and ought to be treated accordingly. “The situation of our public affairs growing more alarming, and having heretofore tried the force of petitions and remonstrances and finding no redress; we, the inhabitants of this town, have now come into a full determination and settled resolution, not to purchase, nor use any tea, nor suffer it to be purchased or used in our families, so long as there is any duty laid on such tea by an act of British Parliament. And we will hold and esteem such, as do use such tea, enemies to their country; and we will treat them with the greatest neglect. And as we beg leave to recommend it to the several towns within this province, who have not done it, to go and do likewise. “How easy the means! How sure the event! But be the event what it may, suppose this method should not obtain a repeal of the act, which we judge to be unrighteous, but the event should be a total disuse of that destructive article, we might then (if we may so express ourselves) bless God, that ever he permitted that act to pass to pass the British Parliament.
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“We trust we have courage and resolution sufficient to encounter all the horrors of war in the defence of those rights and privileges, civil and religious, which we esteem more valuable than our lives. And we do hereby assure, not only the town of Boston, but the world, that whenever we shall have a clear call from Heaven, we are ready to join with our brethren to face the formidable forces, rather than tamely to surrender up our rights and privileges into the hands of any of our own species, not distinguished from ourselves, except it be in disposition to enslave us. At the same time, we have the highest esteem for all lawful authority; and rejoice in our connexion with Great Britain, so long as we can enjoy our charter rights and privileges.”
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I have come across a historical document at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island that may shed some light on the background of the song “Tom Bowling” that Charles Didbin would compose in 1790, that Henry Thoreau would so enjoy to sing. It has become clear that the name “Tom
Bowling” is merely a version of “Tom Bowline,” an pseudonymous name for a sailor very similar to the name “Jack Tar.” A Jack Tar would be a British sailor whereas a Tom Bowline would be a (white) sailor of any nationality. JACK TAR TOM BOWLING TOM BOWLINE
The document I found is a slightly larger than postcard-sized flimsy slip of white printed paper with a
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decorative printed box border, a “handout” prepared in New-York that pertained to the new tea tax. The point is, it is in the form of a fictitious letter from a “Tom Bowline” sailor:
A LETTER, From Tom Bowline to his worthy Meffmates, the renowned Sons of Neptune, belonging to the Port of New-York. My dear Boys, S the Time is approaching, in which the Ship with the Eaft-India Company’s A Tea, may be expected to arrive, and be moored in our Harbour, to put the finifhing Stroke to our Liberties, and ruin the Trade of our Country, by eftablifhing a Monopoly; which will in Time (fhould it be effected) deprive Numbers of our worthy Merchants of their Sheet-Anchor, and oblige them to quit their Moorings, and fteer into the Country to take a Trick at the Plough; and will (as fure as the Devil’s in London) drive many of us to the cruel Alternative of feeking Employment in a foreign Country, to prevent ftarving in our own; — and as much depends upon our Steadinefs and Activity, in regard to weathering this Storm; I muft therefore ftrongly recommend the Neceffity of keeping a good Look-out; and that we do, one and all, hold ourfelves in Readinefs, and heartily join our Merchants and other worthy Citizens, in preventing the peftilential Commodity, from being parbuckled on Shore. I Am, My Hearts of Oak, Your Friend and Meffmate, From my Moorings, in Ratline-Lane, Dec. 20, 1773. TOM BOWLINE.
1774
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1774. By Benjamin West. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. It contains “A brief Historical Account of the Rise and Settlement of Rhode Is1and Government.” See also the almanac for 1778.
ANDERSON IMPROVED: BEING AN ALMANACK AND EPHEMERIS FOR 1774. By John Anderson, Philom. Newport: Solomon Southwick. A new and more elaborate man of signs out appears, and “the Stage from Newport to Hoosuck are inserted this Year, which were never
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in any other Almanack.”
(The same.) The second edition.
In about the 23d year of his age, while acting as a schoolteacher, Friend Job Scott began to minister among the Friends in public meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. Afterward, he would minister in various meetings on this continent, in both northern and southern regions.
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The colony of Rhode Island at this point had 59,707 (57,707?) residents residing in 29 incorporated municipalities. Sixteen of the native Americans still alive were in Bristol (by 1785, this group would have dwindled to two survivors).
The census showed that, in Providence, there were 4,321 persons divided into 655 families living in 421 dwellings.
Of the Brown brothers, only Friend Moses Brown had divested himself of his slaves. John Brown owned two, Nicholas Brown owned two, and Joseph Brown owned four. In their circle of friends and associates, Stephen Hopkins owned six (the present Quaker conceit that we had been forced to disown Governor Hopkins for merely refusing to free but one slave, who was perhaps a woman in a special situation, clearly per this census
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data amounts to no more than that, a present Quaker conceit), Esek Hopkins owned four, Daniel Jenckes owned four, Jabez Bowen owned one (Prince, who would in 1784 cut a deal for his achieving his freedom as of 1787), and the editor of the Providence Gazette, John Carter, owned one or more. THE BROWN BROTHERS
During this year Mrs. Ann Smith Hopkins, the Quaker wife of the Rhode Island Governor Stephen Hopkins who had in the previous year been disowned by the Religious Society of Friends, herself a “birthright Friend,” applied to her Quaker fellows for a routine letter of introduction to be used during her travels in Pennsylvania –a letter stating her to be in good standing in her home worship group– and the Quaker monthly meeting in Smithfield, after duly considering her request, declined to provide this First Lady of Rhode Island with any such routine endorsement.
In this year Joseph Brown built the impressive home, at 50 South Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island, that has the distinctive ogive roof.
April: In a revival at the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, a squat structure of oak, 40 feet by 40 feet, the hard benches of which had served the Baptists of Providence for nearly half a century, there had recently been a grand total of 104 conversions. The enlarged congregation of the Reverend James Manning would require a newer, larger church — the one that is now standing at the foot of College Hill in Providence, its white spike steeple rising almost to the level of the top of the hill. This building would purposely be made large enough to function as a commencement hall for the College of Rhode Island. A Baptist Benevolent Society of eleven men was created to oversee this project, led by John Brown. Joseph Brown and Joseph Hammond would be sent to Boston to look at the churches there. The final design would be chosen from James Gibbs’s BOOK OF ARCHITECTURE. The structure would be crafted by shipbuilders thrown out of work by the British naval blockade of the recalcitrant port of Boston. BROWN UNIVERSITY
April 27, Wednesday: John Brown was setting sail in Newport harbor to take his Diana up to Providence, Rhode Island, along with two freighters containing 300 barrels of flour, when he was hailed by the Rose, Captain James Wallace. The Diana was boarded and he was transferred to the Swan, where the British shut him up in the ship’s brig.
In Boston, the British military officers had offered that anyone who turned in their private firearms would be allowed through the picket lines to escape the hardship of the siege. More than 2,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols were being turned in at Faneuil Hall.
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April 28, Thursday: Moses Brown and Joseph Brown rode from Providence to Roxbury, near Boston. In the following week Joseph would travel from there west to Concord, to bring his brother John Brown’s situation to the attention of the influential American insurgents who were centering there, while Moses would attempt to persuade the British military officers in the port to release their prize prisoner. Meanwhile, Governor Wanton of Rhode Island wrote Captain James Wallace, urging John’s release. The British captain, however, was recording in his diary that the sloops he had seized in the Newport harbor were filled with cargo “bound to Providence for the rebel army” — clearly, he intended that not only that contraband but also the vessels themselves were going to be forfeit, and that he was going to treat his captive as in rebellion against the monarch, and that this privateering booty was going to make his personal fortune. THE BROWN BROTHERS
May 3, Tuesday: The brothers Moses Brown, Joseph Brown, and John Brown had spent the night together at Roxbury. On this morning they set out for Providence, Rhode Island. Joseph was riding one of the horses while John, he of the ample girth, was seated in the saddle of the other horse. Moses, of slighter build, had to perch astride that horse’s buttocks: John had to be thankful just to be at liberty. His luck had held, his brother had come through for him; he even had the saddle for the journey home. His stretch in custody was a harrowing one, shadowed by the prospect of an English jail or a noose. He’d spent a week at sea in irons, being forced to taste the hell that the new slaves experienced in the holds of his own Africa- trade ships. Now all that was behind him. He was back on his feet, with a full pardon in his pocket. Moses, too, had reason to rejoice. He’d sprung his brother from dire circumstances, and done so on his own terms. There was no resort to arms, no exchanging prisoners of war. One of the tenets that had drawn Moses to the Quaker faith was its clear conviction that reason and truth would always reveal the proper course of action. Moses felt that America was being “Drove and Hurried with the Spirit of these Unhappy Times” and felt the only safe course was to resort to reasoned dialogue. In freeing John, he’d deployed his convictions like weapons, and slipped through enemy lines like a spirit. More than that, he’d won John’s sworn pledge to join him on the side of moderation, and support an intervention that Moses believed could break the impasse at Boston and head off the insurrection. The calamity of war might yet be avoided. How much they shared, and how much they kept to themselves, the brothers did not record, but their spirits were high when they arrived in the gloomy streets of Providence around eleven o’clock that night. They were greeted by the huzzas of a crowd that spilled out into the cool of the evening from the Golden Ball, Sabin’s Tavern, and the other haunts along Main Street. As word spread of John’s pardon and the reprimand to Wallace – though not of the oath signed by the brothers– they were hailed as patriot heroes. THE BROWN BROTHERS
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May 4, Wednesday: The good news was out, in Rhode Island, that the brothers Moses Brown and Joseph Brown were back from Massachusetts, and that somehow they had managed to bring the captured leading citizen John Brown home with them. The Reverend Ezra Stiles registered the news in his diary as “A humbling stroke for the Tories!” THE BROWN BROTHERS
(Subsequent to these events, 16-year-old Elkanah Watson would become apprenticed to John Brown.)
May 5, Thursday: In conformity with his conciliation agreement, John Brown addressed the General Assembly of Rhode Island in Providence: It was a remarkable oration, with John obviously torn between his inclinations and his obligations. Reasoned argument was always a strain for John, whose preferred approach was to plunge ahead, answering impulse with action and leaving rationales for later. Forced to lay out a considered strategy, he couldn’t help but meander. John opened his address on “the unnatural and unhappy contest between Britain and America” by declaring his “clear opinion ... that every colony on the continent are by the ties of honor justice and humanity obliged to stand and support each other in their just rights and privileges.” Still, he argued for peace: “Although the sword has been drawn and the scabbard as yet seems to be lost, I am not out of hopes that the latter may be found and the former returned to its usual rest and quiet.” Pressing on, John picked a tortuous path around his own warlike disposition. “Although many are of the opinion that if this dispute must be determined by might and not by right that America can wish for no better time than the present, that we are united and have it in our power to blockade Boston in such a manner as the regular troops cannot march from thence to the country and that their situation there, living wholly on salt provisions, will be rendered so disagreeable, that better terms of peace may be obtained now than at any future time, but in my humble opinion we ought at the same time we are preparing for defense, to spare no pains in our endeavors for conciliating measures.” To that end, John proposed sending a delegation to General Gage to plead for a truce that would “effectually put a total stop to any hostilities till the Continental Congress and each colony can consider an answer” to Lord Dartmouth’s proposal on colonial taxation. Considering the time involved in orchestrating a full debate among the colonies, let alone getting word to England, John’s scheme was patently ludicrous. But at least he was trying. In closing, John asked the assembly, “Pray excuse this imperfect scrawl.” But more important than the weakness of his argument
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was the fact that John Brown had made it at all. As the wealthiest merchant in Providence John enjoyed the status of a British lord, and he was already a hero of the days-old Revolution. After heated debate, and despite the bellicose mood of the assembly, John’s appeal for peace carried the lower house, with Metcalfe Bowler casting the deciding vote. Moses went home that night satisfied that John had upheld his end of the bargain, but events soon eclipsed the brother’s fragile truce. The upper house and Nicholas Cooke, the patriot who had replaced Governor Wanton, rejected any suggesting of intervening with Gage. Charles Rappleye, in SONS OF PROVIDENCE: THE BROWN BROTHERS, THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006, comments on page 330 in regard to what was going on here. The analysis is so simplistic that it is reductionist: “It was sibling rivalry on a grand scale.” All this stuff we moderns think we believe about abolitionism being progressive and enslavement regressive is sheer irrelevance, for these black slaves and their anguish are mere stage props; what we have here is two white brothers “John and Mosie” taking center stage and chewing up the set scenery and relating to each other in the duke-it-out way that brothers relate to each other. “John was never going to cede to Moses the question of what was right and what was wrong.”
May 17, Tuesday: Pugachev’s forces captured Fort Magnitnaia (Magnitogorsk).
Carrying a much more aggressive colonial policy, General Thomas Gage arrived in Boston to take up the post of royal governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, replacing Thomas Hutchinson (this former royal governor would depart for England, where he would act as an adviser to King George III and the British ministry on American affairs, uniformly counselling moderation).
A former resident of the Caribbean island of Antigua named Jacob Schoemaker, a slaveholder who had for a time been living in Providence, Rhode Island off the earnings of a black father named Tom whom he had rented out, had died intestate. Tom, therefore, along with his wife and their four young children, had therefore by default become the property of the town. Moses Brown had therefore petitioned the town meeting, to set free this family of six. On this day an emergency meeting of the citizens was called to consider the new Boston Port Bill, which had closed the harbor of Boston pending reimbursement to the East India Company for the cargo of tea it had lost in the Boston Tea Party. Moses Brown managed to get the two issues, of freedom for Americans and of freedom for Tom and his family, tied together in the minds of the citizens attending the town meeting, by proclaiming how very “unbecoming” it would be for American freemen to be, simultaneously, American enslavers. The resolution voted therefore contained a clause, “and they do hereby give up all claim of right or property in them.” Going even beyond that particular, “Whereas the inhabitants of America are engaged in the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as personal liberty is an essential part of the natural
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rights of mankind, the deputies of the town are directed to use their endeavors to obtain an act of the General Assembly prohibiting the importation of Negro slaves into this colony; and that all Negroes born in the colony, should be free, after obtaining to a certain age.” This was the first such call by any assembly in the American colonies. The new Quaker, Friend Moses, would soon be sitting down with the recently disowned Quaker, Stephen Hopkins, to craft a bill banning the slave trade in Rhode Island, and this is the language which the two of them would come up with: “Whereas the inhabitants of America are generally engaged in the preservation of their own rights and liberties ... as those who are desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty themselves, should be willing to extend personal liberty to others; Therefore, be it enacted ... that for the future, no Negro or mulatto slave shall be brought into this colony; and in case any slave shall hereafter be brought in, he or she shall be, and are hereby, rendered immediately free.” THE TRAFFIC IN MAN-BODY FREE PAPERS
June 1, Wednesday: Letter from Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth. READ THE FULL TEXT
The Providence, Rhode Island Baptists broke ground for a new meetinghouse, with Mr. Sumner as the chief architect. Some of the principal men had obtained a charter of incorporation as “The Charitable Baptist Society” so that this corporation could function as the legal entity owning this grand structure. (The facility would be opened for public worship on May 28, 1775, though work was still ongoing.)
In Massachusetts, Benjamin Williams of Roxbury paid £58 to Benjamin Dolbeare of Boston, the administrator of the estate of Nathaniel Loring, for a slave named Boston Loring (this transaction may, or may not, have amounted to a manumission — there seems no way now to decypher this). Know all men by these presents, That I Benjamin Dolbeare of Boston in the County of Suffolk & Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Mercht. Administrator of the Estate of Nathaniel Loring of Boston aforesaid Intestate, for & in Consideration of Fifty Eight pounds . . . . . Lawfull money to me in hand; at and before the ensealing & delivery of these presents well and truly paid by Benjamin Williams of Roxbury in the county aforesaid Yeoman the receipt whereof to full content and satisfaction is hereby acknowledged Have, granted bargained and Sold & by these presents Do Grant bargain sell & confirm unto the said Benjamin Williams a Negro man called & known by the name of Boston belonging to sd. Loring’s Estate To have and to Hold the said negro man unto the said Benjamin Williams his heirs Executors Administrators & Assignes to his & their own Sole & proper use benefit & behoof forever, & the said Benja. Dolbeare in his capasity as Administrator aforesaid covenant, grant, & agree to, & with the sd. Benja. Williams his Executors Administrators & assignes
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in manner following That is to say that he the said Benjamin Dolbeare in his capasity as Adminr. aforesaid, hath full power & lawfull authority to dispose of the said Negro man in manner as — aforesaid, and the said Benjamin Dolbeare in his capasity as Adminr. doth further covenant, grant, and agree To Warrant & defend the said negro man from all persons claiming from by, or under him, in his capasity as Administrator aforesd. In Witness whereof the said Benjamin Dolbeare hath hereunto set his hand & seal this Ninth first day of June 1774 In the thirfourteenth year of His Majesty s Reign Benja: Dolbeare Administrator Signed Sealed & Delivered In presence of us The Rasure in the sixth line, & the words to said Lorings Estate, between the thirteenth & fourteenth line from the top, being first made Chas. Coffin Wm Williams Copy Suffolk ss Boston June 2d. 1774 — Then the within named Benja. Dolbeare Acknowledged this Instrument to be his Act & Deed Before me Belcher Noyes Justice a Peace [over] Benjamin Williams’s Manumission &c &c to Boston Loring June 2d. 1774 —
August: Friend Moses Brown petitioned that the town meeting of Providence direct the delegates that town would send to the General Assembly of Rhode Island, to support the bill he had authored in suppression of the participation of local citizens in the international slave trade, and local abolition of slavery, and manumission of existing local slaves. The town meeting rejected his abolitionist petition, instancing that such a proposal contained “matters of great importance” that might well “materially affect the property of individuals” — and that therefore “the freemen of the town” deserved to have more time to organize themselves in opposition to it, and protect their property rights and their American freedoms.
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Fall: The enslaved man Tom, along with his wife and their four young children, had been freed in May by order of the Providence, Rhode Island town meeting after their slaveholder owner, Jacob Schoemaker, had died there intestate. However, it came to appear that that town action had been premature: creditors from the island of Antigua in the Caribbean claimed this family as part of the Schoemaker estate there. If they had belonged to the estate rather than to the town of Providence, they could not be set free by the town, and still were slaves, and pertained to new white inheritors. The creditors wanted this New England town to return their property. Papers were served upon John Brown who left it to his brother Nicholas Brown to handle the matter. Nicholas consulted with brother Moses Brown and composed a letter of response. THE BROWN BROTHERS
What these inheritors in Antigua were told was that “there is no getting possession of them without an expensive suit” which, at least in the case of the four minor children, would be unlikely to succeed before a New England jury. Nicholas intimated that his brother Moses had “told me lately, he would be at the expense of a lawsuit himself before they should be carried away to the West Indies as slaves.” He added (how truly or falsely not now known) “Brother John Brown much of the same way of thinking.” FREE PAPERS
September 12, Monday: The town meeting of Providence, Rhode Island repudiated Friend Moses Brown’s petition that the town’s delegates to the General Assembly be instructed to support the bill he had authored in suppression of the slave trade, and abolition of slavery, and freeing of slaves. The town meeting rejected this by voting “that no instructions be given to the representatives of this town regarding the slave import bill.” Of course, no on the manumission of local slaves. Of course, no on the local abolition of the institution of human enslavement. But also, no on the suppression of local participation in the international slave trade. No, no, and no. There was something very fundamental about the concern that the white citizens of Providence had about liberty, that Moses simply had not grasped. What he had not grasped was that their concern about liberty was entirely a concern about their own liberty, and not at all a concern about somebody else’s liberty.
October: Visiting Paris, the Reverend Joseph Priestley met with Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier in his home to inform him of his experiments with dephlogisticated and phlogisticated air (Lavoisier would repeat the experiment and confirm these findings).
The Provincial Congress, held in Concord, had as two of its members Colonel Francis Faulkner and Ephraim Hapsgood representing nearby Acton.
In the colony of Connecticut, any further importation of Indian, Negro, or Molatto [sic] Slaves was prohibited. They were not to be brought in by sea. They were not to be brought in by land. They were not to be brought from any place or places whatever. They were not to be disposed of in Connecticut. They were not to be left in Connecticut. Did we mention that they were not to be sold within Connecticut? No. No. Definitely not. They could of course continue to be passed from white hand to white hand for good and valuable consideration, within Connecticut. Of course. “ ... no indian, negro or molatto Slave shall at any time hereafter be brought or imported into this Colony, by sea or
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land, from any place or places whatsoever, to be disposed of, left or sold within this Colony.” This was re-enacted in the revision of 1784, and slaves born after 1784 were ordered to be emancipated at the age of twenty-five. COLONIAL RECORDS, XIV. 329; ACTS AND LAWS OF CONNECTICUT (ed. 1784), pp. 233-4. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
In Providence, Rhode Island, Nicholas Brown needed to pay for a shipment of pearl ash. He therefore sent off “a Negro boy,” in partial payment, to the Massachusetts enterprise to which he owned this business debt. SLAVERY
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October 14, Friday: The 1st declaration of colonial rights in America: the Declaration and Resolves of the 1st Continental Congress. READ THE FULL TEXT
In Providence, Rhode Island as duly attested on page 262 in Volume 19 of the town records for such property transactions, Jofeph Crawford had chosen this as the day to manumit “Five Negroes to wit One Negro Man named Anthony aged twenty one Years and upward One Negro Woman named Patience aged Seventeen Years and upward One Negro Boy named Manuel aged about fifteen Years One other Negro Boy named Primus aged about twelve Years and one Negro Girl named Peggy aged ten year and upward all which faid Five Negroes are now deemed my Slaves”:
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SLAVERY
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PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
Meanwhile, this above manumitted Anthony a Negro Man of Providence, the Son of Anthony Kinnicut, a Labourer, was on that day formally binding himself as Apprentice to the service of the faid Jofeph Crawford, Yeoman, unless Jofeph Crawford should sooner Deceafe, until the faid Anthony arrived at the age of 25 Years (which the indenture document states would be on July 31, 1778). On his own part Jofeph Crawford “doth promife and engage to find and provide for his faid Apprentice Sufficient Meat Drink wafhing Lodging and Apparel and all other Necefsaries fitting for fuch an Apprentice during said Term”:
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On page 265 the process of indenture of manumitted persons continues with Patience a Negro fingle Woman and Daughter of Anthony Kinnicut who voluntarily and of her own free Will and Accord by and with the Confent of her faid Father was binding herfelf to perform the Houfehold Bufinefs of faid Jofeph until she
304 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
reached the age of 25:
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]tÅxáTÇzxÄÄ `|Çâàxw àÉ ux Üxvx|äxw`tçDCADJJH ZAUÜÉãÇ } tÇw ÜxvÉÜwxw uç ]tÅxáTÇzxÄÄVÄ~ } For some reason not immediately evident, as you will notice above, these 1774 manumissions and their accompanying indenture would not be placed on record immediately in the town books, but the recording of them would be delayed until May 10, 1775.
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]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ `|Çâàxw àÉ ux Üxvx|äxw `tç DCA DJJH Z UÜÉãÇ } tÇw ÜxvÉÜwxw uç]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ VÄ~
On page 266 the process of indenture of manumitted persons continues with Primus a Negro Boy and Son of Anthony Kinnicut who voluntarily and of his own free Will and Accord by and with the Confent of his faid
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 305 HDT WHAT? INDEX
PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
Father was binding himfelf Apprentice of faid Jofeph and Sufanna his Wife until he reached the age of 25:
ã|àÇxyáxà{ à{tàcÜ|Åâá taxzÜÉ UÉç tÇwfÉÇ Éy TÇà{ÉÇç^|ÇÇ|vâà Éy‰‰ cÜÉä|wxÇvxg{|á\ÇwxÇàâÜx |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx_tuÉâÜxÜ {tà{ Ñâà {|ÅyxÄy tÇw uç à{xyxcÜxyxÇàá wÉà{ äÉÄâÇàtÜ|Äç tÇw Éy {|á ÉãÇ yÜxxj|ÄÄ tÇwTvvÉÜw uç tÇw ã|à{ à{xVÉÇyxÇà Éy {|á yt|w Ytà{xÜ Ñâà tÇw u|Çw {|ÅyxÄyTÑÑÜxÇà|vx àÉ]ÉyxÑ{ VÜtãyÉÜw Éy yt|wcÜÉä|wxÇvxlxÉÅtÇ tÇw fâytÇÇt {|á j|yx tÇw tyàxÜ à{x`tÇÇxÜ Éy tÇTÑÑÜxÇà|vx àÉ yxÜäx à{xÅ à{x yt|w]ÉyxÑ{VÜtãyÉÜw yÜÉÅ à{xWtç Éy à{xWtàx {xÜxÉy |Ç yâv{gÜtwx tÇwUây|Çxyá tá à{xç y{tÄÄ ÉÜwxÜ tÇw w|Üxvà yÜÉÅ g|Åx àÉ g|Åx âÇà|Ä {x à{x yt|wcÜ|Åâá y{tÄÄ tààt|Çq àÉà{xTzx Éy àãxÇàç y|äxlxtÜá ã{|v{ ã|ÄÄ ux ÉÇ à{x gãxÇà|xà{ Wtç Éy Tâzâáà |Ç à{xlxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ_beW bÇx g{ÉâytÇw fxäxÇ [âÇwÜxw tÇw x|z{àç fxäxÇ ÉÜ âÇà|Ä à{xWxtà{ Éy à{x ÄÉÇzxyàfâÜä|äÉÜ Éy à{xÅ à{x yt|w]ÉyxÑ{ tÇwfâytÇÇt ã{|v{ Éy à{x àãÉ y{tÄÄ y|Üyà {tÑÑxÇ WâÜ|Çz tÄÄ ã{|v{ g|Åxq {xà{x yt|w cÜ|Åâá {|á yt|w `tyàxÜ tÇw`|yàÜxyá yt|à{yâÄÄç y{tÄÄ yxÜäx à{x|Ü fxvÜxàá ~xxÑ à{x|Ü ÄtãyâÄVÉÅÅtÇwá zÄtwÄç Éuxç [x á{tÄÄ ÇÉà tuyxÇà {|ÅyxÄy uçWtç ÉÜ uça|z{à yÜÉÅ {|á yt|w`tyàxÜ ÉÜ`|yàÜxyáËá fxÜä|vx ã|à{Éâà à{x|Ü _xtäx uâà |Ç tÄÄ g{|Çzá ux{täx {|ÅyxÄy tá t yt|à{yâÄ TÑÑÜxÇà|vx Éâz{à àÉ wÉ wâÜ|Çz à{x ã{ÉÄx Éy à{xg|Åx TÇw à{x yt|w`tyàxÜ wÉà{ ÑÜÉÅ|yx tÇw xÇztzx àÉ y|Çw tÇw ÑÜÉä|wx ÉÜ vtâyx àÉ ux yÉâÇw yâyy|v|xÇà`xtà WÜ|Ç~ ãty{|Çz_Éwz|Çz tÇwTÑÑtÜxÄ tÇw tÄÄ Éà{xÜaxvxyátÜ|xá y|àà|Çz yÉÜ yâv{TÑÑÜxÇà|vx wâÜ|Çz à{x ã{ÉÄx Éy yt|wg|Åx ã{xÜxÉy à{xctÜà|xá àÉ à{xyxcÜxyxÇàá {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ |ÇàxÜv{tÇzxtuÄç yxà à{x|Ü[tÇwá tÇwfxtÄá TÇw à{x yÉâÜàxxÇà{Wtç |Çgxyà|ÅÉÇç ÉybvàÉuxÜ |Ç à{x yÉâÜàxxÇà{lxtÜ Éy à{xex|zÇ Éy ÉâÜfÉäxÜx|zÇ_ÉÜwZxÉÜzx à{x à{|Üw uç à{x ZÜtvx Éy ZÉw Éy ZÜxtà UÜ|àt|Ç 9 ^|Çz TAWADJJG f|zÇxw yxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç à{xcÜxyxÇvx Éy } ]ÉyxÑ{ VÜtãyÉÜw((L.S.)) ]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ } `|Çâàxw àÉ ux Üxvx|äxw `tç DCA DJJH Z AUÜÉãÇ tÇw ÜxvÉÜwxw uç ]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ VÄ~ and finally — Peggy a Negro Girl and Daughter of Anthony Kinnicut voluntarily and of her own free will and Accord by and with the Confent of her faid Father put and bound herfelf Apprentice to Jofeph and Sufanna to ferve in fuch Houfehold Bufinefs as they from Time to Time should order and direct until fhe attain the Age of 25 Years on October 2, 1789: ã|àÇxyáxà{ à{tàcxzzç taxzÜÉ Z|ÜÄ ÇÉã ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx g{|á\ÇwxÇàâÜxtÇwWtâz{àxÜ ÉyTÇà{ÉÇç^|ÇÇ|vâà Éy yt|wcÜÉä|wxÇvx {tà{ Ñâà {xÜáxÄy tÇw uç à{xyxcÜxyxÇàá wÉà{ äÉÄâÇàtÜ|Äç tÇw Éy {xÜ ÉãÇ yÜxx ã|ÄÄ tÇwTvvÉÜw uç tÇw ã|à{ à{xVÉÇyxÇà Éy {xÜ yt|wYtà{xÜ Ñâà tÇw u|Çw {xÜyxÄyTÑÑÜxÇà|vx àÉ]ÉyxÑ{VÜtãyÉÜw Éy yt|wcÜÉä|wxÇvxlxÉÅtÇ tÇwfâytÇÇt {|áj|yx tÇw tyàxÜ à{x`tÇÇxÜ Éy tÇTÑÑÜxÇà|vx àÉ yxÜäx {|Å à{x yt|w]ÉyxÑ{ VÜtãyÉÜw tÇwfâytÇÇt {|áj|yx yÜÉÅ à{xWtç Éy à{xWtàx {xÜxÉy |Ç yâv{[Éâyx{ÉÄwUây|Çxyá tá {x à{x yt|w]ÉyxÑ{ tÇwfâytÇÇt yÜÉÅg|Åx àÉg|Åx á{tÄÄ ÉÜwxÜ tÇw w|Üxvà âÇà|Ä y{x à{x yt|wcxzzç y{tÄÄ tààt|Ç àÉ à{xTzx ÉygãxÇàç‰ Y|äxlxtÜá ã{|v{ ã|ÄÄ ux ÉÇ à{x yxvÉÇwWtç ÉybvàÉuxÜ |Ç à{xlxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ_ÉÜwbÇxg{ÉâytÇwfxäxÇ[âÇwÜxw tÇw X|z{àç Ç|Çx ÉÜ âÇà|Ä à{xWxtà{ Éy à{x ÄÉÇzxyàfâÜä|äÉÜ Éy à{xÅ à{x yt|w]ÉyxÑ{ tÇwfâytÇÇt ã{|v{ Éy à{xgãÉ f{tÄÄ y|Üyà {tÑÑxÇ WâÜ|Çz tÄÄ ã{|v{ g|Åx à{x yt|wcxzzç {xÜ yt|w`tyàxÜ tÇw`|yàÜxyá yt|à{yâÄÄç y{tÄÄ yxÜäx à{x|ÜfxvÜxàá ~xxÑ à{x|Ü ÄtãyâÄVÉÅÅtÇwá zÄtwÄç Éuxç f{x y{tÄÄ ÇÉà tuyxÇà {xÜyxÄy uçWtç ÉÜ uça|z{à yÜÉÅ {xÜ yt|w`tyàxÜ ÉÜ`|yàÜxyáxá fxÜä|vx ã|à{Éâà à{x|Ü_xtäx uâà |Ç tÄÄg{|Çzá ux{täx {xÜyxÄy tá t yt|à{yâÄTÑÑÜxÇà|vx Éâz{à àÉ wÉ wâÜ|Çz à{x ã{ÉÄx Éy yt|wg|Åx tÇw à{xYt|w`tyàxÜ wÉà{ ÑÜÉÅ|yx tÇw xÇztzx àÉ y|Çw tÇw ÑÜÉä|wxqÉÜyâyy|v|xÇà`xtàWÜ|Ç~jty{|Çz_Éwz|Çz9TÑÑtÜxÄ vtâyx àÉ ux yÉâÇw9ÑÜÉä|wxw tÇw tÄÄ Éà{xÜaxvxyátÜ|xá y|àà|Çz yÉÜ yâv{ tÇTÑÑÜxÇà|vx wâÜ|Çz à{x ã{ÉÄx Éy yt|wg|Åx ã{xÜxÉy à{xctÜà|xá àÉ à{xyxcÜxyxÇàá {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ |ÇàxÜv{tÇzxtuÄç yxà à{x|Ü[tÇwá tÇwfxtÄáTÇw à{x yÉâÜàxxÇà{Wtç |Çgxyà|ÅÉÇç ÉybvàÉuxÜ |Ç à{x yÉâÜàxxÇà{lxtÜ Éy à{xex|zÇ Éy ÉâÜfÉäxÜx|zÇ_ÉÜwZxÉÜzx à{x à{|Üw uç à{x ZÜtvx Éy ZbW Éy ZÜxtà UÜ|àt|Ç9^|Çz TAWADJJG f|zÇxw yxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç cÜxyxÇvx Éy ]ÉyxÑ{VÜtãyÉÜw ((L.S.)) } ]tÅxá TÇzxÄÄ `|Çâàxw àÉ ux Üxvx|äxw`tçDCADJJH ZA UÜÉãÇ tÇw ÜxvÉÜwxw uç ]tÅxáTÇzxÄÄVÄ~
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December 15, Thursday: On page 315 of Volume 19 of the property transactions of the city of Providence, Caleb Greene, Merchant of Rhode Island, under a Sense of the Opprefsion and Injustice of Buying and Selling of Men as Slaves and a Defire to remove as far as may be the evil Practice hereof by complying with the Manifestations of that divine Light which has fhined and is fhining in the Minds of Men, to bring them out of Darknefs, and if adheard to, will lead them into all Truth, did in the presence of Friend Moses Brown and of Friend Job Scott (1751-1793), give up his partial rights in the person of a certain Indian or Mulattoe, Peter, and give up his partial rights in the person of a Negro Man, Venter, thus manumitting the faid Peter and Venter and confirming their Freedom to the fullest (admittedly only partial) extent within the faid Caleb Greene’s power: cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xyx cÜxáxÇàá y{tÄÄ vÉÅx à{tà\VtÄxu ZÜxxÇxgÉ tÄÄ ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xVÉÄÉÇç Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw?`xÜv{tÇà?^ÇÉãlx âÇwxÜ tfxÇáx Éy à{xbÑÑÜxyá|ÉÇ tÇw\Ç}âáà|vx ÉyUâç|Çz tÇwfxÄÄ|Çz Éy`xÇ táfÄtäxá tÇw tWxy|Üx àÉ ÜxÅÉäx tá ytÜ tá Åtç ux à{x xä|ÄcÜtvà|vx {xÜxÉy uç vÉÅÑÄç|Çz ã|à{ à{x`tÇ|yxáàtà|ÉÇá Éy à{tà w|ä|Çx _|z{à ã{|v{ {tá y{|Çxw tÇw |á y{|Ç|Çz |Ç à{x`|Çwá Éy`xÇ? àÉ uÜ|Çz à{xÅ Éâà ÉyWtÜ~@ Çxyá? tÇw |y tw{xtÜw àÉ? ã|ÄÄ Äxtw à{xÅ |ÇàÉ tÄÄ gÜâà{ tuyÉÄâàxÄç ÜxÄxtáx? ÅtÇâÅ|à tÇw w|áv{tÜzx yÉÜxäxÜbÇxdâtÜàxÜctÜà WÉÉy à{xg|Åx {xÜxuç tÇwfxÜä|vx Éy t vxÜàt|Ç\Çw|tÇ ÉÜ`âÄtààÉx Éy ã{tàatà|ÉÇ {x ‰Åtç ux vtÄÄxw tÇw ~ÇÉãÇ uç à{x atÅx ÉycxàxÜ Éy ã{ÉÅeÉuxÜà_|ä|ÇzáàÉÇ tÇw]tÅxá_Éäxà vÄt|Åá à{x Éà{xÜ à{ÜxxdâtÜàxÜá A TÇw tÄyÉ ÉÇx {tÄyctÜà ÉyaxzÜÉ`tÇ ÇtÅxwixÇàxÜ à{x Éà{xÜ [tÄy ux|Çz vÄt|Åxw uç]tÅxá_Éäxà? {xÜxuç yâÄÄç vÉÇy|ÜÅ|Çz àÉ à{xÅ à{x yt|wcxàxÜ tÇwixÇàx܉‰ à{x|ÜYÜxxwÉÅ yÉ ytÜ tá à{xctÜàá tyÉÜxát|w yÜÉÅ à{xVÄt|Å tÇw WxÅtÇw Éy tÄÄcxÜáÉÇá uç? yÜÉÅ ÉÜ âÇwxÜ à{xNWxy|Ç|Çz à{x|Ü[xtÄà{ tÇwcÜÉáÑxÜ|àç\ à{x yt|wVtÄxuZÜxxÇx {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ à{|á y|yàxxÇà{Wtç Éy à{x àãxÄyà{ `ÉÇà{DJJGA f|zÇxwfxtÄxw9WxÄ|äxÜxw ((L.S.)) |ÇcÜxyxÇvx Éy VtÄxu ZÜxxÇx `ÉáxáUÜÉãÇ g{x yÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t àÜâxVÉÑçAexvÉÜwxwDFà{`tçDJJK ]ÉufvÉàà j|àÇxyág{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇVÄxÜ~ (interconnecting script)ë
1775
In approximately this timeframe, Benjamin West closed his store in Providence, Rhode Island and began to make revolutionary war uniforms.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1775. By Benjamin West. Providence: John Carter. It contains “A brief view of the present controversy between Great Britain and America, with some observations thereon.”
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ANDERSON IMPROVED: BEING AN ALMANACK, AND EPHEMERIS FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1775. By John Anderson, Philom. Newport: Printed by Solomon Southwick. The publication included verses on the history of astronomy. The (pseudonymous) author addressed his American public in these “troublesome times,” disclaiming any “gift of prophecy” but daring to offer his two cents worth so that we may “remain the freest and happiest people under Heaven.” Americans needed to “stop all trade with Great Britain till the Parliament shall recognize your right to carry on trade upon an equal footing with the people of England, till they withdraw all their useless creatures and tools from this country, and till they leave the sole government of yourselves to yourselves.” A tabulation of Britain’s exports makes a case that “America takes off more of the British manufactures, &c. than all the other parts of the world.”
Nathanael Low’s AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY; OR, ALMANACK FOR...1775. Boston: Printed and Sold by John Kneeland, in Milk Street. Low also was determinedly fanning the flames of rebellion. His title-page woodcut depicted a “virtuous patriot at the hour of death.” His “Address to the Inhabitants of Boston” took up four pages and decried the Port Bill as well as the “British armament parading in your streets and harbour”: “My dear brethren, the destiny of America seems to be suspended on the present controversy; and it is on your fidelity,
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firmness and good conduct ... that a happy issue of it in a great measure depends....”
The Deputy-Governor of Rhode Island ordered a census of all hunting guns. The Providence monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends refused to cooperate, alleging that since this census was obviously a war measure, it was in conflict with their Peace Testimony.42 No steps would be taken against the local Quakers and their consciences. THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY
During the American Revolution there were some Americans who considered it necessary to guard the shoreline of the mainland, and Nantucket Island, against seizure of property by British foraging parties based on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. We don’t know how effective this fighting was in protecting American property from the British, but Quakers of course refused to contribute to the cost of such protection, and therefore there were 496 cases of seizure of the goods of peace-testimony Quakers in Rhode Island by local revolutionary authorities. In 1778 the property thus distrained from members of New England Yearly Meeting by local American authorities amounted to £2,473, while in 1779 the total distraint rose to £3,453. For instance, here are some of the revolutionary seizures made of property of ancestors of Quaker families of Providence monthly meeting: • In 1775, local revolutionary authorities seized a dictionary belonging to Friend Thomas Lapham, Jr. of Smithfield. • In 1775, local revolutionary authorities seized 5 pairs of women’s shoes belonging to Friend Paul Green of East Greenwich. • In 1776, local revolutionary authorities would seize the fire tongs of Friend Stephen Hoxsie of South Kingstown, as he was the guardian of John Foster but John had not mustered during an alarm. • Between 1777 and 1782, local revolutionary authorities would seize 7 cows, 5 heifers, and 2 table cloths belonging to Friend Simeon Perry of South Kingstown. • In 1777, local revolutionary authorities would seize a mare worth £30 belonging to Friend John Foster of South Kingstown. • In 1777, local revolutionary authorities would seize 3 felt hats belonging to Friend John Carey of East Greenwich. • In 1780, local revolutionary authorities would seize a silver porringer belonging to Friend Isaac Lawton of Portsmouth. • Between 1780 and 1782, local revolutionary authorities would seize 29 boxes of spermaceti candles, 20 yards of white linen sheeting, 14 yards of kersey, 16 sides of sole leather, a 3-year-old heifer, and 2 stacks of hay belonging to Friend Moses Brown of Providence. • In 1781, local revolutionary authorities would seize 9 sheep and 2 steers belonging to Friend Amos Collins of South Kingstown. • In 1781, local revolutionary authorities would seize 2 ox chains and an ax belonging to Friend George Kinyan of Rhode Island, because he had not been appearing at militia trainings.
42. One notices instantly that Quakers had guns and that guns are multi-purpose devices, useful not only for killing animals but also for threatening and/or killing other humans — and one notices instantly that the Quaker response to this census involved their noncooperation rather than their immediate destruction of these multi-purpose devices (taking them out to the woodshed and whacking at them with the kindling hatchet would also have been an effective response to the problems posed by weaponry).
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In addition to property seizures, in three cases a Quaker man who refused to participate in militia activities would be jailed. One of these men was Friend David Anthony of East Greenwich. In each case the Friends would conduct an investigation to determine whether the person had acted in the spirit and manner of Friends, and if he had, would go to the General Assembly at Providence to petition the “tender consciences” of the lawgivers for his freedom.
Not all Rhode Island Quakers refused to participate in the civil unrest of the period but those who did participate in any way were always rigorously and promptly disowned. Between 1775 and 1784, the New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends would disown a total of 147 Quakers who had become involved in one way or another with the civil disruption. Among those disowned was, upon his own request, Major General Nathanael Greene. (Less tolerance, in fact, was shown for those who deviated from the Peace Testimony than for those Friends who continued to hold slaves.) THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY
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PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
March 23, Thursday: In Providence, Rhode Island’s Market Square downtown, on this evening, citizens were bringing armloads of their British Taxed Tea from their homes, to feed a bonfire. In all, about 300 pounds were consumed by the flames.
Resolutions of the Provincial Congress of Virginia: READ THE FULL TEXT
Patrick Henry stood up and asked for Liberty or Death, which being translated means of course “either I get to have slaves, or I’ll kill you”:
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of
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treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have
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been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free - if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending - if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained - we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength but irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable- and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! READ THE FULL TEXT
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Well, actually, maybe Patrick Henry didn’t deliver exactly this rousing summation in Richmond, Virginia. And maybe the assembly didn’t exactly jump up on the pews of Saint John’s Church and roar out “To arms! To arms!” We lack a written record of the speech between 1775 and 1817, when William Wirt belatedly authored, 18 years after Henry’s death, his LIFE AND CHARACTER OF PATRICK HENRY in which the subject matter first surfaces. Although Wirt was only two years old at the time of this speech, and claimed to have reconstructed it on the basis of recollections offered by an earlier generation, it is likely that he himself was its principal composer.43
43. Ray Raphael, FOUNDING MYTHS: STORIES THAT HIDE OUR PATRIOTIC PAST (The New Press, September 2004).
1. Paul Revere’s Ride 2. Molly Pitcher 3. The Man Who Made a Revolution: Sam Adams 4. The Shot Heard Round the World: Lexington and Concord 5. The Winter at Valley Forge 6. Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence 7. Founding Fathers: The Greatest Generation 8. “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” 9. “Do Not Fire ’till You See the Whites of their Eyes” 10. Patriotic Slaves 11. Brutal British 12. The Final Battle at Yorktown 13. March of the American People Conclusion: Romancing the Revolution, or Why We Tell Tall Tales
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May 28, Sunday: The Providence, Rhode Island Baptists opened their new meetinghouse for public worship, though the facility would not be complete for some months. (It was being worked on partly by shipwrights thrown out of work by the Royal decree closing the port of Boston as punishment for the Boston Tea Party — hey, any port in a storm!) It was a wooden structure of the Roman/Ionic order of architecture, 80 feet by 80 feet, with a 196-foot steeple at its downslope end. The main floor initially contained 126 square pews. The main ceiling was a continued arch, with roof and galleries supported by fluted columns. (The interior would be renovated and altered in 1834.) An English clock and a bell weighing 2,515 pounds either had been or would be raised into the steeple. The bell was inscribed:
FOR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE, THE TOWN WAS FIRST PLANTED, PERSUASION, NOT FORCE, WAS USED BY THE PEOPLE. THIS CHURCH IS THE ELDEST, AND HAS NOT RECANTED, ENJOYING AND GRANTING, BELL, TEMPLE AND STEEPLE.
(This bell would crack open in 1787 while being pealed, and Jesse Goodyear would recast it at Hope Furnace.)
The Reverend James Manning preached on the text of GENESIS 28:17.
June 12, Monday: The Rhode Island Assembly created the Rhode Island navy.
Joseph Brant, accompanied by Sir Guy Johnson and Colonel John Butler, addressed a council of 1,455 Iroquois at Oswego. Brant and the others explained the upcoming rebellion. The Oneidas under Steyawa refused to fight the colonial forces, but the other tribes prepare for possible war. Brant was appointed war chief, the 2d highest Iroquois office.
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June 15, Thursday: While serving as delegate to the 2d Continental Congress, George Washington was appointed commander in chief of American armed forces. CONTINETAL CONGRESS
The Rhode Island General Assembly ordered the local Committee of Safety to fit out two ships to defend the colony’s shipping, and appointed a committee of three to obtain vessels. The new committee immediately chartered the sloop Katy, that had been one of John Brown of Providence’s “negreros,” and the sloop Washington. The General Assembly appointed Abraham Whipple, who had won a certain amount of local recognition in the burning of the armed schooner HMS Gaspee in 1772, as the commander of the larger ship, Katy, and as commodore of the two-ship fleet. At about 6PM, the Katy, Captain Abraham Whipple (for whom Whipple Street in Providence would be named), and the Washington, attacked a British patrol ship, the Diana, off Jamestown on Conanicut Island in Narragansett Bay. When the powder chest of the British exploded, the crew beached their vessel just north of Jamestown and fled into the woods. The Americans seized the Diana and took it to Providence, Rhode Island.
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June 25, Thursday: In Providence, Rhode Island, the entire visiting patriot militia of East Greenwich, the “Kentish Guards” under the command of James Mitchell Varnum, in their serge uniforms with scarlet facings and their tricorn headgear, at the invitation of John Brown observed the Sunday worship at the immense new 1st Baptist Meeting House.
August: A battery of cannon had been erected on Fox Hill to protect the approaches to Providence, Rhode Island from the British warships in Narragansett Bay. Esek Hopkins took command of this fortification.
August 1, Tuesday: Eve Bernon of Providence, Rhode Island, being still of Perfect Mind and Memory tho’ weak of Body and convinced from the Uncertainty of human Life of the Necefsity of difpofing of such worldly Estate as it hath pleafed God to blefs Her with whilst she was in full Enjoyment of her Rational Faculties, DID on this First Day of August AD 1775 make and publish her last Will and Testament. After bequeathing to her beloved Sister Mary Crawford, her Niece Freelove Crawford, her Niece Sarah Cooke, and this Niece’s daughter Abigail Mathewfon, the sum of £30 each, and after bequeathing her home to her near Friend & Kinfman Zachariah Allen, she provided for her two slaves, a Negro Woman named Amey44 and her son called Manny:
\àxÅ \ wÉ {xÜxuç ÅtÇâÅ|à áxà yÜxx tÇw W|áv{tÜzx Åç axzÜÉ jÉÅtÇ ÇtÅxwTÅxç tÇw {xÜ áÉÇ vtÄÄxw`tÇÇç yÜÉÅ tÄÄfxÜä|àâwxfÄtäxÜç ÉÜ fâu}xvà|ÉÇ ã{tàxäxÜ àÉ`x Åç[x|Üá ÉÜTyá|zÇá? z|ä|Çz tÇwfâÜÜxÇwxÜ|Çz âÑ àÉ à{xÅ tÄÄ Åçe|z{à9cÜÉÑxÜàç |Ç à{x|ÜcxÜyÉÇá M TÇw |y át|waxzÜÉTÅxç ÉÜ {xÜ áÉÇ uç fv|~Çxyá [sic] ÉÜ tÇç Éà{xÜ Tvv|wxÇà á{tÄÄ ux ÜxÇwxÜxw âÇtuÄx àÉ fâÑÑÉÜà à{xÅáxÄäxá à{xÇ Åç j|ÄÄ tÇw `xtÇ|Çz |á à{tà à{xç á{tÄÄ ux Åt|Çàt|Çxw tÇw fâÑÑÉÜàxw uç à{x yt|wmtv{tÜ|t{TÄÄxÇ `tÜçVÜtãyÉÜw YÜxxÄÉäxVÜtãyÉÜw ftÜt{VÉÉ~x tÇw Tu|zt|Ä`tà{xãyÉÇ Éâà Éy à{x Xáàtàx Z|äxÇ à{xÅ uç à{|á j|ÄÄ
MANUMISSION
44. Would this Amey and Manny be descended from the black family of six disposed of by Gabriel Bernon in his 18th-Century will? “Negro man woman and 4 children £500.”... “Negro man Manuel, Negro woman Peggy, to be at disposition of wife also the Negro boy and girl and the product of them, if sold.” ... “One Negro child being with daughter Esther Powell, is left to her.” Also “and a boy has been given to daughter.”
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October 16, Monday: In Volume 19 page 310 of the Providence, Rhode Island record of Deeds and Mortgages, Benoni Pearce, the Executor to the Last Will and Testament of James Brown, difposed of one item belonging to the Estate of the said James Brown, to wit One certain Negro Man Named PERO who had gotten too old to do much work, by Releafing Dismifsing and Setting him Free fo that neither he nor his Heirs Executors or Administrators or any perfon or Perfons by his or their Means might or would have any Claim or Demand to the said Pero or his Service. This Executor declared against the holding of Negroes in slavery, Depriving them of that Liberty to which all Mankind are equally entitled, however kindly they may be treated by their Masters – unlefs, that is the persons in question had legally Forfeited such Freedom. Such enslavement activities were in general characterized as: • contrary to the Divine Law • inconfiftant with the Natural Rights of Mankind • inconfiftant with that Great Christian Precept “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” • perniciously tending to encourage the Iniquitous Traffick in Negroes and the importing them from their Native Country
To all Intents and purpofes the manumitted elderly Negro Man Pero was put at his own Difpofal, but since he was utterly indigent after having performed a lifetime of free Services, Pearce undertook to provide at his own Expence [sic] all things comfortable and Necefsary for Pero’s Maintenance and Support for so long as this worn-out former slave continued alive.
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October 26, Thursday: People were trying to kill each other at Hampton, Virginia.
Phillis Wheatley wrote from Providence, Rhode Island to General George Washington at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sir. I have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the Armies of North America, together with the fame of your virtues, excite sensations not easy to suppress. Your generosity, therefore, I presume, will pardon the attempt. Wishing your Excellency all possible success in the great cause you are so generously engaged in, I am, Your Excellency’s most obedient and humble servant, Phillis Wheatley
Late November: Late in the month, the sloop Katy sailed from Providence for Philadelphia, transporting a group of seamen who had been enlisted for continental service by Commodore Esek Hopkins.
1776
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1776. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. It contains a list of the Public offices of Rhode Island and an account of the Post service.
WEST’S ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR 1776. By Benjamin West. Providence: John Carter. This was issued as a sheet almanac. The only known copy, now in the New York Public Library, has been cut up into twelve leaves and bound as a book. These leaves are printed on one side only. The title at the top and the notes about eclipses at the bottom
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of the original broadside, now continue across eight pages (four successive leaves). There is a photostat copy at the American Antiquarian Society.
AN ALMANACK AND EPHEMERIS FOR 1776. By John Anderson, Philom. Newport, Rhode Island: Solomon Southwick.
(Same) Second edition.
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In a rare-books catalog we find Samuel Stearns’s THE NORTH AMERICAN’S ALMANACK, AND GENTLEMAN’S AND LADY’S DIARY, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST 1776, With 12 Page Account of the Beginning of the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts:
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This was printed by I. Thomas in Worcester, B. Edes in Watertown, and S.&E. Hall in Cambridge, and bears an asking price of “6 Coppers.” Besides the usual monthly calendars, this publication offered a 2-page history of the charters of the British colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut, a list of the Governors of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut, from the first settlements up to the time they surrendered their charters, and the Reverend William Gordon of Roxbury’s “An Account of the Commencement of Hostilities between Great Britain and America, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.”
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NOTE: William Bartram ascribed the lunar eclipse of this year to the year 1773, a fact which, even if we had no other such warnings in regard to his accounts of his travels, would have forced us to beware of a too-literal acceptance of them as reported.45
Nathan Comstock was born in Burrillville near Providence, as a birthright Quaker (the Smithfield Monthly Meeting was nearby, in what is now Woonsocket, Rhode Island). SAMUEL B. COMSTOCK
January 1: The Reverend James Fordyce, D.D.’s THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE FEMALE SEX, AND THE ADVANTAGES TO BE DERIVED BY YOUNG MEN FROM THE SOCIETY OF VIRTUOUS YOUNG WOMEN; A DISCOURSE IN THREE PARTS, DELIVERED IN MONKWELL STREET CHAPEL, 1ST JANUARY, 1776.
The frigate Liverpool, two corvettes, and Royal Governor Lord Dunmore’s armed sloop opened fire upon the port of Norfolk, Virginia while a detachment of British marines landed to put the torch to houses.
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45. William Bartram tells us he is alone when he is not alone, and tells us he is unarmed when in fact he is packing a rifle. He isn’t even to be trusted in regard to names, alleging for instance that his father John Bartram and his martyred-by-the-Indians grandfather had the same name, John Bartram, when in fact he himself had been named after this grandfather, William Bartram! — Was he stoned when he wrote this? — Go figure.
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In Providence, Rhode Island, the slavemaster Nicholas Cooke gave his Negro Man named Mingo his Time, and forever difmifsed and difcharged him from Service to himself or his Heirs and Afsigns forever, but only on Condition that he carefully provide the Necefsaries of Life for himfelf and not fpend his Time in Idlenefs. If, through this former slave’s future Mifconduct or Negligence, he should become chargeable to his previous owner the said Nicholas Cooke or to the Community of Providence in General, then this document of manumission filed in Volume 19 on page 277 of the town’s Deeds and Mortgages book was null and void, and said Negro Man named Mingo again reduced to slavery.
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(Note carefully also that this manumitted slave’s name was “Mingo,” despite the fact that we learned in the Year of our Lord 1734 from published Harvard College Rule #20, that “to mingo” was slang for taking a leak, urinating.)
January 8, Monday: People were tryingG toO kTillO each MASTER other at ICharlestown,NDEX OF W Massachusetts.ARFARE
In January, 1776, Concord provided 20 blankets, Bedford 12, Acton 10, and Lincoln 14. In November, 1777, and at several other times, the town [Concord] voted to provide for the families of those engaged in the continental army. 1,210 pounds was paid for this purpose before September 1779.46
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In Providence, Rhode Island, at a tavern on Towne (Main) Street, there was the 1st meeting of Stephen Hopkins’s committee to build frigates for the Continental navy. The committee included Governor Nicholas Cooke, John Brown and some other members of the Brown family, John Smith (this was an American John Smith, not the John Smith who in this year in London was whistling up the signature tune “To Anacreon in Heaven”), Jabez Bowen, Daniel Tillinghast, the brothers Joseph Russell and William Russell, and John Innes Clarke and Joseph Nightingale of the Clarke & Nightingale firm. The drinks that evening were on John Brown. The group would plan to build a warship of 32 guns, the Warren, and another warship of 28 guns, the USS Providence.
February 14, Wednesday: The slave poet Phillis Wheatley wrote from Providence, Rhode Island to her friend Obour Tanner, a slave in Newport, the topic of discussion evidently being the British occupation: “I doubt not that your present situation is extremely unhappy. Even I a mere spectator am in anxious suspense concerning the fortunes of this unnatural civil contest.”
In Massachusetts, people were trying to kill each other at Dorchester Neck.
The Council of Massachusetts appointed Captain Eleazer Brooks of Lincoln a Colonel of the 3d regiment.
Thomas Paine revised his pamphlet COMMON SENSE to include an appendix responding to a Quaker non- violence pamphlet:
To the Representatives of the Religious Society of the People called Quakers, or to so many of them as were concerned in publishing the late piece, entitled “THE ANCIENT TESTIMONY AND PRINCIPLES OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS RENEWED, WITH RESPECT TO THE KING AND GOVERNMENT, AND TOUCHING THE COMMOTIONS NOW PREVAILING IN THESE AND OTHER PARTS OF AMERICA ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE IN GENERAL.”
Basically his argument, insofar as it was coherent and intelligible, amounted to the attitude that any Friendly witness to non-violence was hypocrisy, in that it pretended to be a religious position entirely separate from politics while, by urging nonresponsiveness to governmental violence, amounting to a sponsorship of the political status quo, it was actually religion dabbling all of its toes in the political mainstream.
Such a crowdpleaser of an argument would sell 500,000 copies.
46. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835 (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.)
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April 5, Friday: George Washington arrived in Providence, Rhode Island.
Commander in Chief of the Fleet of the United Colonies Esek Hopkins’s ships took the brig Bolton, and then a brigantine and a sloop out of New-York, as prizes.
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May 4, Monday: The Rhode Island General Assembly made it the first of the English colonies in America to renounce allegiance to King George III of England. In December the British navy would occupy Newport and all of Aquidneck Island, where they would remain until they would voluntarily shift their base of operations toward the south in October 1779.47
47. In Algonquian, “Aquidnet” means “a place of security or tranquility,” from “aquene” or “aquidne” meaning secure or peaceful, and “et” meaning place.
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Fearful that the guns of the warships anchored nearby had been aiming in directly at his Second Congregational Church, the Reverend Ezra Stiles had in March gone to live in Dighton. Aquidneck never would recover its commercial prosperity after this occupation, as too many of the state’s commercial operatives had already shifted their headquarters to Providence.
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April 12, 1776 North Carolina Instructions April 22, 1776 Cumberland County, Virginia Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly April 23, 1776 Charleston, South Carolina, Judge Drayton’s charge to the Grand Jury April 23, 1776 Charlotte County, Virginia Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly April 24, 1776 James City County, Virginia Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly May 4, 1776 Rhode Island Act repealing another securing allegiance May 6, 1776 Georgetown, South Carolina presentment to the Grand Jury May 13?, 1776 Buckingham County, Virginia Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly May 13?, 1776 Declaration of Chelmsford, Massachusetts May 15, 1776 Virginia Instructions May 20, 1776 Cheraws District, South Carolina presentment to the Grand Jury May 20, 1776 Declaration of Plymouth, Massachusetts May 20, 1776 Declaration of Watertown, Massachusetts May 20, 1776 Declaration of Brookline, Massachusetts May 21, 1776 Declaration of Lynn, Massachusetts May 22, 1776 Declaration of Rowley, Massachusetts May 23, 1776 Declaration of Plympton, Massachusetts May 23, 1776 Declaration of Billerica, Massachusetts May 23, 1776 Declaration of Boston, Massachusetts May 27, 1776 Declaration of Dedham, Massachusetts May 27, 1776 Declaration of Malden, Massachusetts May 29, 1776 Declaration of the New-York Mechanics in Union May 31, 1776 Declaration of Brunswick, Massachusetts May 31, 1776 Declaration of Newburyport, Massachusetts May 31, 1776 Declaration of Newbury, Massachusetts (undated) 1776 Declaration of Stockbridge, Massachusetts (undated) 1776 Declaration of Pittsfield, Massachusetts June 3, 1776 Declaration of Taunton, Massachusetts June 4, 1776 Declaration of Scituate, Massachusetts June 5, 1776 Declaration of Wrentham, Massachusetts June 6, 1776 Declaration of Hanover, Massachusetts June 7, 1776 Declaration of Tyringham, Massachusetts June 7, 1776 Declaration of Alford, Massachusetts June 7, 1776 Declaration of Norwich, Massachusetts June 8, 1776 Pennsylvania Instructions to Assembly June 10, 1776 Declaration of Ipswich, Massachusetts
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June 10, 1776 Declaration of the Associators, 1st Battalion (militia) of Chester County PA June 10, 1776 Declaration of the Associators of Colonel Crawford’s Battalion, Lancaster County PA (undated) 1776 Declaration of the Associators, Elk Battalion Militia of Chester County, Pennsylvania June 10?, 1776 Declaration of Associators, 4th Battalion (militia), City and Liberties of Philadelphia June 10?, 1776 Declaration of Associators, 5th Battalion (militia), City and Liberties of Philadelphia June 12, 1776 Declaration of Salem, Massachusetts June 12, 1776 Declaration of Andover, Massachusetts June 13, 1776 Declaration of Beverly, Massachusetts June 13, 1776 Declaration of Amherst, Massachusetts June 14, 1776 Connecticut Instructions June 14, 1776 Declaration of Acton, Massachusetts June 14, 1776 Declaration of Hubbardston, Massachusetts June 14, 21, 1776 Declaration of Topsfield, Massachusetts June 15, 1776 New Hampshire Instructions June 15, 1776 Delaware Instructions June 17, 1776 Declaration of Palmer, Massachusetts June 17, 1776 Declaration of Bedford, Massachusetts June 17, 1776 Declaration of Murraysfield, Massachusetts June 17, 1776 Declaration of Marblehead, Massachusetts June 17, 1776 Declaration of Boxford, Massachusetts June 17, 1776 Frederick County, Maryland Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly June 18, 1776 Declaration of Weston, Massachusetts June 18, 1776 Declaration of Leverett, Massachusetts June 18, 1776 Declaration of Danvers, Massachusetts June 19, 1776 Declaration of Gageborough, Massachusetts June 20, 1776 Declaration of Natick, Massachusetts June 20, 1776 Declaration of Bradford, Massachusetts June 21, 1776 Declaration of Southampton, Massachusetts June 22, 1776 New Jersey Instructions June 22, 1776 Anne Arundel County, Maryland Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly (undated) 1776 Charles County, Maryland Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly (undated) 1776 Talbot County, Maryland Instructions to Provincial Convention or Assembly June 24, 1776 Declaration of the Town of King’s District, New York June 24, 1776 Pennsylvania Instructions to Provincial Congress June 24, 1776 Declaration of Spencer-Town [Albany], New York June 24, 1776 Declaration of Gloucester, Massachusetts
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June 24, 1776 Declaration of Williamstown, Massachusetts June 25, 1776 Declaration of Northbridge, Massachusetts June 25, 1776 Declaration of Haverhill, Massachusetts June 27, 1776 Declaration of Sturbridge, Massachusetts June 28, 1776 Maryland Instructions June 28, 1776 Declaration of Ashburnham, Massachusetts June 29, 1776 Preamble, Virginia constitution June 30, 1776 Declaration of Hanover, Massachusetts July 1, 1776 Declaration of Amesbury, Massachusetts July 1, 1776 Declaration of Fitchburg, Massachusetts July 1, 1776 Declaration of Ashby, Massachusetts July 1, 1776 Declaration of Greenwich, Massachusetts July 2, 1776 Preamble, New Jersey constitution July 4, 1776 Declaration of Bellingham, Massachusetts July 4, 1776 Declaration of Winchendon, Massachusetts (undated) 1776 Declaration of Eastham, Massachusetts July 6, 1776 Maryland’s “A Declaration”
May 10, Sunday: John Paul Jones assumed command of the USS Providence with a temporary rank of Captain. Upon its return after a voyage to New-York returning to the Continental Army about 100 soldiers whom George Washington had lent to Esek Hopkins to help man the American fleet, the Providence was hove down at Providence, Rhode Island for a cleaning of its bottom.
The 2nd Continental Congress delegated John Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and Edward Rutledge to prepare the wording of a resolution, that the North American colonies were severing themselves from British crown rule. Note: this was a resolution, a political act, rather than a declaration; the Declaration of Independence would be thought of later on, not as a political act but as a mere printed broadside, a piece of street theater, public propaganda (the distinction being suggested here is a distinction between what is internal to government, the decision, and what is external to government, the publicity).48
In a later period the document created by the 2nd Continental Congress would be awarded by our nation an almost religious iconic significance. This would be accomplished, in part, by suppressing the fact that in actuality the document had not stood alone. There had in fact been at least ninety such declaration documents, issued at various times by various bodies.49 It was almost an art form of the period. On the following screen are some of the salient examples which have survived in our memory:
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August: The frigate Warren was built and fitted out in Providence, Rhode Island for the new American Navy. Together with a smaller sloop USS Providence (which had been John Brown’s square-topsail commercial sloop Katy, but was refitted for a dozen four-pounder cannon and a crew of 90 as it became the 1st vessel in the US Navy), she would have a reasonably successful career.
48. This wasn’t the only piece of paper issued on this day. On this day also the Continental Congress began to issue paper money that they backdated to the 10th of May of the previous year. That’s paper money as in “Not worth a Continental”:
CONTINETAL CONGRESS
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October 18, Friday: The British advance out of New-York, transferred from Throg’s Neck, was delayed by an American defense at Pell’s Point — which is to say, to put this another way, people were trying to kill each other at Pelham Manor (New Rochell), New York.
Gideon Manchester of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Merchant, of his own free voluntary Will and Accord manumitted, fet free, and discharged his Negro Man Servant “Colette” from all Servitude, Slavery and Bondage whatfoever, requesting that all Magistrates and others permit this former slave to go and pafs freely about his own Bufinefs and Concernements without Molestation or Interruption for so long as He behaved Himfelf peaceably and in Subjection to the Law: gÉ tÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá y{tÄÄ vÉÅx ZÜxxà|Çz? ^ÇÉã çx à{tà \ Z|wxÉÇ `tÇv{xáàxÜ ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx? |Ç à{xfàtàx Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw tÇwcÜÉä|wxÇvxcÄtÇàtà|ÉÇá?`xÜv{tÇà?Éy Åç ÉãÇ yÜxx äÉÄâÇàtÜç j|ÄÄ tÇw TvvÉÜw Wb {xÜuç ÅtÇâÅ|à? yxà yÜxx? tÇw w|áv{tÜzx Åç axzÜÉ `tÇ fxÜätÇà vtÄÄxw VÉÄxààx yÜÉÅ tÄÄ fxÜä|àâwx? fÄtäxÜç tÇw UÉÇwtzx ã{tàyÉxäxÜA TÇw \ ÜxÖâxáà tÄÄ `tz|áàÜtàxá tÇw Éà{xÜá àÉ ÑxÜÅ|à à{x yt|w axzÜÉ `tÇ àÉ zÉ tÇw Ñtyá yÜxxÄç tuÉâà {|á ÉãÇ Uây|Çxyá tÇw VÉÇvxÜÇxÅxÇàá? ã|à{Éâà `ÉÄxáàtà|ÉÇ ÉÜ \ÇàxÜÜâÑà|ÉÇ? [x ux{tä|Çz [|ÅyxÄy ÑxtvxtuÄç tÇw |Ç fâu= }xvà|ÉÇ àÉ à{x _tãA Z|äxÇ âÇwxÜ Åç [tÇw tÇw fxtÄ? tà cÜÉä|wxÇvx? à{x X|z{àxxÇà{ Wtç Éy bvàÉuxÜ |Ç à{x lxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ _beW? bÇx g{ÉâytÇw fxäxÇ [âÇwÜxw tÇw fxäxÇàç f|åA ((L.S.)) Z|wxÉÇ `tÇv{xáàxÜA bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb j|àÇxyá VtÄxuZÉwyÜxç g{x yÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t àÜâx VÉÑçA exvÉÜwxw à{|á f|åà{ Wtç Éy]âÄç V{Ü|yàÉÑ{xÜ[âyáxç ]âÇAÜ } TAWA DJJKA j|àÇxyá g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇVÄxÜ~
49. In addition, there is at least one instance in which such a Declaration of Independence document failed of acceptance, in Barnstable, Massachusetts on June 25, 1776. You will interrogate many Barnstable citizens before you find anyone with any awareness of this episode in their town’s history.
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December 7, Saturday: A flotilla of British ships hove over the horizon, and came to anchor in Newport, Rhode Island. From this point until May 27, 1782, to speak of the matter poetically, “the seat of Muses” in Providence would be transformed into “the habitation of Mars.” College studies were suspended indefinitely, and the new edifice (the one now called University Hall) was occupied by the soldiers initially for barracks and then for a hospital.
People were trying to kill each other at Tappan, New York.
Captain Simon Forrester (?-1817), having recently come ashore after his sloop Rover blew up a British ship sailing between Bristol, England and Guinea resulting in the deaths of 25 of its 28-man crew, on this day married a daughter of Daniel Hathorne, grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne.50
THE SCARLET LETTER: In the second storey of the Custom-House there is a large room, in which the brick-work and naked rafters have never been covered with panelling and plaster. The edifice – originally projected on a scale adapted to the old commercial enterprise of the port, and with an idea of subsequent prosperity destined never to be realized – contains far more space than its occupants know what to do with. This airy hall, therefore, over the Collector’s apartments, remains unfinished to this day, and, in spite of the aged cobwebs that festoon its dusky beams, appears still to await the labour of the carpenter and mason. At one end of the room, in a recess, were a number of barrels piled one upon another, containing bundles of official documents. Large quantities of similar rubbish lay lumbering the floor. It was sorrowful to think how many days, and weeks, and months, and years of toil had been wasted on these musty papers, which were now only an encumbrance on earth, and were hidden away in this forgotten corner, never more to be glanced at by human eyes. But then, what reams of other manuscripts –filled, not with the dulness of official formalities, but with the thought of inventive brains and the rich effusion of deep hearts– had gone equally to oblivion; and that, moreover, without serving a purpose in their day, as these heaped-up papers had, and –saddest of all– without purchasing for their writers the comfortable livelihood which the clerks of the Custom-House had gained by these worthless scratchings of the pen. Yet not altogether worthless, perhaps, as materials of local history. Here, no doubt, statistics of the former commerce of Salem might be discovered, and memorials of her princely merchants –old King Derby –old Billy Gray –old Simon Forrester –and many another magnate in his day, whose powdered head, however, was scarcely in the tomb before his mountain pile of wealth began to dwindle. The founders of the greater part of the families which now compose the aristocracy of Salem might here be traced, from the petty and obscure beginnings of their traffic, at periods generally much posterior to the Revolution, upward to what their children look upon as long-established rank.
50. Captain Simon Forrester’s businessman son Simon Forrester, Jr. (1776-1851) would eventually be sup- posed to be the richest man in Salem — and hence this note in Hawthorne’s writing.
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December 10, Tuesday: The British troop encampments on Aquidneck Island were within clear sight from atop College Hill, which meant that there was an ever-present danger to young colonial men of impressment. President James Manning of Rhode Island College placed a notice in the Providence Gazette explaining that the building which had been constructed had for the time being been commandeered as a barracks for revolutionary soldiers.
The College of Rhode Island which eventually would become Brown University would actually not reopen for its students until May 27, 1782. This is to inform all the Students, that their Attendance on College Orders is hereby difpenfed with, until the End of the next Spring Vacation ; and that they are at Liberty to return Home, or profecute their Studies elfewhere, as they think proper : And that thofe who pay as particular Attention to their Studies as thefe confufed Times will admit, fhall then be confidered in the fame Light and Standing as if they had given the ufual Attendance here. In Witnefs whereof, I fubfcribe James Manning, Prefident. Providence, December 10. Since most of the colonials were abandoning Newport during this timeframe, we may presume that this was about the time at which the family of Friend Abraham Redwood also departed from there, to reside for a short period in North Providence before purchasing a farm in Mendon, Massachusetts, and the family of Aaron Lopez departed from there, to reside first in Providence and then in Leicester, Massachusetts.
On a following screen is a depiction of the beacon which would give warning to Providence, should the British occupying nearby Aquidneck Island begin an approach.
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December 19, Thursday: Captain Hoysted Hacker’s USS Providence, troubled by persistent leaks, arrived at Newport harbor in the Narragansett Bay to find that the island was under the control of British forces. Together with other American vessels, it would retire up the Providence River.
Thomas Paine prepared his 1st “American Crisis” essay, the one in which he wrote that “These are the times that try men’s souls.” READ THE FULL TEXT
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1777
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1777. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
AN ALMANACK, AND EPHEMERIS FOR 1777. By John Anderson, Newport: Solomon Southwick.
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY; OR ALMANACK ... 1777. Nathaniel Low. Boston. Printed by J. Gill and T. & J. Fleet. The frontispiece of this almanac is a woodcut map of the New York Campaign during the latter half of 1776 titled “A View of the Present Seat of War, at and near New-York.” Nine landmarks or fortifications are keyed on this map in Manhattan and its surroundings, plus “General Washington’s Lines on New York Island.” (Presumably this military intelligence didn’t amount to anything of which the enemy wasn’t already fully aware.)
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In Augsburg, M.A. Lotter created this map:
CARTOGRAPHY
A new town fort, 300 feet by 150 feet inside its parapets, was erected for the city of Providence, Rhode Island. This was located at what is now the corner of Bowen Street and Congdon Street. The fort contained 56 cannon and was protected not only by its walls but by a ditch. Nothing of said military structure now remains.
January 7, Tuesday: The Committee of Safety ordered that, to halt British ships, British prisoners of war be put to work on a chain across the Hudson River at Fort Montgomery.
According to the Record of Deeds for 1617 to 1872, Book 19, page 309, on this day Jeremy Brown of Providence, Rhode Island in the presence of Thomas Olney and Smith Brown as witnesses manumitted his slave Anthony, offering by way of explanation that “GOD knows human Nature was born Free” and urging him to “Remember GOD” while following the practical advice “to Labour 6 days: Then attend Some House of Worship,” meanwhile noticing to him that “if you are in Want while I or my Children have, I would have you call for any thing you may stand in Need of”:
cÜÉä|wxÇvxJà{]tÇâtÜçDJJJ ZbW ~ÇÉãá {âÅtÇatàâÜx ãtá uÉÜÇYÜxx tÇw {täx áÉÅxctÜà Éy à{xÅ uxxÇ à{ÜÉâz{ bÑÑÜxyá|ÉÇ {xÄw |ÇfÄtäxÜç xäxÜf|Çvxc{tÜtÉ{Ëág|ÅxNííí \à |á ÅçbÑ|Ç|ÉÇ tÄÄaxzÜÉxá Éâz{à àÉ ux yÜxx ‰ g{xÜxuç z|äx à{|á yÜÉÅ âÇwxÜ Åç[tÇw à{tà yÜÉÅ à{|ág|Åx à{|áaxzÜÉTÇà{ÉÇç {tá {|á yÜxxwÉÅN tÇw\ á{tÄÄ ã|à{ZÉwËáTáá|áàtÇvx yÜxx tÄÄaxzÜÉxá |Ç à{xXÇzÄ|á{atà|ÉÇ TÇà{ÉÇç? |y çÉâ tÜx |ÇjtÇà ã{|Äx\ ÉÜ ÅçV{|ÄwÜxÇ {täx?\ ãÉâÄw {täx çÉâ vtÄÄ yÉÜ tÇç à{|Çz çÉâ Åtç áàtÇw |Çaxxwíííííí Éy `çTwä|vx |á yÉÜ çÉâ àÉ_tuÉâÜIWtçáMg{xÇ tààxÇwfÉÅx[Éâáx ÉyjÉÜá{|Ñ f{âÇ utwVÉÅÑtÇç uÉà{ uÄtv~ tÇwj{|àxMííí exÅxÅuxÜZbW _xtÜÇ àÉ ~ÇÉã çÉâÜáxÄy ííí ííí aA cÜÉä|wxÇvx ]tÇâç J? DJJJ Åç j|àÇxáá g{ÉÅtá bÄÇxç fÅ|à{ UÜÉãÇ} ]xÜx UÜÉãÇ
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May: Bowing to necessity, President James Manning published a further notice regarding his Rhode Island College in Providence, the edifice of which was still in use as a barracks for revolutionary soldiers. The College of Rhode Island that would become Brown University would not be able to reopen “while this continues a garrisoned Town.” The graduating class would, however, assuming a professed diligence in study elsewhere, be able to receive its diplomas in September.
President Manning would not be idle. He was the reverend at the 1st Baptist Church in Providence.
Additionally, during this year he was with his own hands laying some 32 rods of stone wall on the eight acres of educational grantland atop College Hill — no mean feat in itself.
Would this illustration, from an unknown year prior to 1864, depict in the foreground a few rods of one of the Reverend President Manning’s stone walls, at the beginnings of the intersection of Angell Street and Prospect Street before asphalting, and would the foundation of this barn structure be underneath the site of the present
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carillon tower?
July 9, Wednesday: During this night Colonel William Barton of the Patriot Militia and 40 men had proceeded ten miles along the Narragansett Bay from Warwick Neck under cover of darkness, staying close to shore to evade British warships. In the wee smalls of the predawn of the 10th in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, they would awake General Richard Prescott and inform him that he was, again, being taken prisoner. Without giving the British general an opportunity to dress, they would hustle him to Providence.
Henry Hallam was born. The only son of the Reverend John Hallam, canon of Windsor and dean of Bristol, he would be educated at the Eton School and at Christ Church College, Oxford.
September 4, Thursday: At the age of 19, Elkanah Watson was entrusted to carry more than $50,000 to John Brown and Nicholas Brown of Providence, Rhode Island’s agents in South Carolina and Georgia. With the money sewed into the linings of his garments, he would accomplish the journey of some 1,200 miles from Providence to Charleston in 70 days (along the way passing through Edenton, North Carolina on the Albemarle Sound near the Great Dismal Swamp, as well as through the state capital of New Bern).51
November 13, Thursday: Elkanah Watson arrived in Charleston, South Carolina and delivered the funds of John Brown and Nicholas Brown of Providence, Rhode Island to their agent. Then he, with two companions, set out on a tour of exploration of other southern states (they would be dissuaded from entering Florida, which was still under British control).
51. $50,000 then would be roughly equivalent to $5,000,000 now. I would therefore presume that the funds were not in cash, but were instead in the form of large-denomination banknotes or letters of credit that would be rather difficult for a robber to benefit from.
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December 12, Friday: In Providence, Rhode Island, a Negro Servant named Quaco was promised his freedom forever, beginning on December 1, 1780, and not only his freedom and indeed his very clothing but also the sum of $50, plus a set of Shoe makers Tools — but for this Obligation to be in full Force Power and Virtue the condition would be that for the intervening three years he must behave himself faithful Trusty and obedient unto his Master Sam Butler and Miftrefs: \ à{xfâuyvÜ|uxÜWÉ ÑÜÉÅ|áx yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç[x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜá tÇwTyá|zÇág{tà ÅçaxzÜÉfxÜätÇà ÇtÅxwdâtvÉ á{tÄÄ ux yÜxx tÇw tà {|á_|uxÜàç yÜÉÅ`x Åç {x|Üá tÇwTyá|zÇá yÉÜxäxÜ yÜÉÅ tÇw tyàxÜ à{xY|Üáà wtç ÉyWxvxÅuxÜ |Ç à{xlxtÜ Éy bÇxg{ÉâátÇwfxäxÇ[âÇwÜxw tÇwX|z{àç tÇw tà à{x xÇw Éy à{x tyÉÜxyt|w g|ÅxA \ Wb ÑÜÉÅ|yx yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç[x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜá tÇwTyá|zÇá àÉ Ñtç tÇwWxÄ|äxÜ âÇàÉ à{x tyÉÜxyt|wfxÜätÇà ÇtÅxwdâtvÉ Y|yàçWÉÄÄtÜá ã|à{ ÉÇx áxà Éyf{Éx Åt~xÜágÉÉÄá tÇw tÄÄ {|áVÄÉà{|ÇzAíg{xVÉÇw|à|ÉÇá Éy à{x tuÉäx ÉuÄ|ztà|ÉÇ |áfâv{ à{tà |y ÅçaxzÜÉfxÜätÇà ÇtÅxwdâtvÉ tuÉäx ÅxÇà|ÉÇxw wÉà{ ux{täx {|ÅáxÄy yt|à{yâÄgÜâáàç tÇw Éuxw|xÇà âÇàÉ {|á`táàxÜ tÇw`|yàÜxyá tÇw àÉ {|á[x|Üá tÇwTyá|zÇá yÜÉÅ à{xWtàx {xÜx tyàxÜ ÅxÇà|ÉÇxwg{xÇ à{x tuÉäxbuÄ|ztà|ÉÇ àÉ ux |Ç yâÄÄ YÉÜvx cÉãxÜ tÇw i|Üàâx Éà{xÜã|yx àÉ ux äÉ|w tÇw Éy ÇÉ XyyxvàA Åç [tÇw à{|á gãxÄyà{ wtç Éy WxvxÅuxÜ DJJJA Táj|àÇxyá g{x YÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t gÜâx VÉÑç ftÅUâàÄxÜ exvÉÜwxw à{|áDFà{ Wtç Éy WxvxÅuxÜTAWADJKC Tààxyà g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~}
SLAVERY If Negro Servant Quaco should fail to convince these white overlords that he was indeed behaving himself faithful Trusty and obedient, then their said Obligation of course to be void and of no Effect. (One would like to be reassured that the other shoe did drop, on December 1, 1780.) MANUMISSION
1778
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1778. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: Printed and Sold by John Carter, at the Post-Office near the State-House. Including “A List of the Presidents of the Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, under the First Charter; and the Governors, under the Second Charter....”
At the end of the Revolution, Benjamin West would open another school.
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January 8, Thursday: Pardon Crandall was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, the son of Christopher Crandall, grandson of James W. Crandall, great-grandson of Joseph Crandall, great-great-grandson of Joseph Crandall, and great- great-great-grandson of John Crandall, and would die on July 20, 1838 in Canterbury, Connecticut. He would get married with Esther Carpenter on December 19, 1799 in Hopkinton, Rhode Island. I have as yet been unable to generate any record of involvement with any Quakers on the part of this family of origin (the records of the South Kingstown Monthly Meeting, pre-split, would be the logical place, since that meeting was set off in 1743 and continued to 1842 and was the only record-keeping meeting anywhere near Westerly), although we do know that their daughter Prudence Crandall would be educated at the Yearly Meeting School boarding school of the New England Yearly Meeting in Providence.
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February 9, Friday: The government of France recognized the independence of the United States of America from the British colonial empire. READ THE FULL TEXT
The Rhode Island General Assembly ordered that a “Regiment” (that is, a segregated military group) of slaves be raised. This group would never exceed a hundred enlistees. Out of their love of liberty, they pledged to slaves, not only Negro slaves but also mulatto slaves and native American slaves, who served the troops of General Washington’s army throughout the course of the revolution “all the bounties, wages and encouragements of other troops” — assuming of course that the colonies won against England. The “Black Regiment” would be mustered under the command of a white officer, Colonel Christopher Greene, in order to
replace white members of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment who had been killed in earlier campaigns. Slaves who provided acceptable services were to be immediately discharged from the service of their master or mistress, and at the successful culmination of the war were to be manumitted. Trust us, to the victors would belong the spoils. Richard Cozzens, Pomp Reaves, Felix Holbrook, and other free blacks from Providence also
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volunteered to serve in all-black companies under white officers in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment.
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Here, by way of illustration, is a list of slaves from Kings County of Rhode Island enlisted in the Continental Army, together with the names of their masters, and how much in Pounds their masters were saying that each one of them was worth on the open market:
Date Slave’s Name Master’s Name Value
February 25 Dick Champlain Stephen Champlain, South Kingstown £130
February 25 Jack Champlain Stephen Champlain, South Kingstown 110
April 2 Jack Fones Daniel Fones, North Kingstown 100
April 3 Cudjo Carpenter Heirs of Ann (widow), South Kingstown 120
April 3 Ceaser Wells James Wells, Jr., Hopkinton 100
April 3 Cuff Gardiner Chris. Gardiner, South Kingstown 120
April 3 Sharper Gardiner Benj. Gardiner, South Kingstown 120
April 3 Prince Hammond Wm. Hammond, North Kingstown 120
April 3 Quam Tanner Joshua Tanner, Hopkinton 120
April 3 Prince Bent John Bent, Hopkinton 120
April 11 York Champlain Robert Champlain, South Kingstown 120
April 23 Isaac Rodman Daniel Rodman, South Kingstown 120
April 24 Brittan Saltonstall Dudley Saltonstall, Westerly 105
May 8 James Clarke Gideon Clarke, South Kingstown 120
May 8 Mintel Gardiner Henry Gardiner, South Kingstown 110
May 8 Moses Updike Lodowick Updike, North Kingstown 93
May 8 Ceaser Updike Lodowick Updike, North Kingstown 120
May 8 Garrett Perry Benj. Perry, South Kingstown 120
May 8 Sampson Saunders Steph’n Saunders Heirs, Westerly 90
May 8 Ruttee Gardiner Nick’s Gardiner, Exeter 30
May 28 Ceaser Sheldon Palmer Sheldon, South Kingstown 120
May 29 Fortune Watson Sam’l Watson, North Kingstown 120
June 6 Ceaser Rose John Rose, South Kingstown 120
June 6 Edward Rose John Rose, South Kingstown 120
June 6 Peter Hazard Rob’t, of Rich. Hazard, South Kingstown 110
June 6 Primus Babcock Samuel Babcock, Hopkinton 120
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Date Slave’s Name Master’s Name Value
July 2 Prince Rodman Rob’t Rodman, Jr., South Kingstown 120
July 2 Mingo Rodman William Rodman, South Kingstown 120
July 2 Jacob Hazard Carder Hazard, South Kingstown 110
July 16 Primus Gardiner Nich’s Gardiner, South Kingstown 105
July 16 Peter Hazard Joseph Hazard, South Kingstown 120
July 16 Mingo Robertson Sylv’r Robinson, South Kingstown 120
July 16 William Greene Henry Greene, South Kingstown 120
July 31 Prince Vaughn Jonathan Vaughn, North Kingstown 114
September 5 July Champlain Stephen Champlain, South Kingstown 120
September 28 Hercules Gardiner Ezekiel Gardiner, North Kingstown 60
September 28 Philon Phillips Chris. Phillips, North Kingstown 120
October 14 Newport Champlain Jeffrey Champlain, South Kingstown 120
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May 28, Wednesday: At the head of a division, the Marquis de Lafayette commanded during the retreat from Barren Hill.
On page 315 of Volume 19 of the property transactions of Providence, Rhode Island, Joshua Hacker, Yeoman, manumitted Difcharged Liberated and Set free as a full and perfect Freeman a certain Mollato Man, Andrew
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Hacker, from all Bondage Slavery and Servitude whatsoever forever hereafter: ^ÇÉã tÄÄ`xÇ uç à{xáxcÜxáxÇàág{tà\]Éá{ât[tv~xÜ ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x vÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xfàtàx Éy e{Éwx\áÄtÇw tÇwcÜÉä|wxÇvxcÄtÇàtà|ÉÇálxÉÅtÇWÉ {xÜxuç`tÇâÅ|àW|yv{tÜzx _|uxÜtàx tÇwfxà yÜxx t vxÜàt|Ç`ÉÄÄtàÉ`tÇ vtÄÄxw TÇwÜxã[tv~xÜ yÜÉÅ tÄÄUÉÇwtzxfÄtäxÜç tÇwfxÜä|àâwx ã{tàáÉxäxÜ yÉÜxäxÜ {xÜxtyàxÜM TÇw \ wÉ {xÜxuçexÖâxáà tÄÄcxÜyÉÇáÉy àÉ vÉÇy|wxÜ tÇw âyx tvvÉÜw|ÇzÄç à{x yt|wTÇwÜxã[tv~xÜ tá t yâÄÄ tÇw ÑxÜyxvàYÜxxÅtÇA \Çj|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy\ à{xyt|w]Éá{ât [tv~xÜ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ yxà Åç[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ à{xgãxÇàçX|z{à{Wtç Éy`tç |Ç à{x‰ lxt܉ Éy ÉâÜ_beW bÇxg{ÉâytÇw fxäxÇ[âÇwÜxw tÇwfxäxÇàçX|z{‰à j|àÇxyxág{ÉAg{tçxÜ ]Éy{ât[tv~xÜ ((L.S.)) ftÄÄç[tv~xÜ ë g{x yÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t gÜâxVÉÑçM exvÉÜwxw à{|áFÜwWtç Éy]âÇxTAWADJJK j|àÇxyág{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜgÉãÇVÄxÜ~ ______ë
14th, 9th Month: A Quaker committee from Providence, Rhode Island had visited Aquidneck Island Friends, and reported that they had found Friends on the eastern part of the island “generally in health, though stript of almost all their remaining livestock, and had at Middletown divers of their houses burnt, as we were informed by the British party, Friends houses were much throng’d by the Americans, who were very numerous on the Island, their hay and cornfields were wasting fast, horses and oxen being loose among the corn and indeed it was a wasting time amongst them, as to their outward estates. Yet to our comfort, we found Friends according to our observation quiet and pretty well resigned in their minds and our visit amongst them appear’d to be to their satisfaction and it was a time of sympathy and refreshment to us, to find them in so good a frame under their difficult situation. We assembled Friends after their Meeting and made particular enquiry whether there were any under necessitous circumstances and visited a number of families, found one Friend with a large family under present want being turn’d out of his house and stript of most of his property to whom we gave 24 pounds to enable him to purchase a cow from the Main. We saw no way to visit Friends at Newport but were informed that they were generally well about the 8th of last month but that bread was very scarce there.”
1779
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1779. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. Also, BICKERSTAFF'S BOSTON ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR REDEMPTION 1779. Danvers, Massachusetts: Printed by E. Russell, next the Bell-Tavern (this was the 2d almanac to be printed in Danvers). In a title cut, three people observed moon and stars. “Rules proper to be observed in Trade” included such advice as “Endeavor to keep a proper assortment in your way, but not overstock yourself” and “Be not too talkative, but speak as much as is necessary to recommend your goods....” It excerpted from a heroic poem, “America Invincible.”
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In England, a boarding school for Quaker youth was chartered at Ackworth. Would this be taken as an inspiration for chartering a boarding school for Quaker youth in New England as well?
In the previous year, at the annual session, the Quakers of Philadelphia had recorded a report on the educational needs of their children. In this year that report made its way to Friend Moses Brown in Providence, Rhode Island. MOSES BROWN SCHOOL
[Jemimah Wilkinson], SOME CONSIDERATIONS, PROPOUNDED TO THE SEVERAL SORTS AND SECTS OF PROFESSORS OF THIS AGE . . . BY A UNIVERSAL FRIEND OF MANKIND (Providence, Rhode Island, 1779)
March 25: The Smithfield, Rhode Island monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends minuted its concern over the proper education of its young people: It having been the concern of this Meeting to Promote the Education of our youth in Schools under the Government of Solid friends and as this necessary care is much relaxed within our Yearly Meeting, from what our Discipline requires, and finding Incouragement, by our own short experience, as well as by the doings of the last yearly meeting held at Philadelphia on this Subject, which have been laid before this meeting we are Induced to recommend to the Solid attention of the Quarterly meeting this important Subject and if it appears to you as it does to us of weight enough to carry forward to the Yearly meeting and the minds of Friends are United in a living concern therein, We think it will be an acceptable step in the Reformation. MOSES BROWN SCHOOL
In result, the New England Yearly Meeting would charge a committee to prepare a report on educational needs for presentation during the following yearly meeting.
Fall: An attempt was made to conscript for the Revolutionary army a farmer of Brooklyn, Connecticut who “openly denounced all kinds of carnal warfare as contrary to the gospel,” whereupon he fled into the woods. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
There he was pursued by his neighbors “as hounds would a fox,” and eventually his hiding place was discovered and he was bound, placed in a wagon, and taken to Providence, Rhode Island to be turned over to the Revolutionary soldiers. In the course of the night, however, he got hold of a knife, cut himself loose, and escaped to the woods. He would manage to survive the winter in his new hiding place. THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY
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December 2, Thursday: It would be made a matter of record in the property-transaction records of Providence, Rhode Island that, in regard to a Negro slave named Juba –recently taken on Board a vefsel of the British enemy of the United States and Brought into the Port of New-London by Captain Sage, the Commander of the Schooner Experiment, and Efeek Hopkins, Jr., the Commander of the Schooner Lively– unanimous agreement had been obtained among the interested parties, to not simply Sell the person of the faid Juba for whatever he might bring on the open market, but to instead manumit him and give him his Freedom for Life:
tÄÄ |à Åtç vÉÇvxÜÇ à{tà]âut taxzÜÉ uxÄÉÇz|Çz àÉ tÇXÇxÅç Éy à{xhÇ|àxwfàtàxá ãtá àt~xÇ ÉÇUÉtÜw tUÜ|à|á{g{|áVxÜà|y|xá äxyáxÄ9UÜÉâz{à |ÇàÉ à{xcÉÜà Éyaxã@_ÉÇwÉÇ uçVtÑàAftzxVÉÅÅtÇwxÜ Éy à{xfv{ÉÉÇxÜXåÑxÜ|ÅxÇà tÇwXyxx~[ÉÑ~|Çá]âÇAÜ VÉÅÅtÇwxÜ Éy à{xfv{ÉÉÇxÜ_|äxÄçN tÇw |à ãtá âÇtÇ|ÅÉâáÄç tzÜxxwUxàãxxÇ à{xbãÇxÜá tÇwTzxÇàá yÉÜ à{xixyáxÄá àÉ ÇÉàfxÄÄ à{x yt|w ]âut uâà àÉ z|äx {|Å {|á YÜxxwÉÅ yÉÜ _|yx AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA j|àÇxyá ]AUA[ÉÑ~|Çá yÉÜ bãÇxÜá Éy fv{ÉÉÇxÜ XåÑxÜ|ÅxÇà ítÇw TzxÇà yÉÜ fv{ÉÉÇxÜ _|äxÄçAAAAAAA ctâÄ TÄÄxÇ Tyt jtàxÜÅtÇ jÅ jtÄÄ W _tãÜxÇvx a|v{A VÉÉ~x ] ` itÜÇâÅAAAAA g{x YÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t gÜâx VÉÑç exvÉÜwxw à{|á Dáà Wtç Éy ]tÇâtÜç TW DJKCAA j|àÇxyá g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~} ESEK HOPKINS Later in the year, Lafayette persuaded the government of King Louis XVI to send an expeditionary army of 6,000 soldiers to the aid of the insurgent British colonists on the North American continent, to fight under the command of a general named George Washington whom they had defeated during the previous hostilities, the “French and Indian Wars” on that terrain. Both because this general had made himself the enemy of their British enemies, and because the French had previously been able to force him to surrender his army to their superior forces, this American general obviously was in need of such assistance.
1780
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1780. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
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A cut showing the eclipse appears in this almanac.
ANDERSON REVIVED: THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, AN ALMANACK FOR 1780. [By John Anderson, A.M.] Providence: Bennett Wheeler. This is the first almanac published by Bennett Wheeler, and the first of his series, which continued to 1803. He revived the old fictitious Anderson for 1780, but used West’s calculation. The next year he employed West openly. West appears as the author from 1781 to 1785 and for 1787.
(Same) Second Edition. No copy located. Mentioned in Evans.
During this year and the next, French troops under General Rochambeau would be stationed in Rhode Island. –Hence “Camp Street” in Providence!
June: The town of Bedford sent eight revolutionary fighters to Rhode Island for three months, to help oppose the British there: In June previous, seven men, John Johnson, Rufus Johnson, Nathan Merrill, Jonas Bacon, Cambridge Moore, Jonas Duren, Cesar Prescott, had been hired [by Bedford] to go to the North River, six months for a bounty of 120 bushels of corn each; and eight men, Joshua Holt, John Webber, Ebenezer Hardy, Amos Bemis, Jonathan Wilson, Andrew Hall, Isaac Simonds, and Israel Mead Blood, were hired for three months to Rhode Island for 90 bushels of corn each.52
52. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.)
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A French army began to disembark at Newport on Aquidneck Island.
At about this point in time the College Edifice erected atop College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island (now the original building of Brown University) had been evacuated by the revolutionary soldiers who had been using it as a barracks, and it was being converted into a hospital for French soldiers encamped along Camp Street.
Later on this building would be added to. Here it is at an interim stage, in 1864, after Hope College on the right had been constructed during 1821-1823 and after Manning Hall, in the center, had been constructed in 1834:
The original College Edifice of 1770, now known as University Hall, is on the left in the 20th-Century postcard
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image below:
July 11, Tuesday: Timothy Flint was born in Reading, Massachusetts, a child of William Flint and Martha Kimball Flint.
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Here is an illustration of the disembarkation of French troops on this day either on Aquidneck Island or at Providence in Rhode Island:
Count Axel de Fersen, a Swedish mercenary officer serving in this French army, would describe the life of the officers while they were bivouacked in Newport. COUNT AXEL DE FERSEN
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1781
Benjamin West was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
CALENDRIER FRANÇAIS POUR L’ANNÉE COMMUNE 1781. Newport, Rhode Island: De l’Imprimerie de l’Escadre. An account of this almanac together with the other works printed on the French Fleet, entitled “The Printing Press of the French Fleet,” by Howard M. Chapin, was published by Preston & Rounds, Providence, 1914.53 “Following the calendar is a list of names of the officers of Count Rochambeau, Destouches and others.” —Hammett.
[ALMANACK FOR 1781.] By John Anderson, Newport. Imperfect copy. Title page missing.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, AN ALMANACK FOR 1781. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Newport: Henry Barber. The second almanac of the Wheeler series. Henceforth West calculated for Wheeler instead of for Carter. It contains cut of the eclipse.
BICKERSTAFF’S NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1781. [By Isaac Bickerstaff, esq., Philom.] Providence: John Carter. According to the Providence Gazette four impressions were issued. In the second edition there is a change in the tide tables. After the final disagreement between West and Carter, the latter re-issued the almanac under this pseudonym. It contains the man of signs cut and one eclipse cut.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1781. By Benjamin West. Providence: John Carter. It has a cut showing the eclipse and an elaborate cut of the man of signs. It is the last West Almanac published by Carter, and 53. The type had been brought over by the French fleet, but actually the press was set up ashore.
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with it the West-Carter controversy ended.
During a visit by General George Washington to Newport, Rhode Island, a town meeting was held in the Touro Synagogue.
JUDAISM 1781. Gen. Washington visited Providence. His arrival was announced by a salute from the artillery. He was conducted to the house of Hon. Jabez Bowen (now Manufacturer’s Hotel,) and the town was illuminated at night. Next day he dined with the citizens in the Court House, and in the evening attended a
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splendid ball. A formal address was presented to him by a committee of the most distinguished citizens, to which he made a felicitous reply, and expressed much gratification at the respectful attentions he received.
French troops, in Providence to support the American revolutionaries against their common enemy England, set up their encampment off Rochambeau Avenue at a place that would become known as Camp Street. We have an extract from the diary of one of these French officers stationed in Rhode Island. BARON CROMOT DUBOURG
Although opium was a known anodyne, the French surgeons would refuse to administer it to their soldier patients. Although this might possibly have been due to the French having considered there to be something wrong with opium in particular as a medical drug, there is also a possibility that they considered there to be something undesirable, or at the very least unnecessary, about relieving the suffering of a patient. That was an attitude which would prove to be all too prevalent among American doctors and dentists several generations later, with the introduction of ether and nitrous oxide. A number of our doctors and dentists would be reluctant to –how shall I put this– to by their own superior judgment override God’s clear will. An all too prevalent attitude was that this was supposed to hurt, people in such circumstances ought to be in great pain — that this is all a part of the grand process of life. I don’t have any clear understanding of the “religious” roots of this, and if anyone can offer insightful words which will help me better to understand that sort of attitude, I would be most appreciative. I find it exceedingly strange and have difficulty imagining what the theological underpinnings of it might have been. My sense of the situation is that operative anesthesia would not come into general use until surgeons noticed that, by cutting down remarkably on the number of deaths due to post-operative shock, it offered them, priding themselves on the rapidity with which they could remove various body parts, competing with one another for hero status as the quickest sawbones, an opportunity to operate in less of a chop-chop hurry-up mode. If this was the situation several generations earlier as it would be the situation toward the middle of the 19th Century, then we should not hasten from the observation that the French Revolutionary-War surgeons here were reluctant to administer opium, to the conclusion that it was opiates in particular of which they were suspicious — it may be that they would likewise have refused to administer aspirin.
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March 31, Saturday: We find on page 340 of volume 19 of the Providence, Rhode Island records of title transfers, that on this day Nicholas Power et al was selling a certain slave named Ceafar or Cesar Power, of about 26 years of age, to Elisha Harding and Josiah Robbins or Robins of Franklin MA, so that they could have him serve in their place as a Continental soldier for a term of three years, after which this Negro Man would be manumitted and set free not only from his military obligations but also from these white slavemasters. Interestingly, this document doesn’t state how many “Hundred Good Silver Spanish Milled Dollars to Me in Hand already paid” a man’s freedom from chattel slavery in this case was worth in America:
cÜÉä|wxÇvx `tÜv{ FDAáà DJKDAj{xÜxtá t vxÜàt|Ç axzÜÉ `tÇ ÇtÅxw VxtytÜ tuÉâà gãxÇàç f|ålxtÜá ÉyTzx? à{xcÜÉÑxÜàç Éya|v{ÉÄtácÉãxÜ |ÇcÜÉä|wxÇvx ÉÇx Éy à{xfâuyvÜ|uxÜበ|á yÉÄw àÉXÄ|á{t [tÜw|Çz tÇw]Éá|t{eÉu|Çá [sic]ÉyYÜtÇ~Ä|Ç |Ç`tyátv{âyxààáfàtàxA tá tVÉÇà|ÇxÇàtÄfÉÄw|xÜ yÉÜ à{x gxÜÅ Éyg{ÜxxlxtÜ቉g{|á Åtç vxÜà|yç à{tà à{x yt|waxzÜÉVxtytÜ |á àÉ ux vÉÇy|wxÜxw tá yÜxxw yÜÉÅ tÇç WxÅtÇw Éy yâàâÜxfxÜä|vxá yÜÉÅ âá ÉÜ ÉâÜ[x|Üá yÉÜxäxÜ ÉÇ {|á ux|Çz w|yv{tÜzxw yÜÉÅ à{xVÉÇà|ÇxÇàtÄTÜÅç \Çj|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉyjx {täxf|zÇxw ÉâÜatÅxáA‰‰‰ É \Ç à{xcÜxyxÇvx Éy a|v{ AcÉãxÜ ]Éá|t{eÉuu|Çá ]ÉáxÑ{eÉzxÜáe|v{tÜw_Éà{ÜÉÑ g{xYÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á tgÜâxVÉÑçexvÉÜwxwXÄ|á{t[tÜw|Çz à{|áY|yà{Wtç ÉyTÑÜ|ÄTWDJKD‰ ë j|àÇxyá g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜgÉãÇVÄxÜ~
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April 2, Monday: Joseph Bucklin of Providence sold One Certain Negro Man Servant or slave named London who was Twenty Years old, to the brothers Elkanah Wilmarth and Moses Wilmarth of Attleborough in the County of Bristol, Rhode Island, and these new owners of London Bucklin Covenanted and Promised to and with the said London on page 345 in Volume 19 of the Deeds and Mortgages records at the Town Hall that if he enlisted into the Army of the United States of America in their place, and served faithfully and truly for a Term of Three Years (or, if discharged before the three years were up, faithfully served them until the expiration of that period), that after the Expiration of that Term He the said London should and would be declared to be manumitted and Set Free and should have all the Liberties and Privileges of a Freeman in the most full and ample Manner:
uç à{xáxcÜxáxÇàá à{tàj{xÜxtájxXÄ~tÇt{j|ÄÅtÜà{ tÇw`Éáxáj|ÄÅtÜà{ uÉà{ Éy TààÄxuÉÜÉâz{^ÇÉã |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç tÄÄ`xÇ ÉyUÜ|áàÉÄ? |Ç à{xVÉÅÅÉÇãxtÄà{ Éy`tyátv{âyxàá[sic]? {täx à{|á[sic] ÑâÜv{tyxw Éy`AÜ ]ÉáxÑ{ Uâv~Ä|Ç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xfàtàx Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw 9vA bÇxVxÜàt|ÇaxzÜÉ`tÇfxÜätÇà ÉÜfÄtäx ÇtÅxw ã{É ãtágãxÇàçlxtÜá ÉÄw? |Ç à{x`ÉÇà{ Éy`tÜv{ Ätáà Ñtáà tÇw tá à{x át|w_ÉÇwÉÇ {tà{ ÇÉã tzÜxxw àÉ_ÉÇwÉÇ |ÇÄ|áà [sic] tÇwfxÜäx tá tfÉÄw|xÜ |Ç à{xTÜÅç Éy à{xhÇ|àxwfàtàxá ÉyTÅxÜ|vt yÉÜ à{xfxäxÇà{VÄtyá Éy à{xgÉãÇ Éy TààÄxuÉÜÉâz{ tyÉÜxát|w àÉ ã{|v{ VÄtyá jx à{x át|w XÄ~tÇt{ tÇw `Éyxá uxÄÉÇzA g{xÜxyÉÜx j|àÇxyá g{tà jx à{x át|w XÄ~tÇt{ tÇw `Éyxá j|ÄÅtÜà{ yÉÜ ÉâÜáxÄäxá ÉâÜ[x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜág{xáx cÜxáxÇàá tÇwTwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜáWb {xÜxuçVÉäxÇtÇà tÇwcÜÉÅ|yx àÉ tÇw ã|à{ à{x át|w_ÉÇwÉÇg{tàcÜÉä|wxw tÇw âÑÉÇVÉÇw|à|ÉÇ {x á{tÄÄ |ÇÄ|áà |ÇàÉ à{xTÜÅç Éy à{xhÇ|àxwfàtàxá ÉyTÅxÜ|vt yÉÜ à{x át|wVÄtyá tá tyÉÜxát|w tÇw á{tÄÄ yt|à{yâÄÄç tÇw àÜâÄç áxÜäx à{xÜx|Ç yÉÜ à{xgxÜÅ Éyg{ÜxxlxtÜá tzÜxxtuÄx àÉ {|á\ÇÄ|áàÅxÇà |y à{x jtÜ á{tÄÄ vÉÇà|Çâx áÉ ÄÉÇz ÉÜ |Ç Vtyx Éy {|á ux|Çz w|áv{tÜzxw yÜÉÅ à{x TÜÅç uxyÉÜx à{x XåÑ|Ütà|ÉÇ Éy g{Üxx lxtÜá á{tÄÄ yt|à{yâÄÄç áxÜäx âá à|ÄÄ à{x XåÑ|Ütà|ÉÇ Éy g{Üxx lxtÜá yÜÉÅ à{x Wtàx {xÜxÉy jX |Ç à{tà Vtyx Wb {xÜxuç VÉäxÇtÇà tÇw XÇztzx g{tà tyàxÜ à{x XåÑ|Ütà|ÉÇ Éy à{tà gxÜÅ [x à{x át|w _ÉÇwÉÇ á{tÄÄ tÇw {x |á {xÜxuç wxvÄtÜxw àÉ ux `tÇâÅ|ààxw tÇw fxà yÜxx tÇw f{tÄÄ {täx tÄÄ à{x _|uxÜà|xá tÇw cÜ|ä|Äxzxá Éy t YÜxxÅtÇ |Ç à{x ÅÉáà yâÄÄ tÇw tÅÑÄx `tÇÇxÜ jx {xÜxuç ÑÜÉÅ|y|Çz ÇxäxÜ àÉ vtÄÄ âÑÉÇ {|Å yÉÜ tÇç Éà{xÜ fxÜä|vxA @@@@ \Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy jx à{x át|w XÄ~tÇt{ j|ÄÅtÜà{ tÇw `Éáxá j|ÄÅtÜà{ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà ÉâÜ [tÇwá tÇw fxtÄá à{|á fxvÉÇw Wtç Éy TÑÜ|Ä TAWADJKDAA f|zÇxw fxtÄxw tÇw WxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç cÜxyxÇvx ÉyA XÄ~tÇt{ j|ÄÅtÜà{ ]ÉáxÑ{ Uâv~Ä|Ç } g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜAA `Éyxá j|ÄÅtÜà{AA cÜÉä|wxÇvx çx |ÇcÜÉä|wxÇvxTÑÜ|ÄE‰ w. DJKDAg{xÇ à{x tuÉäx ÇtÅxwXÄ~tÇt{j|ÄÅtÜà{ tÇw`Éáxá j|ÄÅtÜà{ ÑxÜáÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{xYÉÜxzÉ|Çz\ÇáàÜâÅxÇà àÉ à{x|Ü[sic]YÜxx tÇwiÉÄâÇàtÜçTvà tÇwWxxw UxyÉÜx `x g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜ ]âáA cxtvx g{x YÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t gÜâx VÉÑç exvÉÜwxw à{|á DFà{. Wtç Éy ]âÇx TWDJKD j|àÇxyá g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ} VÄxÜ~‰
April 16, Monday: People were trying to kill each other at Augusta, Georgia. (They’d be keeping on trying to kill each other there all the way until June 5th — it all must have been Hell! Well, at least they’d had the sense to wait to get this thing going until after Easter Sunday when Jesus rose to Heaven. :-)
We find on page 340 of volume 19 of the Providence, Rhode Island records of title transfers, that on this day Nicholas Power was manumitting and setting free his Negro Man Prince:
cÜÉä|wxÇvx TÑÜ|Ä DIADJKD g{|á Åtç vxÜà|yç g{tà \ à{x fâuyvÜ|uxÜ {täx `tÇâÅ|ààxw tÇw fxà YÜxx Åç axzÜÉ `tÇ cÜ|Çvx yÜÉÅ `x Åç [x|Üá tÇw Tyá|zÇá yÉÜxäxÜ yÜÉÅ à{|á Wtàx gxáà UxÇ}tÅ|ÇVâá{|Çz]âÇAÜ _â~xTÜÇÉÄw ‰‰‰‰‰ ë a|v{ÉÄtácÉãxÜ g{x YÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t gÜâx VÉÑç exvÉÜwxw à{|á DJAà{ Wtç Éy TÑÜ|Ä TWDJKD‰ j|àÇxyá g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~ ë SLAVERY
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May 16, Wednesday: We find on page 341 of volume 19 of the Providence, Rhode Island records of title transfers, that our good ol’ buddy Efek Hopkins was on this day up to selling a girl to her own mother, a resident of Newport, “for and in Confideration of the Sum of One Hundred Good Silver Spanish Milled Dollars to Me in Hand already paid” (kindly don’t ask me to explain how something like this can go down, here or anywhere). Isn’t it interesting that the age of this girl isn’t specified, nor are we told how it came about that the child
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of a free woman was being treated as a slave?
^ÇÉã tÄÄ`xÇ uç à{xáxcÜxáxÇàág{tà\Xyx~[ÉÑ~|Çá ÉyaÉÜà{cÜÉä|wxÇvx? |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x fàtàx Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇw tÇw cÜÉä|wxÇvx cÄtÇàtà|ÉÇá? XáÖA yÉÜ tÇw |ÇVÉÇy|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x fâÅ ÉybÇx [âÇwÜxw ZÉÉw f|ÄäxÜ fÑtÇ|á{ `|ÄÄxw WÉÄÄtÜá àÉ`x |Ç[tÇw tÄÜxtwç Ñt|w uçYÄÉÜtjtÇàÉÇ tYÜxxaxzÜÉjÉÅtÇ ÉyaxãÑÉÜà |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç ÉyaxãÑÉÜà? |Ç à{x fàtàx Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw9v tyÉÜxát|w? ã{|v{ yt|wYÄÉÜtjtÇàÉÇ |á`Éà{xÜ Éy tVxÜàt|ÇaxzÜÉfxÜätÇàZ|ÜÄ vtÄÄxwcxzzç? ÇÉã uxÄÉÇz|Çz àÉ`x à{x át|wXyx~[ÉÑ~|Çá? à{xexvx|Ñà Éy ã{|v{ át|wfâÅ Éy`ÉÇxç\ {xÜxuç tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxA exÅ|yxw exÄxtáxw tÇwYÉÜxäxÜdâ|àvÄt|Åxw tÇw uç à{xyxcÜxyxÇàá Wb ÜxÅ|yxexÄxtáx tÇw yÉÜxäxÜdâ|àvÄt|Å TÄÄ à{xe|z{à?g|àÄx?\ÇàxÜxyà[täx cÜÉÑxÜàçVÄt|Å tÇwWxÅtÇw ã{tàxäxÜ ã{|v{\ xäxÜ {tw ÇÉã {täx? ÉÜ vtÇ {täx Éy? |Ç tÇw àÉ à{x át|wfxÜätÇàaxzÜÉ Z|ÜÄ vtÄÄxwcxzzç? àÉ {xÜ`Éà{xÜ? à{x át|wYÄÉÜtjtÇàÉÇ? |Ç ÉÜwxÜ à{tà à{x à{x [sic] át|wcxzzç Åtç ux ÅtwxYÜxx? tÇw yÉÜ à{|á câÜÑÉáx\ {xÜxuçUtÜzt|Ç tÇwfxÄÄ tÄÄ Åç át|we|z{à tÇwg|àÄx àÉ à{x át|waxzÜÉZ|ÜÄ àÉ {xÜ át|w`Éà{xÜ à{x át|wYÄÉÜt yÉ à{tà Çx|à{xÜ\? Åç[x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜáTwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá ÉÜ tÇç Éà{xÜ ÑxÜyÉÇ vÄt|Å|Çz yÜÉÅ uç ÉÜ âÇwxÜ`x? ÉÜ à{x|Ü ÉÜ x|à{xÜ Éy à{xÅ á{tÄÄ {täx tÇçVÄt|Å ã{tàxäxÜ àÉ à{xfxÜä|vx Éy à{x át|wcxzzç yÜÉÅ tÇwTyàxÜ à{xWtàx Éy à{xáx cÜxyxÇàá uâà á{tÄÄ tÇw ã|ÄÄ ux à{xÜxyÜÉÅ yÉÜxäxÜ utÜÜxw tÇw xåvÄâwxw uç à{xáxcÜxáxÇàáA‰TÇw\ vÉäxÇtÇàg{tà g{tà [sic]\ ã|ÄÄjtÜÜtÇà àÉ à{x át|wYÄÉÜtjtÇàÉÇ àÉ wxyxÇw tzt|Çáà à{x_tãyâÄVÄt|Åá Éy tÄÄ ÑxÜyÉÇá vÄt|Å|Çz tÇçe|z{à ÉÜg|àÄx àÉ à{xfxÜä|vxá Éy át|waxzÜÉZ|ÜÄcxzzç |ÇVÉÇáxÖâxÇvx Éy tÇçVÉÇäxçtÇvx {xÜxàÉyÉÜx ÅtwxA j|àÇxyá Åç[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ à{|áf|åàxxÇà{Wtç Éy`tçTWADJKDA f|zÇxwfxtÄxw tÇwWxÄ|äxÜxw |ÇcÜxyxÇvx Éy âá g|ÅÉà{çUâÜwxÇAAAAA‰‰ Xyx~[ÉÑ~|Çá ZÜ|yy|à{[tÜÜ|áAA‰‰‰ ë g{xYÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á tgÜâxVÉÑçA exvÉÜwxw à{|áDIAà{ Wtç Éy`tçTWADJKD j|àÇxyág{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇVÄxÜ~‰ ë
SLAVERY MANUMISSION
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Guess what, we have named a public high school after this person. (And, in Providence, “public” means “mostly black.”)
May 20, Sunday: In Providence, Rhode Island, Stephen Hopkins made his last will and testament: “I give to all my Negroes54 their Freedom, to take Place immediately with Respect to those who shall be of Age, and of the others, the Males at Twenty One and the Females at Eighteen years of Age.” MANUMISSION SLAVERY
54. We note that this document is in accord with the 1774 census, which indicates that he owned six slaves, and refutes the convenient story now offered by the Quakers, that Hopkins had owned but one slave, a woman named Hannah.
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May 29, Tuesday: The widowed Mary Crouch of Providence, Rhode Island sold her Negro Man named Peter to himself for the sum of 300 Spanish Milled Dollars, manumitting him and forever setting him Free and at his own Liberty, in the moft full and ample Manner a Freeman, and forever Discharging and Acquiting him from all Services which she had or ever had had a Right to claim:
^ÇÉã tÄÄ ÅxÇ uç à{xáxcÜxáxÇàá à{tà\`tÜçVÜÉâv{ ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvxj|wÉã yÉÜ tÇw |ÇVÉÇá|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{xfâÅ Éyg{Üxx[âÇwÜxwfÑtÇ|á{`|ÄÄxwWÉÄÄtÜá àÉ Åx Ñt|w uç ÅçaxzÜÉ`tÇ ÇtÅxwcxàxÜ tÇw ÅÉÜx xyÑxv|tÄÄç yÉÜ à{xZÉÉwfxÜä|vxá ã{|v{ {x {tà{ wÉÇx`x Wb uç à{xáxcÜxáxÇàá`tÇâÅ|à tÇw yÉÜxäxÜ áxà yÜxx {|Å à{x yt|wcxàxÜ tÇwWÉ yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç[x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜá tÇwTwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá yÉÜxäxÜW|áv{tÜzx tÇwTvÖâ|à {|Å à{x át|wcxàxÜ yÜÉÅ tÄÄfxÜä|vxá ã{|v{\ ÇÉã {täx ÉÜ xäxÜ {tw te|z{à àÉ vÄt|Å àÉ {|á ÑxÜyÉÇ ÉÜfxÜä|vxá {xÜxuç wxvÄtÜ|Çz tuyÉÄâàxÄç YÜxx tÇw tà {|á ÉãÇ _|uxÜàç |Ç à{x ÅÉyà yâÄÄ tÇw tÅÑÄx `tÇÇxÜ t YÜxxÅtÇA‰ ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ à{|ágãxÇàça|Çà{Wtç Éy`tç |Ç à{xlxtÜ Éy Éâ\Çj|àÇxááÜ _beW bÇxg{ÉâátÇwfxäxÇ [âÇwÜxw tÇwX|z{àçbÇxADJKDA j|àÇxyáxá Wtä|w j|Ä~|ÇyÉÇ T YxÇÇxÜ ]âÇÜ `tÜçVÜÉâv{ g{xYÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á tgÜâxVÉÑçexvÉÜwxwë à{|á ELAWtçà{ Éy`tçTWDJKD j|àÇxyá g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~‰ SLAVERY
July 30, Monday: Abbé Claude C. Robin, chaplain to the French troops stationed in Rhode Island, described his experience in and around Providence. ABBÉ CLAUDE C. ROBIN
September 9, Sunday: James Arnold was born to the Quaker family of Thomas Arnold and Mary Brown Arnold in Providence, Rhode Island. As a youth, Friend James would enter the whaling enterprise of Friend William Rotch, Jr. in New Bedford, eventually getting married with the boss’s daughter, Friend Sarah Rotch, and becoming a partner, and accumulating a vast whale-oil fortune — for which eventually he would find there to be no blood heirs.
“The whaler was a kind of pirate-miner — an excavator of oceanic oil, stoking the furnace of the Industrial Revolution as much as any man digging coal out of the earth.” — Philip Hoare, THE WHALE: IN SEARCH OF THE GIANTS OF THE SEA (NY: HarperCollins, March 2010) MOBY-DICK, THE OIL SPILL
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1782
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, AND RHODE-ISLAND REGISTER FOR 1782. By Benjamin West, A.M. and Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Providence, Rhode Island: Bennett Wheeler. It contains three cute explaining eclipses; and a reprint of the Articles of Confederation.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR FOR 1782, Newport. No copy located. Mentioned by Hammett.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1782. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: John Carter. The type used is smaller than that previously used in this Bickerstaff series of almanacs.
NOTE: THOMAS’S MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND, NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT ALMANACK FOR 1782, published by Isaiah Thomas at Worcester, is the first of a series of Massachusetts almanacs that bear the name of Rhode Island in their title. These continued until 1810. There were also similar series by Weatherwise (1791-1799), Bickerstaff (1791-1799), and Pope (1797).
A census of Rhode Island was taken: 4,306 were in Providence out of a population totaling 52,347.
Claude Victor Marie, Prince de Broglie (1757-1794) came to Rhode Island in a French frigate that was conveying a loan of 2,500,000 livres to the Continental Congress. PRINCE DE BROGLIE
Count Mathieu Dumas also visited Rhode Island. COUNT MATHIEU DUMAS
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January 24, Thursday:In Providence, Rhode Island, the widowed Mary Cheekly or Cheekley formally pledged that, on condition that her Negro-Man Cato “serve me faithfully” during the next approximately six months “as he has hitherto done,” then as of July 18, 1783 she would grant to her said Negro-Man Cato his Release from Servitude and make him Free — no longer held “in Slavery or Bondage from and after the Day above mentioned.” Her pledge was duly notarized and witnessed and certified, and placed on record on page 43 of Volume 22 of the town records:
\ `tÜç V{xx~Äxç [sic] Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx 9 fàtàx Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇw 9 j|wÉã? |Ç vÉÇá|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x yt|à{yâÄ yxÜä|vx Éy Åç axzÜÉ@`tÇ VtàÉ? {xÜxuç Åt~x ~ÇÉãÇ g{tà yÜÉÅ tÇw tyàxÜ à{x DKà{ Wtç Éy ]âÄç? ã{|v{ ã|ÄÄ ux |Ç à{x lxtÜ DJKFA \ WÉ? uç à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá exÄxtáx à{x át|w VtàÉ yÜÉÅ fxÜä|P @àâwx tÇw Åt~x {|Å YÜxx? {xÜxuç 9 yÉÜxäxÜ dâ|à|Çz@VÄt|Å? tÇw ÜxÇÉâÇv|Çz tÄÄ Ü|z{à 9 g|àÄx Éy ã{tà atÅx ÉÜ atàâÜx áÉxäxÜ? ã{|v{ \ {täx ÇÉã ÉÜ xäxÜ {tw àÉ {|á áxÜä|vxá? uç ã{|v{ yÉÜ Åç [x|Üá ÉÜ Tyá|zÇá Å|z{à ÉÜ vÉâÄw {ÉÄw {|Å |Ç fÄtäxÜç ÉÜ UÉÇwtzx yÜÉÅ tÇw tyàxÜ à{x Wtç tuÉäx ÅxÇà|ÉÇxwM hÑÉÇ vÉÇw|à|ÉÇ? à{tà {x? à{x át|w VtàÉ áxÜäx Åx yt|à{yâÄÄç? tá {x {tá {|à{xÜàÉ wÉÇx? âÇà|ÄÄ à{x |ÇàxÜÅx@ @w|tàx g|Åx yÜÉÅ à{x Wtàx {xÜxÉy àÉ à{x át|wDKà{ Wtç Éy ]âÄçTWDJKF ux yâÄÄç vÉÅÑÄxàxw tÇw xÇwxwA‰ \Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy? \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç [tÇw tÇw tyy|åxw Åç áxtÄ |Ç cÜÉä|wxÇvx tyÉÜxát|w? à{|á EGà{ Wtç Éy ]tÇâtÜç TW DJKE YÉÜ cÜxáxÇvx Éy âá
[xÇÜç UtvÉÇ `tÜç V{xx~Äç [sic] ((L.S.)) } cÜÉä|wxÇvxftÄÄç V{âÜv{ \Ç cÜÉä|wxÇvx à{|á EGà{ Wtç Éy ]tÇâtÜç TWDJKI ÑxÜáÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw `ÜáA `tÜç V{xx~Äxç? tÇw tv~ÇÉã@ @Äxwzxw à{x ã|à{|Ç \ÇáàÜâÅxÇà àÉ ux {xÜ iÉÄâÇàtÜç Tvà? uxyÉÜx Åx‰ g{ÉA gÜâÅtÇ ]âáà|vx Éy à{x cxtvx‰
MANUMISSION SLAVERY Notice who was in control here. Notice whose needs were being served here. The white person was in control. The black person was at risk. It was up to the white person to decide, later, whether to keep this “promise,” based upon a subjective appreciation of whether the conduct of the black person had or had not been suitably “faithful.” How about the timing? Did this black person need to be enslaved for an additional six months? Did this black person need not to be set free immediately? Or, is the black person, said Negro-Man Cato, being further manipulated — was it exclusively the white person’s need, the widowed Mary Cheekly or Cheekley’s need, for an additional six months of over-the-top service, which was setting the timing here?
What we see in this document –as in so many other of the manumission documents stored under the roof of the Providence Town Hall– is how racial extortion can masquerade as white benevolence.
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May 27 (Trinity Monday): Henry Headley was elected scholar at Trinity College, Oxford. Other students there, the critic William Lisle Bowles and the classicist William Benwell, would become his friends. Headley would fall under the influence of Poet Laureate Thomas Warton, then a fellow of this college.
Aaron Lopez was in a carriage, returning to Newport, Rhode Island, and stopped off at Scott’s Pond in Smithfield to let his horse drink. The horse bolted into deep water, the carriage overturned, and the rich man drowned.55
On this day the course of instruction at the College of Rhode Island atop College Hill in Providence was resuming after the wartime hiatus. Long live peace! BAPTISTS BROWN UNIVERSITY
55. To get some idea of just how easily one might become entangled in apparatus and unable to extricate oneself underwater from the wreckage of this sort of conveyance, you might take a close look at John Brown’s “chariot” — which is stored behind the John Brown mansion in Providence, Rhode Island.
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September 14: In Providence, Rhode Island, Ezekiel Durfey sold for 140 Good Silver Spanish Milled Dollars his 13- year-old slave Abraham Tikey to Arthur Tikey, a Free Negro Man of Newport — who was, presumably that lad’s father. We may presume that Arthur did not then sell Abraham to any other person or hold him otherwise in bondage, and that therefore, effectively, this property transaction which has been labeled in the town records as a “sale of a Negro,” between a white man and a black man, amounted to a manumission, of a black boy by a black man:
uç à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá g{tà \ Xéx~|xÄ WâÜyxç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x fàtàx ^ÇÉãÉye{Éwx\áÄtÇw tÄÄ tÇwcÜÉä|wxÇvxcÄtÇà `xÇ tà|ÉÇá`tÜ|ÇxÜ yÉÜ tÇw |ÇVÉÇy|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{xfâÅ ÉybÇx[âÇwÜxw tÇwYÉÜàçZÉÉw f|ÄäxÜ fÑtÇ|á{ `|ÄÄxw WÉÄÄtÜá àÉ `x |Ç [tÇw tÄÜxtwç Ñt|w uç TÜà{âÜ g|~xç t YÜxx axzÜÉ `tÇ Éy axãÑÉÜà |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy axãÑÉÜà |Ç yt|w fàtàx à{x exvx|Ñà ã{xÜxÉy \ {xÜxuç tv~ÇÉãÄxwzx tÇw wÉ ÜxÖâ|à tÇw W|áv{tÜzx à{x át|w TÜà{âÜ g|~xç {|á [x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜá tÇwTwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá Éy à{x átÅx? Z|äxÇZÜtÇàxwUtÜzt|ÇxwfÉÄw tyá|zÇxwfxà ÉäxÜ tÇw vÉÇäxçxw tÇw uç à{xyx cÜxyxÇàá Wb Z|äx ZÜtÇà UtÜzt|Ç fxÄÄ tyá|zÇ[täx fxà ÉäxÜ tÇw yÜxxÄç yâÄÄç tÇw tuyÉÄâàxÄç vÉÇäxç âÇàÉ {|Å à{x át|w TÜà{âÜ g|~xç {|á [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá tÇw Tyá|zÇá bÇx VxÜàt|Ç axzÜÉ UÉç vtÄÄxw TuÜt{tÅ g|~xç ã{É ãtá uÉÜÇ |Ç yt|w axãÑÉÜà tÇw ã{É |á ÇÉã |Ç à{x g{|ÜàxxÇà{ lxtÜ Éy {|á TzxA à{x át|waxzÜÉUÉç vtÄÄxwTuÜt{tÅg|~xç àÉ {|Å à{x át|wTÜà{âÜg|~xç {|á [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜágÉ[täx tÇw tÇwgÉ[ÉÄw Tyá|zÇá yÉÜxäxÜ àÉ {|á tÇw à{x|Ü ÉÇÄç âyx tÇw UxÇxy|à yÉ à{tà Çx|à{xÜ \ à{x át|w Xéx~|xÄ WâÜyxç ÉÜ Åç [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá ÉÜ Tyá|zÇá ÉÜ tÇç ÉÜ x|à{xÜ Éy à{xÅ á{tÄÄ ÉÜ ã|ÄÄ {täx tÇç e|z{à g|àÄx VÄt|Å ÉÜ WxÅtÇw ã{tàxäxÜ àÉ à{x át|w axzÜÉ UÉç ÉÜ {|á fxÜä|vxá tyàxÜ à{x Wtç Éy à{x Wtàx {xÜxÉy uâà yÜÉÅ à{x átÅx à{xç tÇw xäxÜç Éy à{xÅ tÜx {xÜxuç ã{ÉÄÄç UtÜÜxw tÇw xåvÄâwxwA TÇw \ {xÜxuç VÉäxÇtÇà yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá g{tà \ {täx ZÉÉw e|z{à àÉ fxÄÄ tÇw vÉÇäxç à{x át|w axzÜÉ UÉç tá tyÉÜxyt|w tÇw ã|ÄÄ jtÜÜtÇà fxvâÜx tÇw WxyxÇw à{x yt|w axzÜÉ UÉç vtÄÄxw TuÜt{tÅ g|~xç àÉ {|Å à{x át|w TÜà{âÜ g|~xç tÇw àÉ {|á [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜáTwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá tÇwTyá|zÇá yÉÜxäxÜ tzt|Çáà à{x_tãyâÄVÄt|Åá ÉÜWxÅtÇwá Éy tÇç ÑxÜyÉÇ ÉÜ ÑxÜyÉÇá ã{ÉyÉxäxÜA ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉfxà Åç[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ à{|áYÉâÜàxxÇà{Wtç ÉyfxÑàxÅuxÜTÇÇÉWÉÅ|Ç|bÇxg{ÉâytÇwfxäxÇ[âÇwÜxw\Çj|àÇxyá tÇwX|z{àçgãÉA f|zÇxw fxtÄxw tÇw WxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç cÜxyxÇvx Éy âá Xéx~|xÄ WâÜyxçA atà{tÇ|xÄÄ [sic]]tvÉuá AA } ]É{Ç cA ]ÉÇxáAAA g{x YÉÜxzÉ|Çz |á t gÜâx VÉÑç exvÉÜwxw à{|á DKà{: Wtç Éy fxÑàxÅuxÜ TWDJKE ‰ [squiggle] g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~AA}‰
November 23, Saturday: The politicians of Rhode Island had been resisting the funding of the new federal government of the United States of America. They had, for instance, refused to join in imposing a continental duty upon imports. The 1st of Thomas Paine’s “Six Letters to Rhode Island” arguing the necessity of such funding, “In Answer To the Citizen of Rhode Island / On the Five Per Cent. Duty,” appeared in the Providence Gazette. Paine criticized the Rhode Islanders for their unwillingness to work within the federal union and to contribute their fair share to the conduct of the revolution. He feared that England was going to monopolize American commerce through the subornation of disunity among the states of the new union.
December 4, Wednesday: The 2d of Thomas Paine’s “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America, appeared in the Providence Gazette.
December 7, Saturday: John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island explained everything we need to know about himself: “Before I was seven years old I knew what property was and consequently what a despicable figure I myself and my children after me would cut without a share thereof.”
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1783
STAFFORD’S ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1783. “Hosea Stafford,” a pseudonym of Nehemiah Strong. New Haven, Connecticut: Printed and Sold by T. & S. Green. The verses at the top of the calendar pages for July through December told of an “Amiable Virgin,” who presumably wouldn’t have remained virginal for all that long, and the publication went on to recommend a medicine that might be applied both externally and internally, “The Poor Man’s Medicine,” concocted by the boiling of quicksilver (which is to say, the poisonous metal mercury) in water. Included was a census tabulation of the inhabitants, and also of local Indians and Negroes: “A Return of the Number of Inhabitants in the State of Connecticut, February 1, 1782; and also of Indians and Negroes.”
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR: OR THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1783. By Benjamin West. Providence, Rhode Island: Bennett Wheeler. Besides three cuts explaining eclipses, it has a reprint of the treaty with France. THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR: OR THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK, FOR 1783. By Benjamin West, A.M., A.A.S. Providence: Bennett Wheeler for Henry Barber, Newport.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1783. By Isaac Bickerstaff, esq., Philom. Providence: John Carter. Two eclipse cuts are shown.
The building of the Golden Ball Inn on Benefit Street at South Court Street, the leading hotel in Providence. (This building would have a town plaque placed on it in 1934, but would then be torn down in 1941. The plaque is presently on display at a restaurant in the downtown Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel.)
Samuel Davis provided us with a description of Rhode Island as he encountered it. SAMUEL DAVIS’S JOURNAL
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The “Meeting for Sufferings” committee of the New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, with Friend Moses Brown acting as clerk of that committee, noted that £134 was lying around in their education kitty and decided to bite the bullet and create a Yearly Meeting School. They considered Providence, Portsmouth, and East Greenwich in Rhode Island, and Lynn in Massachusetts, and settled on Portsmouth because they were offered the use of a room in the local Friends meetinghouse together with the rental income from a number of house lots that Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting owned in Newport. Friend Isaac Lawton there could be the schoolmaster at an annual salary of £75, and local families were volunteering to provide room and board for as many as 30 young scholars.
John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island provided half the funds for a “compleat Philosophical Apparatus and Library” of science at the College of Rhode Island — clearly they were able to take a “philosophical” pecunia-non-olet attitude, at the time, toward the fact that such moneys arose at least in part from the international vending of human beings, both between Africa and America (the international trade in new
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slaves) and from region to region along the American coast (local resale of used slaves).
Here is an example of the local resale of used slaves mentioned above (something that we seldom take into consideration when thinking about these issues), a local resale practice that would be allowed to continue unimpeded even after the “international slave trade” and its dread Middle Passage had been benevolently interdicted. In this year, a white widow of Warren, Rhode Island, Roby Luther Whitting, was having difficulties with her slave lad Fantee. She had leased her property to Edward Jones of Providence on May 22, 1782 to be used for a period of one year, but Jones had been dissatisfied with Fantee’s labor and also dissatisfied with Fantee’s general attitude. In a letter to the widow on January 17, 1783 he asked to be paid damages, alleging that the boy had been guilty of “every vice under the sun,” vices unspecified. In this situation, Fantee escaped, was recaptured and imprisoned, and was then returned in disgrace in irons to the widow in Warren. The slavemistress, at her wit’s end, on February 6, 1783 entrusted her black, “about Eighteen or Twenty Years Old a Healthy Active Lad,” to Isaac Gorham of the Patty to be sold in the West Indies, to be taught a lesson he wouldn’t forget by being gradually worked to death in the cane fields. (On the voyage thither, Captain Gorham’s sloop would be intercepted by a British warship and lucky Fantee would find himself confiscated as contraband.) “It is simply crazy that there should ever have come into being a world with such a sin in it, in which a man is set apart because of his color — the superficial fact about a human being. Who could want such a world? For an American fighting for his love of country, that the last hope of earth should from its beginning have swallowed slavery, is an irony so withering, a justice so intimate in its rebuke of pride, as to measure only with God.” — Stanley Cavell, MUST WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY? 1976, page 141
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With the departure of the British army, the Quaker meetinghouse in Flushing on Paumanok Long Island was returned to the control of the Friends, and meetings for worship were resumed there.
At this point 4 Rhode Island meetinghouses were available for Quaker worship: Mendon, what would become the upper and lower Smithfield meetinghouses, and Providence. Whereas previously the Quakers who met in the new meetinghouse on Main Street in Providence had been considered to be merely a “worship group” affiliated with the Providence Monthly Meeting, a worship group that happened to be meeting to worship locally for convenience rather than going on the carriage ride all the way north to the Smithfield meetinghouse on the one side of the river or the Saylesville meetinghouse on the other side of the river, at this point the affiliations and the names were rearranged. Henceforth the group that was attending the Smithfield meetinghouse and the “Lower Smithfield” meetinghouse near Saylesville would be considered to constitute a separate Smithfield Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. (That is, there would be two monthly meetings rather than one, and the name “Providence” would adhere to the group that actually was inside the town of Providence.)56
January 1, Wednesday: Thomas Paine wrote the 3d of his “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America (it would appear in the Providence Gazette on January 4th).
The Reverend Ebenezer Hubbard was ordained in Marblehead.
EBENEZER HUBBARD [of Concord], son of Ebenezer Hubbard, was graduated [at Harvard College] in 1777, ordained at Marblehead,
56. I have not been able to establish whether or not this split had anything to do with the current state of affairs in Smithfield and Saylesville, having to do with the disownment of the charismatic “Universal Friend” Jemimah Wilkinson, who at this point was still active in the area.
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January 1, 1783, and died December 15, 1800, aged 43.57
January 4, Saturday: The 3d of Thomas Paine’s “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America, appeared in the Providence Gazette.
January 9, Thursday: Thomas Paine wrote the 4th of his “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America (it would appear in the Providence Gazette on January 11th).
January 11, Saturday: The 4th of Thomas Paine’s “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America, appeared in the Providence Gazette.
January 16, Thursday: Thomas Paine wrote the 5th of his “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America (it would appear in the Providence Gazette on January 18th).
January 18, Saturday: The 5th of Thomas Paine’s “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America, appeared in the Providence Gazette. By this point Paine had been in Providence long enough to begin to suspect the motivation of his opponents (whom he did not name), and wrote about this suspect motivation, accusing them of self-interest and a lack of patriotism. The persons he was attacking included John Brown and Nicholas Brown and they of course knew it: The objectors to the measure, not choosing to begin the question where it ought to be begun, have formed into an ambuscade to attack it in disguise ... this ambuscade consists originally of about ten or a dozen merchants, who have self-interest in the matter, and who, with a very profitable trade pay very little taxes in proportion ... and who likewise, by their present opposition, are drawing themselves away from the common burdens of the country, and throwing themselves upon the shoulders of others. And this, forsooth, they call patriotism.... Be ashamed, gentlemen, to put off the payment of your just debts, the payment of your suffering army, and the support of your national honor, upon such illiberal and unbelieved pretenses. THE BROWN BROTHERS
January 31, Friday: Thomas Paine wrote the 6th of his “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America (it would appear in the Providence Gazette on February 1st). THE BROWN BROTHERS
57. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.)
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February 1, Saturday: The 6th of Thomas Paine’s “Six Letters to Rhode Island,” arguing the necessity of funding for the new federal government of the United States of America, appeared in the Providence Gazette. He reacted to the criticisms that had been levied against him by his local critics, criticisms such as that he had once declared bankruptcy, and that he had a fondness for alcoholic beverages: I have heard a great deal of the angry dislike of a few men, whose niggardly souls, governed only by the hope of the high price which their next or present cargoes may bring. Charles Rappleye has commented on this, in his SONS OF PROVIDENCE: THE BROWN BROTHERS, THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006, page 221): ... almost single-handedly, at a critical juncture in the life of the new nation, John Brown had derailed the momentum for establishing a central government and thrown the faltering federal leadership into disarray. THE BROWN BROTHERS
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August 26, Tuesday: America had won its struggle for liberty and it was time to get back to business as usual. In Providence, Rhode Island, John Innes Clarke and Joseph Nightingale of the firm of Clarke & Nightingale were 58 fitting out yet another negrero, the Providence2, for a voyage to the coast of Africa. Hearing of this, Friend Moses Brown visited them and received their reassurances.
MOSES BROWN Yes, they were indeed fitting out a vessel for a trading voyage to the coast of Africa, but they would be trading their cargo of New England’s triple-distilled rum brandy not for slaves but merely for ivory, for beeswax, and for gold dust. The international slave trade? –No, Heaven forbid!
Actually it was as obvious as a wart on the tip of your nose the size and color of a small cherry, what was going on here: He learned soon after that Clarke had misled him; that the ship fitting for Africa was in fact a slaver. Moses promptly sat down and wrote a lengthy plea to Clarke and Nightengale [sic], asking that they “give orders to the captain not to suffer any negroes to be brought on board.” Where his other tracts against slavery, addressed to legislators and to the public, stressed the iniquities of the trade and the ordeal of the slaves, in this letter Moses was more personal, asking his merchant friends to consider their own consciences, to save their own souls. Moses said that his own decision, years before, to engage in the trade despite “averse convictions,” had led to “the most uneasiness, and has left the greatest impression and stain upon my mind of any if not all my other conduct in life.” His remorse was especially acute, Moses wrote, when he paused to think how his conduct might appear in judgment before God. Moses felt moved, then, by “some engagement for your preservation from so great an evil as I have found the trade to be.” He implored them to reconsider, “that you may avoid the unhappy reflections which I have had.” If that was not prodding enough, Moses added an audacious dig to jar the merchants’ sensibilities close to home. One of their own bondsmen had approached him some time ago, Moses confided, seeking release from “the burden of slavery.” Moses said he counseled the slave to be patient, but he asked the merchants to consider, if a slave sought relief from their own kind 58. Note well that this particular vessel named Providence, being merely a negrero like the original Katy, does not fit well into our normative sequence of the Godly warlike national vessels USS Providence1, USS Providence3, USS Providence4, and USS Providence5, which had begun with the previous Rhode Island ne- grero Katy. (The reasons why it does not fit well is that we like our history to be served to us Whiggish style, with noticeable progress toward perfection between the generations. –We tend not to appreciate the sort of historical tale that is, more realistically merely stupid thing after stupid thing endlessly perpetuated!)
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treatment, how much worse must be the anguish of those slaves sold to a life of toil in the tropics.
September 22, Monday: The Reverend John Pitman noted in his journal that while in Rhode Island he “took my Brothers wife to pautuckset saw Jemimy Wilkerson the Imposter with the number of Deluded Creatures that go about with her standing &c in the Road about 4½ miles from Providence.” JEMIMAH WILKINSON
October: In Providence, Rhode Island, Friend Moses Brown took on the role of surveyor of streets.
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October 1, Wednesday: This being the year in which Moses Brown, a brother to the wealthy Providence businessmen Nicholas Brown and John Brown who engaged in the international slave trade but a convert to Quakerism, was becoming an elder in his monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and beginning his campaign to end Rhode Island’s involvement in human slavery,59 one might be tempted to leap to the presumption that such
MOSES BROWN a campaign must obviously have been a righteous Quakerly protest against lay racism, motivated by religious egalitarianism — but before we leap to such a conclusion we must consider something which happened on this particular day of the year: In the case of Abigail Franks, the young woman of mixed race who had applied for membership in the Religious Society of Friends, the Yearly Meeting decided that: The request of Chester Quarter last year respecting the application of a woman to Concord Monthly Meeting to be received into membership, and which was referred for further consideration to this or a future meeting being now revived, the subject opening with weight, it is the sense and judgment of the meeting that Concord Monthly Meeting may safely consider the application of the person on the same ground in common with other applications for admission into membership. Although these minutes testify only to “weighty and edifying deliberations and a spirit of condescension,” “a weighty exercise,” and “diverse just observations,” mentioning no doubt or objection, it is clear that there had been such — because there is on record a personal letter from a friend of the applicant who afterward commented “the mountains of opposition are leveled before her.”60
No way was this going to be easy! There was still a great spirit of racism to be overcome!
59. There were five slaves in the Brown family mansion on College Hill in Providence, and Moses Brown helped them work up the courage to steal themselves away. 60. The data elements for this series on the acceptability of persons of mixed race as Quakers are from Henry Cadbury’s “Negro Membership in the Society of Friends” in The Journal of Negro History, Volume 21 (1936), pages 151-213.
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November 7, Friday: Richard Mumford disposed of a slave, Cato Mumford, whom he had inherited from his father in Providence, Rhode Island, by renting Cato out for two years of service to Colonel Joseph Nightingale, a local merchant, in consideration of $45 and the settlement of an outstanding bill, with the explicit understanding that after these two years of faithful service had been satisfactorily completed, said Cato would be granted his manumission papers. (We are allowed in this town record to see that indeed Cato and Joseph would live up to the bargain. :-)
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1784
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1784. By Benjamin West. Newport, Rhode Island: Bennett Wheeler.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1784. By Benjamin West. Newport: Solomon Southwick.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR: OR, THE RHODE ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1784. By Benjamin West, A.M., A.A.S. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Second edition. Advertised in the U.S. Chronicle.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1784. By Benjamin West. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Sold by Terrence Reilly.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1784. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: John Carter.
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It contains eclipse cut.
At the foot of Meeting Street in Providence (Moshasuck), Rhode Island, during this year and the following one, the Friends were enlarging their meetinghouse.61
Beginning of the New England Yearly Meeting boarding school at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The committee that ran this school was made up of two members from each monthly meeting. Classes were held in a small upper room at the Portsmouth Meetinghouse and the students boarded among the families of local Friends.62 The master of the school was Isaac Lawton, who had been Clerk of the New England Yearly Meeting. Among the initial crop of 30 students were: • Obadiah Brown, a son of Moses Brown • Jonathan Lapham of Smithfield Monthly Meeting
61. For a number of years the town meetings would be held in this building, and a school would be kept in its upper part. 62. The Quaker school accepted non-Quaker children, so long as they would continue to abide by the Quaker rules.
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• Abraham Borden of South Kingstown Monthly Meeting63
63. This effort would endure for four years, until 1788. After a hiatus of two decades, in 1808, Friend Moses Brown would revive this school board, and after more than another decade of planning, the school would begin anew in 1819, this time atop College Hill in Providence.)
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This school would be discontinued due to cash flow problems after but four years of operation, in 1788, and would for decades exist only as a concept in a storage box. However, this original attempt in 1784 in Portsmouth would enable the present school to utilize the numerals “1784” on its logo, as a sort of slogan (you see, they’re not really saying that their school began in the Year of Our Lord 1784 — they are merely reciting these four digits, in the same way that their present sports audiences recite their sports slogan “Go Quakes!” without actually making any reference to the Religious Society of Friends). You will notice that they are also superimposing these four anonymous digits on a sketch of a building that would be constructed not in 1784 but some 35 years later, in 1819, and not in Portsmouth but in Providence after they had been out of existence for several decades except as a nice concept:
(Of course, it would be arguably more honest for them to be using the numerals “1819” on their logo — but as we all are aware, an excess of honesty is not always a winning policy. Go Quakes!)
January 31, Saturday: At the Providence, Rhode Island town meeting, the vote was 108 over 58 in favor of Friend Moses Brown’s bill for the abolition of slavery.
Bernard Barton was born at Carlisle, England, a “birthright Friend.” After being educated at a Quaker school in Ipswich he would be apprenticed to a shopkeeper in Suffolk. Then he would work nearly all his life as a clerk in a bank at the coastal town of Woodbridge in Suffolk. In his free time he would create ten volumes of poetry, some of his creations becoming hymns with titles such as: • “Lamp of our feet, whereby we trace” • “Walk in the light, so shalt thou know”
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• “Fear not, Zion’s sons and daughters” • “Hath the invitation ended?” • “See we not beyond the portal?” • “Those who live in love shall know”
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April 17, Saturday: In Concord, Samuel Heald’s house burnt and as a result he, his son, and his grandson would perish.64
Per volume 19 page 449 of the town property transactions of Providence, Rhode Island, in accordance with “An Act Authorizing the Manumifsion of Negroes and for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery” pafsed at the previous Sefsion of the General Assembly whereby it had become Lawful to emancipate and render Slaves entitled to all Rights and Privileges as though born of Free Parents, Amarziah Waterman did on this date Emancipate manumit and abfolutely set free the five Negro slaves who had been born and Educated in his Waterman Family, to wit Eve, about 30 years of age, Phillis, about 25 years of age, and Violet, about 18 years of age, along with Eve’s not-quite-6 son Prince and not-quite-2 daughter Sarah:
gÉ tÄÄcxÉÑÄx uxyÉÜx ã{ÉÅ à{xyxcÜxáxÇàá á{tÄÄ vÉÅx \TÅtÜé|t{jtàxÜÅtÇ ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x vÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xfàtàx Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw tÇwcÜÉä|wxÇvxcÄtÇàtà|ÉÇáfxÇw ZÜxxà|ÇzA ^ÇÉãlx à{tà ã{xÜxtá tà à{x Ätyàfxyá|ÉÇ Éy à{xZxÇxÜtÄTááxÅuÄç Éy át|wfàtàx {xÄw tà cÜÉä|wxÇvx tÇTvà ãtá Ñtyáxw |ÇàÉ t_tã |Çà|àÄxw ÂTÇTvàTâà{ÉÜ|é|Çz à{x`tÇâÅ|yá|ÉÇ ÉyaxzÜÉxá tÇw yÉÜ à{xZÜtwâtÄTuÉÄ|à|ÉÇ ÉyfÄtäxÜçÊ ã{xÜxuç |à ãtáXÇtvàxw tÇwWxvÄtÜxw à{tà |à á{tÄÄ tÇw Åtç ux_tãyâÄ yÉÜ tÇç ÑxÜyÉÇ uç\ÇyàÜâÅxÇà |ÇjÜ|à|Çz âÇwxÜ {|á ÉÜ[xÜ[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ tÇw wâàç tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw àÉ xÅtÇv| Ñtàx tÇwfxà yÜxx {|á ÉÜ {xÜfÄtäx ã{É á{tÄÄ à{xÜxâÑÉÇ ux xÇà|àÄxw àÉ tÄÄ à{xe|z{àá tÇwcÜ|ä|Äxzxá tá à{Éâz{ uÉÜÇ ÉyYÜxxctÜxÇàáA TÇwj{xÜxtá\ {täx {tw uÉÜÇ tÇwXwâvtàxw |Ç ÅçYtÅ|Äç à{xg{ÜxxaxzÜÉjÉÅxÇ tÇw à{xaxzÜÉUÉç tÇwaxzÜÉZ|ÜÄ {xÜxtyàxÜ ÇtÅxw tÇw ux|Çz vÉÇä|Çvxwext@ áÉÇtuÄxÇxyá tÇw]âáà|vx Éy à{xXÅtÇv|Ñtà|ÉÇq tÇw yÜxxwÉÅÉy à{xaxzÜÉxá tá tctÜà Éy à{x[âÅtÇfÑxv|xá tÇw |Çà|àÄxw àÉ_|yx _|uxÜàç tÇw à{x ÑâÜyâ|à Éy[tÑÑ|Çxáá |Ç à{xTvÖâ|á|à|ÉÇ ÉycÜÉÑxÜàç Éy à{x|Ü ÉãÇ tÇw |Ç {ÉÑxá tÇwXåÑxvàtà|ÉÇ à{tà tá à{xç tÜx tÄÄ ãxÄÄ |Ç[xtÄà{ tÇw |Ç à{xcÜ|Åx Éy_|yx à{xç ã|ÄÄ uç à{x|Ü ÑÜâwxÇà tÇwi|ÜàâÉâáVÉÇwâvà fxvâÜx à{xZÉÉwbÑ|Ç|ÉÇ tÇw tÑÑÜÉutà|ÉÇ Éy à{Éyx ã|à{ ã{ÉÅ à{xç Åtç_|äx tÇw à{xÜxuç ux xÇtuÄxw àÉ Éuàt|Ç[tÑÑ|Çxyá yÜÉÅ à{x|ÜYÜxxwÉÅ tÇw tVÉÅyÉÜàtuÄxfâuy|yàtÇvx |Ç à{xjÉÜÄw tÇw |ÇXåÑxvàtà|ÉÇ à{tà `çáxÄy tÇw Åç[x|Üá ã|ÄÄ uxW|yv{tÜzxw Éy tÄÄXåÑxÇvxá yÉÜ à{x|Ü yâàâÜxfâÑÑÉÜà tÇw`t|Çàt|ÇtÇvx \ Wb à{xÜxyÉÜx uç à{xyxcÜxyxÇàá yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç[x|ÜáXåxvâàÉÜ tÇwTwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá tÇw ã|à{ à{xVÉÇyxÇà tÇw TÑÑÜÉutà|ÉÇ Éy à{xgÉãÇVÉâÇv|Ä Éy át|wcÜÉä|wxÇvx táXÇàxÜxw tÇwexvÉÜwxw |Ç à{x]ÉâÜÇtÄá Éy à{x|ÜcÜÉvxxw|Çz ÉÇ à{xY|yà{Wtç ÉyTÑÜ|Ä\ÇyàtÇàXÅtÇv|Ñtàx`tÇâÅ|à tÇw tuyÉÄâàxÄç áxà yÜxx à{x át|wg{ÜxxaxzÜÉ jÉÅxÇ tÇwaxzÜÉUÉç tÇwaxzÜÉZ|ÜÄi|éXäx tuÉâàg{|ÜàçlxtÜá ÉyTzxc{|ÄÄ|á tuÉâàgãxÇàç Y|äxlxtÜá ÉyTzxi|ÉÄxà tuÉâàX|z{àxxÇlxtÜá ÉyTzx tÇw à{x át|waxzÜÉUÉç vtÄÄxwcÜ|Çvx áÉÇ Éy à{x át|wXäxf|ålxtÜá ÉÄw |Ç]âÇx Çxåà à{xf|åà{Wtç tÇw à{x át|waxzÜÉZ|ÜÄ vtÄÄxwftÜt{ Wtâz{àxÜ Éy át|wXäx tzxwgãÉlxtÜá à{xEKà{Wtç Éy]âÄç Çxåà àÉ ux {xÇvxyÉÜà{ tá xÇà|ÜxÄç tÇw át|wTÅtÜé|t{jtàxÜÅtÇ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç[tÇw tÇwfxtÄ à{|áY|yàxxÇà{Wtç ÉyTÑÜ|Ä |Ç à{x lxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ_beW bÇxg{ÉâytÇwfxäxÇ[âÇwÜxw tÇwX|z{àçYÉâÜ f|zÇxw fxtÄxw tÇw WxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç ÑÜxyxÇvvx Éy âá g{xjÉÜwáTÇwaxzÜÉZ|ÜÄ ux|Çz y|Üyàgã|vx |ÇàxÜÄ|Çxw {|á ]tÅxáZÜxxÇx TÅtÜé|t{jtàxÜÅtÇ ÅtÜ~ g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ } atà{tÇjtàxÜÅtÇ cÜÉä|wxÇvx çx tàcÜÉä|wxÇvxTÑÜ|ÄDJà{?DJKGAg{xÇ`ÜATÅtÜé|t{jtàxÜxÅtÇ tuÉäx ÇtÅxw ÑxÜyÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x uxyÉÜx ãÜ|àà|Çz\ÇyàÜâÅxÇà àÉ ux {|á yÜxx tÇwiÉÄâÇàtÜçTvà tÇwWxxw UxyÉÜx `x g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜ ]âáA cxtvx exvÉÜwxw à{|áEHà{Wtç Éy`tçTWDJKG [squiggle]g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜgÉãÇVÄxÜ~}
64. Samuel Heald, born May 4, 1705 at Concord to John and Mary (Chandler) Heald, died April 18, 1785 at Concord.
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May 25, Tuesday: Per volume 19, page 447 of the town property transactions of Providence, Rhode Island, from this Day and forever after Plato a Negro Man was set Free and at Liberty from Joseph Mcclellan and all under him. YtÄÅÉâà{`tçIà{ADJJJ g{xáx ÅtçVxÜà|yç à{tàcÄtàÉ ÅçaxzÜÉ`tÇ |áYÜxx tÇw tà_|uxÜàç yÜÉÅ`x tÇw tÄÄ âÇwxÜ`x yÜÉÅ à{|áWtç tÇw yÉÜxäxÜ tyàxÜAAAA j|àÇxyá Åç[tÇw exvÉÜwxw à{|áEHà{Wtç Éy`tçTWDJKG ‰ ]ÉáxÑ{ `vvÄxÄÄtÇA ‰ [squiggle]g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜ gÉãÇVÄxÜ~ }
MANUMISSION SLAVERY
October 13, Wednesday: In Providence, Rhode Island, a servant named Cato or Caesar was determined on the basis of faithful service to be worthy to be manumitted.
^ÇÉã tÄÄ ÅxÇ uç à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá? à{tà j{xÜxtá à{x ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxw VtàÉ à{tà yâÄÄç 9 yt|à{yâÄÄç áxÜäxw tvvÉÜw|Çz àÉ à{x VÉÇw|à|ÉÇ ÅxÇà|ÉÇxw |Ç à{x yÉÜxzÉ|Çz jÜ|à|Çz? áÉ à{tà tzÜxxtuÄx àÉ à{x ÑÜÉÅ|yx à{xÜx|Ç VÉÇàt|Çxw {x |á ÇÉã xÇà|àÄxw àÉ {|á yÜxxwÉÅ g{xáx cÜxáxÇàá tÜx à{xÜxyÉÜx àÉ j|àÇxyá? à{tà à{x át|w VtàÉ? |á yâÄÄç tÇw tuáÉÄâàxÄç ÅtÇâÅ|ààxw tÇw xÇà|ÜxÄç áxà YÜxx? tÇw tà yâÄÄ _|uxÜàç àÉ tvà yÉÜ {|ÅáxÄy tÇw àÉ tvÖâ|Üx? ÑÉyxyá 9 xÇ}Éç ÑÜÉ@ @ÑxÜÄç tá tÇç Éà{xÜ YÜxx `tljaxäxÜ ÅÉÜx àÉ ux vtÄÄxw âÑÉÇ tá tfxÜätÇà ÉÜ t áÄtäx? uç tÇçcxÜáÉÇ ÉÜcxÜáÉÇá? |ÇVÉÇáxÖâxÇvx Éy {|á {tä|Çz uxxÇ {xÜxàÉyÉÜx Ä|tuÄx àÉ áxÜäx tá áâv{ uç extáÉÇ Éy tÇçà{|Çz {xÜxàÉyÉÜx wÉÇx ÉÜ Ñtááxw‰‰ \Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxàÉ áxà Åç [tÇw tÇw fxtÄ à{|á DFà{ Wtç Éy bvàÉuxÜ TAWADJKG
j|àÇxyáxáXÇÉá[|àv{vÉv~ ((L.S.)) j|ÄÄ|tÅcÄâÅu} `tÜçfà|Äxá exvÉÜwxw`tçDEà{TWDJKI } g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~ SLAVERY
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December 18, Saturday: At Providence, Rhode Island, a black man named Prince who was defirous of obtaining his freedom was purchafed for what was considered a large sum of Money from Jabez Bowen, and his Liberty and Freedom was Reftored to him in the fullest and moft ample Manner, on condition that he go to Georgia and faithfully be a servant there for the following Three full Years: fàtàx Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇw9vj{xÜxtácÜ|Çvx t uÄtv~ ÅtÇ |á wxy|ÜÉâá Éy Éuàt|Ç|Çz {|á yÜxxwÉÅ tÇw {x ux|Çz ÑâÜv{tyxw yÉÜ t ÄtÜzx áâÅ Éy`ÉÇxç uç ÅçUÜÉà{xÜbÄ|äxÜUÉãxÇ tÇw uç {|Å áÉÄw àÉ`x tÇw\ ux|Çz ã|ÄÄ|Çz àÉ zÜtÇà {|Å ã{tà {x wxy|ÜxáWÉ {xÜxuçexyàÉÜx àÉ {|Å {|á_|uxÜàç tÇwYÜxxwÉÅ |Ç à{x yâÄÄxáà tÇw ÅÉyà tÅÑÄx`tÇÇxÜ ÉÇ vÉÇw|à|ÉÇ à{tà {x zÉxá àÉZxÉÜz|t tÇw yt|à{yâÄÄç áxÜäxá Åç át|wUÜÉà{xÜbÄ|äxÜUÉãxÇ tá t áxÜätÇà yÉÜ à{x áÑtvx Éyg{Üxx yâÄÄlxtÜá uxz|ÇÇ|Çz à{x át|wgxÜÅ tà à{xg|Åx {x á{tÄÄ tÜÜ|äx tà à{x át|wbÄ|äxÜ |Ç ZxÉÜz|t [x à{x át|wbÄ|äxÜUÉãxÇ àÉ y|Çw {|Å zÉÉw tÇw áâyy|v|xÇài|vàâtÄá tÇwVÄÉtà{|Çz yÉÜ à{x át|wgxÜÅ tÇw |Ç vtyx à{x át|wbÄ|äxÜUÉãxÇ á{ÉâÄwWxvxtyx uxyÉÜx à{xgxÜÅ xåÑ|Üxá à{xÇ à{x át|wcÜ|Çvx |á àÉexàâÜÇ àÉ`x àÉ áxÜäx à{xexÅt|ÇwxÜ Éy à{x át|wgxÜÅ Éyg{ÜxxlxtÜá\Çj|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç[tÇw tÇw tyy|åxw Åç áxtÄ àÉWâÑÄ|vtàx Éy à{|á\ÇwxÇàâÜx à{|áDKà{ Éy WxvxÅuxÜTWDJKG f|zÇxw fxtÄxw |Ç ÑÜxyxÇvx Éy âá
ftÜt{ UÉãxÇ ]tuxéUÉãxÇ bÄ|äxÜ]tuxé UÉãxÇ UÉãxÇ ]âÇ ]âÇ } cÜÉä|wxÇvx çxcxÜyÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw]tuxéUÉãxÇXáÖ à{x á|zÇxÜ àÉ à{x tuÉäx\ÇyàÜâÅxÇà tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzx à{x átÅx àÉ ux {|á yÜxx Tvà tÇw Wxxw à{x Wtç tÇw lxtÜ tuÉäx ãÜ|ààxÇ UxyÉÜx ftÅV{tvx ]âáA cxtvx exvÉÜwxw à{|á fxvÉÇw Wtç Éy YxuÜâtÜç TW DJKH 9v g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~ } SLAVERY MANUMISSION
1785
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1785. By Isaac Bickerstaff, esq., Philom. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. Also, BICKERSTAFF’S BOSTON ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1785. Boston: Printed and Sold (Wholesale and Retail) by John W. Folsom. A title-page woodcut depicted a “male chimpansee or the man of the wood,” and this “most remarkable animal ... lately discovered in Africa” displayed some more or less human characteristics of this. This may have created by Benjamin West, or may have been a plagiarization of almanacs issued in Connecticut by Daboll, Judd, and Strong.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1785. By Benjamin West. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. The official scale of depreciation of currency is included.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, THE RHODE ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1785. By “Copernicus Partridge.” Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Copernicus Partridge is probably a pseudonym of Bennett Wheeler.
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In Providence, Rhode Island, Friend Moses Brown and Jabez Bowen agreed on a new, straighter routing for “Benefit Street” (it had started out as an alley behind the homes, and had evolved through a crooked “Back Street” phase. In addition they laid out the boundaries of a new town cemetery.
April 20: At Providence, Rhode Island, William Morris on this day manumitted Set at Liberty and freed Catherine his Negro Woman, relinquishing & giving up all Right and Title to her:
^ÇÉã tÄÄ `xÇ uç à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá g{tà \ j|ÄÄ|tÅ `ÉÜÜ|á Wb ÉÇ à{|á Wtç fxà tà _|uxÜàç tÇw yÜxx Vtà{xÜ|Çx Åç à{axzÜÉ jÉÅtÇ tÇw Wb {xÜxuç ÜxÄ|ÇÖâ|á{ 9 z|äx âÑ tÄÄ e|z{à tÇw g|àÄx àÉ {xÜ cÜÉä|wxÇvx TÑÜ|Ä EC DJKHAà{ Å exvÉÜwxw à{|á EH : Wtç Éy TÑÜ|Ä TAWADJKH j `ÉÜÜ|áA @@@@ [squiggle] g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~A}
SLAVERY
Summer: The Providence, Rhode Island firm of Clarke & Nightingale’s negrero Providence returned to its home port after a successful voyage in the international slave trade.
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July 13, Wednesday: Stephen Hopkins died at his home in Providence, Rhode Island. For some time prior to his death he had been suffering from the “shaking palsy,” in which he was attended by his step-daughter, Friend Ruth Smith Hopkins, daughter of his 2d wife by her 1st marriage and wife of his son George Hopkins. His body would be interred in a couple of days, in the North Burial Ground Cemetery:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS STEPHEN HOPKINS, OF REVOLUTIONARY FAME
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ATTESTED BY HIS SIGNATURE TO THE DECLARATION OF OUR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. GREAT IN COUNCIL, FROM SAGACITY OF MIND MAGNANIMOUS IN SENTIMENT FIRM IN PURPOSE AND GOOD, AS GREAT. FROM BENEVOLENCE OF HEART HE STOOD IN THE FIRST RANK OF STATESMAN AND PATRIOTS, SELF EDUCATED, YET AMONG THE MOST LEARNED OF MEN, HIS VAST TREASURY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE HIS GREAT RETENTIVE AND REFLECTIVE POWERS COMBINED WITH HIS SOCIAL NATURE MADE HIM THE MOST EVERLASTING OF COMPANIONS IN PRIVATE LIFE
1786
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1786. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
Benjamin West was hired to lecture in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the College of Rhode Island (he would not actually begin to teach there until he got back to Providence from a teaching appointment in Philadelphia, in 1788).
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR; OR, THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST 1786. By “Copernicus Partridge,” A.M. (Benjamin West) Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Two editions. An “Author to Reader” letter originated from “Academic Grove.”
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR FOR 1786. By Benjamin West. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. No copy located. Mentioned by Sabin.
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Nicholas Brown, Jr. graduated from the College of Rhode Island, which was then being held in a brick schoolhouse toward the bottom of Meeting Street in Providence, Rhode Island near the Friends meetinghouse. (Eventually, of course, this college would be renamed in his honor.) BROWN UNIVERSITY
John Collins was elected governor of Rhode Island; and would hold that office until 1789. Farmers were burning their grain, dumping their milk, and leaving their apples to rot in the orchards in an inconsequential farm strike directed against Providence and Newport merchants who would no longer accept a paper currency that had become essentially worthless. This was a 20-shilling note of Rhode Island currency in circulation at the time:
William Ellery, who had been a long-term member of the Continental Congress, at this point returned to Newport. Soon he would be functioning as a commissioner of the continental loan office, and for a time as chief justice of the Rhode Island superior court.
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The John Brown edifice, a massive monument to human comfort which would be described by President John Quincy Adams as “the most magnificent and elegant private mansion that I have ever seen on this continent,” was being erected on Benefit Street in Providence. Some in Rhode Island were referring to this rotund little person as “the Providence Colossus.” However, things were not so financially easy for him as they might have seemed, for a codfishing business in which he had been investing was not generating the expected profits — and he was therefore contemplating a re-entry into the international slave trade. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: In 1760 England, the chief slave-trading nation, was sending on an average to Africa 163 ships annually, with a tonnage of 18,000 tons, carrying exports to the value of £163,818. Only about twenty of these ships regularly returned to England. Most of them carried slaves to the West Indies, and returned laden with sugar and other products. Thus may be formed some idea of the size and importance of the slave-trade at that time, although for a complete view we must add to this the trade under the French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Americans. The trade fell off somewhat toward 1770, but was flourishing again when the Revolution brought a sharp and serious check upon it, bringing down the number of English slavers, clearing, from 167 in 1774 to 28 in 1779, and the tonnage from 17,218 to 3,475 tons. After the war the trade gradually recovered, and by 1786 had reached nearly its former extent. In 1783 the British West Indies received 16,208 Negroes from Africa, and by 1787 the importation had increased to 21,023. In this latter year it was estimated that the British were taking annually from Africa 38,000 slaves; the French, 20,000; the Portuguese, 10,000; the Dutch and Danes, 6,000; a total of 74,000. Manchester alone sent £180,000 annually in goods to Africa in exchange for Negroes.65
65. These figures are from the REPORT OF THE LORDS OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL, etc. (London, 1789).
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March 13, Monday: Per Volume 22, page 109 of the records of Providence, Rhode Island, on this day Jonathan Arnold of Smithfield manumitted a Servant in his Family, a Negro girl Named Lilly, who had arrived to the age of Twenty Five years or thereabouts:
gÉ tÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá á{tÄÄ VÉÅx ^ÇÉã lX à{tà \ ]ÉÇtà{tÇ TÜÇÉÄw Éy fÅ|à{y|xÄw |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx tÇw fàtàx Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇw lxÉÅtÇ WÉ {xÜxuç `tÇâÅ|à áxà YÜxx tÇw W|áv{tÜzx t axzÜÉ z|ÜÄ atÅxw _|ÄÄç {xÜxàÉyÉÜx t fxÜätÇà |Ç Åç YtÅ|Äç á{x ux|Çz uç à{|á à|Åx tÜÜ|äxw àÉ à{x tzx Éy gãxÇàç Y|äx çxtÜá ÉÜ à{xÜxtuÉâà቉[xÜxuç exÄ|ÇÖâ|á{|Çz yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç [x|Üá XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw TwÅ|Ç|áàÜtàÉÜá tÄÄ VÄt|Åá ÉÇ WxÅtÇw âÑÉÇ {xÜ ÉÜ {xÜ fxÜä|vxá |Ç yâàâÜxA \Ç gxáà|ÅÉÇç ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç atÅx tÇw tyy|åxw Åç fxtÄ à{|á DFà{ Wtç Éy `tÜv{ |Ç à{x lxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ _beW DJKIA \Ç cÜxáxÇvx Éy? jxÄvÉÅx TÜÇÉÄw } ]ÉÇtà{tÇ TÜÇÉÄw ((L.S.)) exvÉÜwxwe|v{ jtÜw à{|áDKà{Wtç Éy aÉäxÅuxÜTWADJKI‰ } g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜgÉãÇVÄxÜ~
SLAVERY
March 29, Wednesday: Betsey Metcalf was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Joel Metcalf (1755-1834) and Lucy Gay Metcalf (born during 1759). Her father was by trade a tanner and currier. She would at about the age of 24 write an account of her life at 64 Benefit Street on Providence’s East Side and in West Dedham (now Westwood), Massachusetts from 1798 to 1804, a writing taking the form of a retrospective diary. Later than that, she would extrapolate from this reconstruction a document of twelve pages which we have preserved at the New England Historical Society in Providence, Rhode Island. The focus of this memoir is on her education and early experiences, including the braiding of straw bonnets similar to one she had seen in a local store.66 STRAW TOWNS
May 11, Thursday: Henry Marie Brackenridge was born, a son of Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He would be educated by his father and by private tutors, and then attend a French academy at St. Genevieve, Louisiana.
In Rhode Island, Friend Ruth Smith Hopkins, alleging that as a Friend she had “sometime past” set free her Negro Man Servant, so that he would “be entitled to the Privileges of a Freeman which he is and has an undoubted Right to be,” at this point needed to visit the town clerk to register for this Toney Hopkins a written Inftrument of manumission to replace said previous such document, unrecorded, that he said he had lost.
This obviously innocent document of record in obviously honest confirmation of the previous benevolent
66. Curiously, this account does not specify from what source she had been able to obtain the needed raw materials — and the use of local grasses as the raw material for such ladies’ bonnets definitely did not begin until later.
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action would appear for all time on pages 35 and 36 of Volume 22 of such Providence records:
gÉ tÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ g{xáx cÜxáxÇàá á{tÄÄ vÉÅx ‰ j{xÜxtá \ áÉÅxà|Åx Ñtáà áxà yÜxx t axzÜÉ `tÇ vtÄÄxw gÉÇxç [ÉÑ~|Çá {xÜxàÉyÉÜx t fxÜvtÇà [Servant??] àÉ `x à{x fâuyvÜ|uxÜ tÇw ztäx {|Å ———page break——— {|Å t ãÜ|ààxÇ \ÇyàÜâÅxÇà xä|wxÇv|Çz à{x ftÅx ã{|v{ ãÜ|à|Çz {x à{x yt|w axzÜÉ@ `tÇ átçá |á ÄÉáà tÇw ux|Çz w|y|ÜÉâá à{tà {x á{ÉâÄw ux xÇà|àÄxw àÉ à{x cÜxä|Äxzxá [Privileges??] Éy t YÜxxÅtÇ ã{|v{ {x |á tÇw {tá tÇ âÇwÉâuàxw e|z{à àÉ ux \ {täx z|äxÇ {|Å à{É [the??] yâÜà{xÜ ãÜ|ààxÇ Xä|wxÇvx à{xÜxÉy {xÜxuç wxvÄtÜ|Çz {|Å à{x át|w gÉÇxç [ÉÑ~|Çá t YÜxx@ÅtÇ tzÜxxtuÄx àÉ à{x wtàx áxà yÉÜ xÇvÉâÜtz|Çz à{x `tÇâÅ|yá|ÉÇ Éy fÄtäxá |Ç à{|á áàtàx {xÜxuç yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy Åç [x|ÜËá [sic??]9 exÇÉâÇv|Çz tÄÄ vÄt|Å àÉ {|Å à{x át|w gÉÇ;x<ç [ÉÑ~|Çá {|á _tuÉâÜ ÉÜ fxÜä|vx \Ç jÜ|à|Çz ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxàÉ áâuyvÜ|uxw Åç atÅx tÇw Ñâà Åç áxtÄ à{|á XÄxäxÇà{ Wtà [Day??] Éy à{x Hà{ `ÉÇà{ DJKI \Ç cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç cÜxyxÇvx Éy ((L.S.)) ———————————————————————————————————————eâà{ [ÉÑ~|Çá exvÉÜwxw à{|á DDà{ Wtç Éy `tç TW DJKI (symbol) g{xÉwÉÜx YÉáàxÜ gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~ MANUMISSION That’s at least what this appears to be, on its surface.
But, is this all as straightforward as it seems? This would presumably be the Ruth Smith Hopkins who was the daughter of the 2d wife of Governor Stephen Hopkins (March 7, 1707-July 13, 1785), Anne Arnold Smith Hopkins, by her previous husband, who had been adopted by Governor Hopkins, and who lived in the red house just down the street from the county house in which this record was being created:
This slave being freed would presumably be Toney, a slave in this household.67 Toney had presumably been the property not of the unmarried adopted daughter but of the stepfather who was recently deceased, and whose estate was presumably at that point still in probate. But, by his will, he had freed all his slaves! Something does not compute. But here’s the rub: Governor Hopkins had been disowned by the Smithfield monthly meeting of
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the Religious Society of Friends for having refused to manumit his personal servant, pleading special circumstances. There had apparently never been any such document, as the manumission document which here she said he said was lost. Toney, however, clearly had not been freed by Governor Hopkins or by what he had written in his will, and this adopted daughter couldn’t free him because she didn’t own him. This was a little white scam. This was the Quaker daughter’s one chance to set right her stepfather’s neglect and clear her family of the taint of enslavement and provide to Toney his chance at freedom. The Quaker lady fibbed. Bully for her!
67. Charles Rappleye, in his recent SONS OF PROVIDENCE: THE BROWN BROTHERS, THE SLAVE TRADE, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006, page 142), instances that the 1774 census had recorded six slaves as living in the Hopkins household in Providence, Rhode Island. He also references “‘a Negroe woman,” as recorded in the minutes of the Smithfield Monthly Meeting.” I wonder if he has actually looked at these holographic minutes at the Rhode Island Historical Society on Hope Street in Providence, Rhode Island, for I am unable myself in them to make out this phrase he has alleged, “a Negroe woman.”
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May 26, Friday: On pages 48-51 in Volume 22 of the records of Providence, Rhode Island, appears an indenture of lease (whatever that indicates) for Prime or Prince Cufhing. This “indenture of lease” is listed, in the index to the records, as a manumission, that was granted by Benjamin Cushing:
g{|á \ÇwxÇàâÜx Éy _xtáx Åtwx uç tÇw UxàãxxÇ UxÇ}tÅ|Ç Vâá{|Çz ]âÇAÜ Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x fàtàx Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇw tÇw cÜÉä|wxÇvx cÄtÇàtà|ÉÇ \ÇÖâ|Üx ÉÇ à{x bÇx ctÜà tÇw cÜ|Åx t axzÜÉ `tÇ vtÄÄxw vtÄÄxw [sic]cÜ|Çvx Vây{|Çz ÇÉã exy|w|Çz |Ç à{x gÉãÇ VÉâÇàç tÇw fàtàx tuÉäx yt|w [tààxÜ ÉÇ à{x bà{xÜ ctÜà j|àÇxyxà{ à{tà à{x át|w UxÇ}tÅ|Ç Vâá{|Çz ]âÇAÜ YÉÜ tÇw |Ç VÉÇy|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x át|w cÜ|Çvx {tä|Çz {xÜxàÉyÉÜx Ä|äxw |Ç à{x YtÅ|Äç ã|à{ `x tá t fxÜätÇà tÇw fxÜäxw yt|à{yâÄÄç ———page break——— fxà Çç [tÇw9fxtÄ à{|á gãxÇàç f|åà{ Wtç Éy `tç TW DJKI f|zÇxw9fxtÄxw |ÇcÜxyxÇvx Éy ÑxÜ TtÜÉÇ `táÉÇ } ftÜt{+YâÄÄxÜ ((L.S.)) ]ÉáxÑ{ `táÉÇ `tÜ~ fàtàx Éye{Éwx\áÄtÇwcÜÉä|wxÇvx`tçEIà{DJKI g{xÇ à{x ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxw ftÜt{YâÄÄxÜ ÑxÜyÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x ã|à{|Ç\ÇyÜâÅxÇà àÉ ux {xÜ YÜxx tÇw äÉÄâÇàtÜçTvà tÇwWxxw UxyÉÜx Åx WtÇ|xÄbãxÇWxÑàZÉäAÜ exvÉÜwxw à{|áECà{Wtç Éy]âÇxTWDJKI }g{xÉwÉÜxYÉáàxÜgÉãÇVÄxÜ~
SLAVERY
Winter: In Rhode Island, according to the notes of the Reverend John Pitman, this was an exceedingly cold winter season. November 28th was “the coldest day that ever was known at this season in this place.” On December 10th there could be no meeting “by reason of the Deep Show.” On December 11th it was so cold that the river (presumably the river feeding into the Narragansett Bay through Providence harbor) was frozen all the way to its mouth, so that people had to be out chopping ship channels in the ice.68
During December there were three big snowstorms. This was the greatest snowfall since 1717. Hamden, Connecticut had 20 inches on December 4th/5th, 9 inches on December 7th/8th, and 8 inches with sleet on December 9th/10th, for a total of 37 inches. At Kingston, Massachusetts the fields were covered with a 48- inche blanket, while at Boston the snow was nearly four feet deep. A great tide accompanied that third storm and destroyed wharves and shipping. What would follow all this snow would be a record early cold wave, featuring on December 12th a temperature of -12 degrees at Hartford, Connecticut.
68. The average recorded temperature for central England for the three primary months of this winter was 12.3° Centigrade, according to which there is no way that the season could have been categorized even as a cold one, let alone severely cold. By contrast, the reading for 1783/1784 had been 3.5° Centigrade, and the reading for 1794/1795 would be 1.4° Centigrade, so that those winters would need to be categorized as having been by contrast the severely cold ones for this period. The weather must therefore have been totally different on the opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
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1787
Here is a current woodcut of a press manufactured in this year in Philadelphia by John Goodman, which is still intact and in good condition at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, Pennsylvania after use for many years by the printing shop of Joseph Baumann in Ephrata and then by a press in Cumberland County:
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1787. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
THE RHODE ISLAND SHEET ALMANACK FOR 1787. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Broadside.
THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR: OR, THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST 1787.... By Benjamin West, A.M., A.A.S., professor of mathematics and astronomy in the College of Rhode Island (during this year, however, he was teaching mathematics instead at the Protestant Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia). Providence: Printed by Bennett Wheeler. There was an elaborate account of the discovery of a new planet henceforth to be known as “Herschel,” the planet which we now term “Uranus.” ASTRONOMY
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Contains cut of [lunar] eclipse.
(Same, a second edition.) On the title-page “Eleventh of American Independence” is in Old English type.
(Same, a third edition.) There are three scrolls outside of the border on the title-page.
Doctor William Thornton proposed that he lead a body of free black Rhode Island and Massachusetts colonists to somewhere along the west coast of Africa. (A year later Doctor Thornton would seem to be in communication with the Reverend Samuel Hopkins in regard to such a scheme, but eventually the resettlement effort would need to be abandoned, of course for want of funds.)
As part of what, in Massachusetts, was being termed “Shays’ Rebellion, there was an overt act of defiance in Rhode Island. A group of citizens styling themselves “Reformation men,” living near what would later be known as the Phillips place, organized to resist state taxation. When a state officer appeared with deputies, to round up and herd off and “distrain” their farm livestock to the extent of unpaid taxes, they chased after the officers and cattle, overtaking them as they were crossing the bridge to the northeast of Pascoag village, and beyond this bridge, in a dense wood, chased off the deputies and rescued their livestock. The next day the officers returned and seized suspects, taking them to Chepachet for trial. A mob invaded the court-room and carried away the prisoners. Judge Steere, who lived nearby, rode to alert Providence. Governor Arthur Fenner sent word that if the struggle came to an immediate halt, nothing further would be done to collect these back taxes or capture the citizens. Essentially, this tax revolt succeeded. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
In this year John Brown’s nine years of service in the General Assembly of Rhode Island came to an end. Meanwhile his ship, the General George Washington, sailed from Providence for Canton in South China, captained by Jonathan Donnison. She was the 1st of our trading ships to trade with the Orient. The tiniest state of the union was going to open the giant nation of China to the West: Hail, realm of rogues, renowned for fraud and guile, All hail, the knaveries of yon little isle.... Look through the state, the unhallowed ground appears A nest of dragons and a cave for bears.... The wiser race ... Like Lot from Sodom, from Rhode Island run. — “To Rhode Island,” 1787, anonymous
1787. The first ship, from this State, sailed for Canton - the
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General Washington, Captain Jonathan Donnison. The number of vessels in this port, then, exceeded that of New York, being 110, and the tonnage 10,590.
The bell in the steeple of the Providence Baptist meetinghouse having split in ringing, Jesse Goodyear would recast it at Hope Furnace. The bell had weighed 2,515 pounds and had been inscribed:
FOR FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE, THE TOWN WAS FIRST PLANTED, PERSUASION, NOT FORCE, WAS USED BY THE PEOPLE. THIS CHURCH IS THE ELDEST, AND HAS NOT RECANTED, ENJOYING AND GRANTING, BELL, TEMPLE AND STEEPLE.
The new bell would weigh 2,387 pounds and would be inscribed:
THIS CHURCH WAS FOUNDED A.D. 1639, THE FIRST IN THE STATE, AND THE OLDEST OF THE BAPTISTS IN AMERICA.
Great dissatisfaction was expressed at the tone of this bell when it was first hung. Some individuals attempted to break it with a blacksmith’s sledge hammer. They exhausted their rage and strength in breaking a small piece from it. Either this improved the tone or else taste has changed, for this is now regarded as one of the finest toned bells in Providence.69
October 6, Saturday: An article by “Crito” in opposition to slavery appeared in a Providence, Rhode Island one-page gazette, the Gazette and Country Journal. “Crito” was Moses Brown and Mary Olney Brown, or perhaps was the Reverend Samuel Hopkins. ANTISLAVERY
69. William Read Staples (1798-1868). ANNALS OF THE TOWN OF PROVIDENCE, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT, IN JUNE, 1832. Providence, Rhode Island: Printed by Knowles and Vose, 1843. VIEW THE PAGE IMAGES
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1788
70 AN ALMANACK FOR 1788. By Elisha Thornton of Smithfield [Rhode Island]. Newport: Peter Edes. October 11, 1787.
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY, OR ALMANACK FOR 1788. By Daniel Freebetter, Philomath. Newport: Peter Edes.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1788. By Isaac Bickerstaff, esq., Philom. Providence: John Carter.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, AND RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1788. Providence: Bennett Wheeler.
WHEELER’S SHEET ALMANACK FOR 1788. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. Broadside. Advertised in the U.S. Chronicle. No copy located.
Benjamin West began to lecture in mathematics and natural philosophy at the College of Rhode Island. THE NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR: OR, THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST 1788.... [Benjamin West] Providence: Printed by Bennett Wheeler. One-page account of the College of Rhode- Island. A number of useful “receipts” such as how to make Japan ink, how to prevent the “smoaking” of lamps, and how to produce “the King of France’s Teeth Powder, famous for making the Teeth White and preserving them from the Scurvy.”
(Same, second impression) Advertised in the U.S. Chronicle.
Isaac Bailey, who would as a young adult be heavily engaged in the Providence printing business, was born in Rhode Island.
J.P. Brissot de Warville provided an impression of Rhode Island as he encountered it. J.P. BRISSOT DE WARVILLE
In the earliest attempt to manufacture cotton cloth in Providence, Daniel Anthony, Andrew Dexter, and Lewis Peck constructed a spinning-jenny in a private home on the basis of an English model they found in Beverly, Massachusetts and went into partnership to make “homespun” (this machinery would be moved to the market- house chamber in Providence). They would construct also a carding-machine and a spinning-frame. Joseph Alexander, a native of Scotland, would show them how to set up a loom. They would move the spinning-frame to Pawtucket so it could operate by water-power, and sell it to Moses Brown of Providence. None of this machinery worked very well, and William Almy and Smith Brown carried on this business for Moses Brown until it was recognized to be an unprofitable arrangement.71
70. Elisha Thornton had been born in Smithfield, Rhode Island in 1748, and was the first native Rhode Island almanac maker. He would discontinue publishing his own material with the issue of 1792 and thereafter would vend his calculations to other printers.
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The New England Yearly Meeting boarding school that Friend Moses Brown had established in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in 1784 at this point was discontinued due to cash flow problems (although the rents from Point Estates in Newport had been promised as tuition, due to the general economic distress in New England during this year the renters there had fallen behind in their monthly payments).72 MOSES BROWN SCHOOL RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October: In March, first Massachusetts and then Pennsylvania had forbidden their citizens to participate in any way in the slave-trade. In this month Connecticut did the same. “An Act to prevent the Slave-Trade.” “Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That no Citizen or Inhabitant of this State, shall for himself, or any other Person, either as Master, Factor, Supercargo, Owner or Hirer, in Whole, or in Part, of any Vessel, directly or indirectly, import or transport, or buy or sell, or receive on board his or her Vessel, with Intent to cause to be imported or transported, any of the Inhabitants of any Country in Africa, as Slaves or Servants, for Term of Years; upon Penalty of Fifty Pounds, for every Person so received on board, as aforesaid; and of FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS for every such Vessel employed in the Importation or Transportation aforesaid; to be recovered by Action, Bill, Plaint or Information; the one Half to the Plaintiff, and the other Half to the Use of this State.” And all insurance on vessels and slaves shall be void. This act to be given as evidence under general issue, in any suit commenced for recovery of such insurance. “... if any Person shall kidnap ... any free Negro,” etc., inhabitant of this State, he shall forfeit £100. Every vessel clearing for the coast of Africa or any other part of the world, and suspected to be in the slave-trade, must give bond in £1,000. Slightly amended in 1789. ACTS AND LAWS OF CONNECTICUT (edition of 1784), pages 368-9, 388.
71. Bear in mind that in early periods the Southern states of the United States of America produced no significant amount of cotton fiber for export — such production not beginning until 1789. In fact, according to page 92 of Seybert’s STATISTICS, in 1784 a small parcel of cotton that had found its way from the US to Liverpool had been refused admission to England, because it was the customs agent’s opinion that this involved some sort of subterfuge: it could not have originated in the United States. 72. After a hiatus of two decades, in 1808, Friend Moses would revive this school board, and after more than another decade of planning, the school would begin anew in 1819, this time atop College Hill in Providence.
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Connecticut’s plan was to accomplish this great thing very gradually, without rushing so much as to interfere with anyone’s agenda. Children born to slaves after 1792 would be free and all existing slave children would be emancipated when they reached the age of 25. This might indicate, to the unwary, that by the time that the captives of the La Amistad would arrive in that state’s prison system, slavery there would have been a thing of the past. However, Connecticut’s approach would be so utterly gradualistic that it would never emancipate any females who had been, at the time of the enactment of this legislation, over 21 years of age, or any males who had been over 25 years of age! (There still would be, according to the US Census, even in 1840, a small number of slaves in Connecticut. This New England state actually would not be clear of human enslavement until, “free at last,” Death would come to collect its oldest surviving slave — in the Year of Our Lord 1848!) “It is simply crazy that there should ever have come into being a world with such a sin in it, in which a man is set apart because of his color — the superficial fact about a human being. Who could want such a world? For an American fighting for his love of country, that the last hope of earth should from its beginning have swallowed slavery, is an irony so withering, a justice so intimate in its rebuke of pride, as to measure only with God.” — Stanley Cavell, MUST WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY? 1976, page 141
How could Connecticut’s elimination of slavery have possibly been made more gradual? For instance, in this year, because Rhode Island would no longer register a vessel for an enslaving voyage, Cyprian Sterry of Providence simply got aboard his vessel and went with it down the bay and down the sound to a port with a customshouse along the Connecticut shore — and there obtained clearance papers for the projected voyage to the coast of Africa! W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Connecticut, in common with the other colonies of this section, had a trade for many years with the West Indian slave markets; and though this trade was much smaller than that of the neighboring colonies, yet many of her citizens were engaged in it. A map of Middletown at the time of the Revolution gives, among one hundred families, three slave captains and “three notables” designated as “slave-dealers.”73 The actual importation was small,74 and almost entirely unrestricted before the Revolution, save by a few light, general duty acts. In 1774 the further importation of slaves was prohibited, because “the increase of slaves in this Colony is injurious to the poor and inconvenient.” The law prohibited importation under any pretext by a penalty of £100 per slave.75 This was re-enacted in 1784, and provisions were made for the
73. Fowler, LOCAL LAW, etc., page 124. 74. The number of slaves in Connecticut has been estimated as follows: — In 1680, 30. CONNECTICUT COLONIAL RECORD, III. 298. In 1730, 700. Williams, HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA, I. 259. In 1756, 3,636. Fowler, LOCAL LAW, etc., page 140. In 1762, 4,590. Williams, HISTORY OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA, I. 260. In 1774, 6,562. Fowler, LOCAL LAW, etc., page 140. In 1782, 6,281. Fowler, LOCAL LAW, etc., page 140. In 1800, 5,281. Fowler, LOCAL LAW, etc., page 141.
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abolition of slavery.76 In 1788 participation in the trade was forbidden, and the penalty placed at £50 for each slave and £500 for each ship engaged.77 W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: In the Eastern States, where slavery as an institution was already nearly defunct, action was aimed toward stopping the notorious participation of citizens in the slave-trade outside the State. The prime movers were the Rhode Island Quakers. Having early secured a law against the traffic in their own State, they turned their attention to others. Through their remonstrances Connecticut, in 1788,78 prohibited participation in the trade by a fine of £500 on the vessel, £50 on each slave, and loss of insurance; this act was strengthened in 1792,79 the year after the Haytian revolt. Massachusetts, after many fruitless attempts, finally took advantage of an unusually bold case of kidnapping, and passed a similar act in 1788.80 “This,” says Belknap, “was the utmost which could be done by our legislatures; we still have to regret the impossibility of making a law here, which shall restrain our citizens from carrying on this trade in foreign bottoms, and from committing the crimes which this act prohibits, in foreign countries, as it is said some of them have done since the enacting of these laws.”81 Thus it is seen how, spurred by the tragedy in the West Indies, the United States succeeded by State action in prohibiting the slave-trade from 1798 to 1803, in furthering the cause of abolition, and in preventing the fitting out of slave-trade expeditions in United States ports. The country had good cause to congratulate itself. The national government hastened to supplement State action as far as possible, and the prophecies of the more sanguine Revolutionary fathers seemed about to be realized, when the ill-considered act of South Carolina showed the weakness of the constitutional compromise.
75. CONNECTICUT COLONIAL RECORD, XIV 329. Fowler (pages 125-6) says that the law was passed in 1769, as does Sanford (page 252). I find no proof of this. There was in Connecticut the same Biblical legislation on the trade as in Massachusetts. Cf. LAWS OF CONNECTICUT (repr. 1865), page 9; also COLONIAL RECORD, I. 77. For general duty acts, see COLONIAL RECORD, V 405; VIII. 22; IX. 283; XIII. 72, 125. 76. ACTS AND LAWS OF CONNECTICUT (ed. 1784), pages 233-4. 77. ACTS AND LAWS OF CONNECTICUT (ed. 1784), pages 368, 369, 388. 78. ACTS AND LAWS OF CONNECTICUT (ed. 1784), pages 368, 369, 388. 79. ACTS AND LAWS OF CONNECTICUT, page 412. 80. PERPETUAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1780-89, pages 235-6. 81. QUERIES RESPECTING SLAVERY, etc., in MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS, 1st Series, IV. 205.
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Our national birthday, Friday the 4th of July: In Marietta in what would become Ohio (then known as the
Northwestern Territory), James M. Varnum delivered the 1st Independence Day oration ever delivered west of the Alleghenies. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Francis Hopkinson had arranged a “Grand Federal Procession” which amounted to the longest parade in the nation to date. In this year the national birthday celebration turned political as factions struggled with one another in regard to approval of the new federal Constitution. This was especially the case in Albany, New York, where pro-Constitution and anti-Constitution factions clashed (New York would ratify the Constitution on the 26th). The Federalists of Providence, Rhode Island had scheduled an Independence Day ox roast in celebration of the fact that, when on June 21st New Hampshire had voted to approve the federal Constitution –the 9th state to do so– the United States of America had officially come into existence. On the night of July 3d, therefore, the anti-Federalist “Country Party,” in a belated attempt to intercept that celebration, had begun to assemble in a nearby woodland around Colonel William West’s 1st Providence County Brigade (West was also a judge of the Superior Court) marching in from Scituate, Rhode Island. On this morning there had been negotiations, and the insurgent group had disbanded after an agreement that the day’s celebration was going to focus exclusively on an issue in regard to which all could agree, that of simple independence — and that local Federalist orators would courteously refrain from making mention either of the ratification of the Constitution or of the recent event in New Hampshire.
When the Reverend John Pitman went into the city on this day, therefore, the dust was already beginning to settle on this dispute, and what he witnessed there amounted to merely “an Ox roasting whole & the tables set,” and what he heard rumors of was merely that “General West came down at the head of 2 or 300 men armed with guns & bayonets on Poles to distroy the works but was prevented by the Inhabitants turn.g out armed to defend them.” CELEBRATING OUR B-DAY
1788. The anniversary of Independence and the adoption of the Federal Constitution by nine States, were jointly celebrated on the 4th of July. There was a military parade, bells were rung and cannon fired. An address was delivered by Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, in the First Baptist meeting house; and an ox was roasted whole on the plains North of the Cove, at which five or six thousand persons were present. Some three or four hundred men from the country, of the anti-federal party, which then had the ascendancy on the State, appeared near the ground under arms, and threatened an attack. A committee of citizens was delegated to meet and remonstrate with them - the difficulty was compromised, and the enemy quietly withdrew, and left the citizens to enjoy their feast.
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Winter: Friends Moses Brown and Samuel Emlin (a traveling public Friend visiting from Philadelphia) went to the Providence, Rhode Island home of the premier slavetrader, Cyprian Sterry, were invited to enter, and had there an extended conversation with that businessman. Some 6 negrero vessels were leaving the Narragansett Bay during that season bound for the shores of Africa, and in the harbor at Newport, Sterry was in the process of fitting out one of these six. The Quakers warned Sterry that if he violated the new law about the engagement of Rhode Islanders in the international slave trade, they would see to it that he was prosecuted. Sterry took refuge in the standard lie — he was sending, he averred, his ship to Africa after ivory and gold rather than, Heaven forbid, after black slaves.
1789
WEATHERWISE’S ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR 1789.... Boston: Printed and Sold by Edmund Freeman. More than five pages of this were devoted to the fate of an American who had torched a British naval facility during December 1776. The account, “An authentic Account of James Hill, otherwise John Hind, otherwise James Hind, otherwise James Acksan, commonly called John the Painter, who was executed for setting fire to the Rope-house belonging to His Majesty’s Dock Yard at Portsmouth,” instanced that this person had been being paid for military intelligence by an American commissioner in Paris, Silas Dean.
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POOR RICHARD’S RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1789. BY POOR RICHARD. Newport, Rhode Island: Peter Edes.
AN ALMANACK FOR 1789. By Elisha Thornton of Smithfield. Newport: Peter Edes.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1789. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: John Carter.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR & RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1789 (Providence: Bennett Wheeler) had an exceedingly crude woodcut of the “Arms of the United States.” The title page bears cut of Arms of United States and the almanac contains a report of the committee to make the channel, with directions for entering the harbor of Providence.
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During this year, 5 black male domestic servants would slip away from the John Brown mansion and its associated workshops, going to Boston and attempting to merge into the free black community. Three of these 5 men, facing destitution, would soon return to slavery in Providence, Rhode Island, promising their slavemaster John Brown that they would “behave better” in the future.
CONSTITUTION OF A SOCIETY FOR ABOLISHING THE SLAVE-TRADE. WITH SEVERAL ACTS OF THE LEGISLATURES OF THE STATES OF MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT AND RHODE-ISLAND, FOR THAT PURPOSE. Printed by John Carter. Providence, 1789. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
The US Secretary of War (Henry Knox) decreed that the native American tribes of New England had been extinguished:
It is ... painful to consider, that all the Indian tribes, once existing in those States now the best cultivated and most populous, have become extinct. If the same causes continue, the same effects will happen; and in a short period, the idea of an Indian on this side of the Mississippi will only be found in the pages of the historian.
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The Massachusetts Legislature decided that teaching red Americans to read and write would be a capital offense, that is, one of those crimes so serious that they may be punished by the death penalty. Better not let these people find out they are being written down as extinct!
When the English settlements first commenced in New England, that part of its territory, which lies south of New Hampshire, was inhabited by five principal nations of Indians: the Pequots, who lived in Connecticut; the Narragansets, in Rhode Island; the Pawkunnawkuts, or Womponoags, east of the Narragansets and to the north as far as Charles River;1 the Massachusetts, north of Charles river and west of Massachusetts Bay; and the Pawtuckets, north of the Massachusetts. The boundaries and rights of these nations appear not to have been sufficiently definite to be now clearly known. They had within their jurisdiction many subordinate tribes, governed by sachems, or sagamores, subject, in some respects, to the principal sachem. At the commencement of the seventeenth century, they were able to bring into the field more than 18,000 warriors; but about the year 1612, they were visited with a pestilential disease, whose horrible ravages reduced their number to about 1800.2 Some of their villages were entirely depopulated. This great mortality was viewed by the first Pilgrims, as the accomplishment of one of the purposes of Divine Providence, by making room for the settlement of civilized man, and by preparing a peaceful asylum for the persecuted Christians of the old world. In what light soever the event may be viewed, it no doubt greatly facilitated the settlements, and rendered them less hazardous.
1. I have supposed that the Indians living south of the Charles River did not belong to the Massachusetts tribe. Chickatabot, sachem of Neponset, and Obatinuat acknowledged submission to Massasoit in 1621, and were at enmity with Squaw Sachem. No instance within my knowledge is recorded of a petty sachem going to war with his own tribe. It is also worthy of remark, that these sachems and their descendants executed deeds of lands within Massasoit’s territories, but never in the Massachusetts territories As the country became settled by the English, and the jealousies between different tribes were forgotten, all the Indians living within the Massachusetts patent were rather erroneously classed among the Massachusetts Indians. Hence the statements of Winthrop, Daniel Gookin, and other historians. See Prince, ANNALS, 1621.
2. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COLLECTION, volume I.
PEQUOT WAMPANOAG MASSACHUSETT NARRAGANSETT
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February 20, Friday: At the meetinghouse of the Religious Society of Friends at the corner of Towne and Meeting Streets in Providence, Rhode Island, the Providence Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade came into being and selected its first officers. David Howell (January 1, 1747-July 21, 1824) would be president, Friend Moses Brown would be treasurer, and Friend Thomas Arnold would be recording secretary. Also involved in the creation of this Society were the Reverend Samuel Hopkins, minister of the 1st Congregational Church at Newport, Friend William Rotch, prominent merchant of New Bedford, etc. The new society would function as a sort of non-official “District Attorney,” or “Special Prosecutor,” dedicated to bringing before the bar of justice any violators of the ban that had been enacted by the General Assembly in 1787 against taking part in the international slave trade. ANTISLAVERY
MOSES BROWN According to Mack Thompson’s MOSES BROWN, RELUCTANT REFORMER (Chapel Hill NC: U of North Carolina P, 1962, pages 195-6): He already had a plan, drawn up in 1786, modeled after similar organizations in America and England. There were many people in the state eager to emulate their friends in New-York and Philadelphia. Meetings were held in Providence during January 1789, and on February 20, in the Friends’ meetinghouse, the Providence Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was officially organized with ex-Congressman David Howell as president, Thomas Arnold, merchant and Friend, as secretary, and Moses Brown as treasurer.82 Samuel Hopkins sent his congratulations but objected to the title given the society as being “too confined. It should, at least, be extended to the whole state. And I think it ought not to be confined to the Abolition of the Slave Trade. It ought to promote the freedom of those now in slavery, and to assist those who are free, as far as may be, to the enjoyment of the privileges of freemen, and the comforts of life....”83
W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Meantime, in spite of the prohibitory State laws, the African slave-trade to the United States continued to flourish. It was notorious that New England traders carried on a large traffic.84 Members stated on the floor of the House that “it was much to be regretted that the severe and pointed statute against the slave trade had been so little regarded. In defiance of its forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and vessels of the United States 82. See the announcements in the United States Chronicle, February 5, 12, 19, 26, 1789 83. The Reverend Samuel Hopkins to Friend Moses Brown, March 7, 1789, MOSES BROWN PAPERS (John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Volume VI, page 57) 84. Cf. Fowler, LOCAL LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT, etc., page 126.
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were still engaged in that traffic.... In various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, without secrecy, shame, or apprehension.... Countenanced by their fellow- citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes had been transported from Guinea, and, by smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. So little respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common consent.”85 These voyages were generally made under the flag of a foreign nation, and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port to escape confiscation. South Carolina’s own Congressman confessed that although the State had prohibited the trade since 1788, she “was unable to enforce” her laws. “With navigable rivers running into the heart of it,” said he, “it was impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into the country. The law was completely evaded, and, for the last year or two [1802-3], Africans were introduced into the country in numbers little short, I believe, of what they would have been had the trade been a legal one.”86 The same tale undoubtedly might have been told of Georgia.
June 28, Sunday: Abigail Adams, traveling to join Vice President John Adams in New-York and passing through Providence, Rhode Island, attended a dinner party at the John Brown mansion. (She would describe the edifice as “one of the grandest I have seen in the country.”)87
85. Speech of S.L. Mitchell of New York, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress, 1st Session, page 1000. Cf. also speech of Bedinger: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, pages 997-8. 86. Speech of Lowndes in the House, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress,, 1st Session, page 992. Cf. Stanton’s speech later: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 9th Congress, 2d Session, page 240. 87. Abigail would not have been distressed at seeing black slaves in the mansion, since she considered blacks to be inherently inferior to white people, and naturally enslaved.
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August: This is what the 1st Baptist meetinghouse in Providence, Rhode Island looked like when it was brand spanking new:
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It was capacious because it was intended to be used for the graduation ceremonies of the nearby Baptist institution of higher education:
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December 2, Wednesday: In Providence and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, cotton from the slave plantations of the American South and from the slave plantations of the West Indies was being woven into cloth for resale to its growers. The operation, run by the merchant Moses Brown, was on a small scale. On this date Samuel Slater,
a young man recently arrived from England after working in cotton spinning mills, applied for a job with Brown. Slater alleged an intimate knowledge of the British thread-spinning machinery: “I flatter myself that I can give the greatest satisfaction in making machinery, making as good yarn, either for stocking or twist, as any that is made in England.”
Samuel [Slater] was a stalwart, handsome, rosy-cheeked youth of twenty-one when he came to America. Moses Brown sent him to Oziel Wilkinson’s, in Pawtucket, as a suitable place for him to board. When he entered Wilkinson’s house Hannah and another of Oziel’s daughters were working in the kitchen. Seeing a stranger, girl- like, they fled to an inner room; but Hannah, with maidenly curiosity, looked through a hole in the door and was favorably impressed with the young Englishman’s appearance. Samuel saw the eyes and resolved to win them. The young people were both smitten, but the Wilkinsons were Friends and did not approve of Hannah’s marrying a man of another faith. They proposed to send her away to school, but Samuel declared he would follow the girl to the ends of the earth if need be. The parents wisely concluded to withdraw their opposition and the lovers were allowed to marry. In the words of Slater’s biographer, Hannah was a “lodestone” that kept him in Pawtucket. Had it not been for her influence and sympathy, he might have given away to discouragement at the many difficulties he was obliged to encounter in making the new machines and running them
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successfully. In telling the story of Slater we must not forget the woman who assisted him in winning his great success. The machines are supposed to have been started up temporarily in October, 1790, but the first record of their work commences with December 20, 1790. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT QUAKER DISOWNMENT
1790
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1790. Providence, Rhode Island: Bennett Wheeler. Cut of eclipse on title page.
(Same, second edition.) The second edition contains an apology for the non-appearance of the comet of 1661.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1790. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: John Carter. Contains two eclipse cuts. This almanac contains “Directions for sailing up the Providence River.”
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AN ALMANACK FOR 1790. By Elisha Thornton of Smithfield. Newport: Peter Edes.
THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1790. Newport: Peter Edes.
THE COLUMBIAN ALMANACK AND MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE AND FUN FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE. BEING THE THIRD AFTER BISEXTILE OR LEAP YEAR, AND THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. “William Lilly Stover, Professor of Astronomy and Astrology.” Calculated at Newport, Latitude 41° 25' N.: Printed and Sold by Peter Edes. This offered calculations identical to those of Elisha Thornton of Smithfield’s RHODE ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1791, which was also printed by Peter Edes.
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During the 1790s, a Congregationalist girl of the East Side in Providence, Rhode Island named Betsey Metcalf would, with the encouragement of her aunt, be developing a process for weaving women’s bonnets, from cultivated straw, similar to one she had seen in a local store. She would teaching this process to neighbors. Eventually, when she was grown, she would become a schoolteacher in West Dedham (now Westwood), Massachusetts and then get married with a local man named Obed Baker (1783-1868). Then, a whole lot later, Mrs. Baker would realize that she had accomplished something of significance, and would write an ex-post- facto “diary” made up of recollections, and lay claim to this one thing of significance that allegedly she had accomplished in her life.88
During the writing of the Constitution, the American inventors and promoters of steamboat schemes had been very persistent and insistent in their lobbying the halls and lobbies and offices of political power, for the immense prizes of monopoly economic power which could be granted to influential citizens by the new national government, and this activity of course continued while the US Patent Act of 1790 was being negotiated and enacted, and while the first American patents were being granted, and while the new governmental department’s administrative procedures and policies were being worked out. John Fitch’s 2nd, larger steamboat, the Perseverance, was already employing its stern crank and paddle propulsion scheme to run on a commercial schedule between Philadelphia and Burlington. Almost immediately Fitch and James Rumsey secured conflicting US steamboat patents, and John Stevens secured three related steamboat patents plus three patents for improvements to the antique design of the Savery engine which seemed at the time to be relevant. In addition, Fitch went to France and got a steamboat patent when he heard that Rumsey was in England getting a steamboat patent. (However, looking ahead, neither Fitch nor Rumsey would succeed during their lifetimes in translating their patents into the monopoly economic power for which they had for so long schemed. Eventually Fitch would off himself.) Self-Murder
Date Sex Method
March 5, 1786 Male hanged self
July 5, 1790 Male hanged self
ditto Male shot self
March 29, 1791 Female method not stated
October 11, 1796 Male cut throat 88. Well, that — or maybe during the British embargo of the maritime commerce of Napoleonic Europe somebody else performed this American act of imitation of the peasant weavers of Livorno, Italy. There’s no evidence whatever, other than the belated testimony of the lady in question: no samples of the early work survive, we have only this one self-serving and uncorroborated and belated reconstruction of the events, and anyway it was admittedly a mere act of imitation of a foreign bonnet that was on display in a local store. Also, the lady in question actually had no way to know for sure after the fact that it had been she who had been the one whose childhood bonnets had sparked this local industry — rather than someone else with a similar inspiration but less of an inclination to lay a claim to importance.
The story persists because it is a nice story with a nice moral –and because it may be true –and because male historians have considered it to be woman-oriented local-history stuff and therefore unworthy of any challenge. Local histories are full of such stories of localities considered locally to be of historical significance, which may or may not be of any actual historical significance, and nobody wants to be the one to challenge the firm knowledge of a local-history tour guide who is escorting one down toney Benefit Street on the toney East Side of Providence on a sunny afternoon. It is the sort of story upon which one may build relentlessly, as one explores the absolute spirit of altruism in which the little girl teaches this foreign process which she has imitated and recreated, for free to various anonymous East Side neighbors.
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Date Sex Method
March 15, 1807 Male cut throat
April 16, 1807 Male hanged self
During this year a John Fitch (evidently a son or grandson of this steamboat inventor) was a student at Rhode Island College and drew a bird’s-eye-view illustration of Providence, Benefit Street, Meeting Street, the wharves, and the College Edifice perched atop College Hill. BROWN UNIVERSITY
The Reverend James Manning requested to be relieved of his duties as President of the College of Rhode Island. (He would die before a successor would be appointed.)
During this decade the father of George W. Benson, George Benson (1752-1836), a Providence merchant active in the Rhode Island Peace Society who would become a founding member and then the secretary of the Providence Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, was transiting from being a Baptist to becoming a convinced member of the Religious Society of Friends.
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May 24, Monday-29, Saturday: During this year, the 1st US national census would be reporting 68,824 people in Rhode Island, 6,380 of whom were in Providence.
The governing figures in the state had been defying the instructions of the nascent federal government and instead of staging a representative convention of delegates had conducted a democratic popular referendum on the new US constitutional document. Since this referendum had been boycotted by the Federalists, it had defeated the constitution by a vote of 2,708 over 237. Finally, however, in mid-January 1790, the requisite convention of delegates had been called together, and an initial inconclusive convention had been held in South Kingstown on March 1-6, and a second convention of delegates was staged in Newport on May 24-29, and a ratification tally of 34 votes over 32 votes was obtained when Providence threatened to secede from the state and unite itself either with Connecticut or with Massachusetts — and, finally, on May 29th, by the slimmest of margins, two votes, Rhode Island became the 13th of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution:
The Reverend Isaac Backus had offered to his friends for consideration a Bill of Rights for incorporation somehow into the document. His 2d item read as follows: As God is the only worthy object of all religious worship, and nothing can be true religion but a voluntary obedience unto His revealed will ... every person has an unalienable right to act in all religious affairs according to the full persuasion of his own mind, where others are not injured thereby....
Might it be said that, in holding out in this way against a new federal union between slaveholding colonies and nonslaveholding colonies, these Rhode Island Quakers were anticipating the civil war which would destroy so many American lives three or four human generations into the future? (By way of radical contrast, the people in the other American colonies were in effect saying to them, “Hey, don’t let a little thing like human slavery bother you so much!”) Well, you could say that if you believe that Rhode Islanders are by their very nature pure of heart. However, some historians have alleged that the issue can be better understood by observing the Watergate rule, “follow the money” — Rhode Island, they suggest, had needed to uphold state sovereignty in order for its paper money to retain value.
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RATIFICATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
December 8, 1787 Delaware YES= 30 NO= 0 December 12, 1787 Pennsylvania YES= 46 NO= 23 December 18, 1787 New Jersey YES= 38 NO= 0 January 2, 1788 Georgia YES= 26 NO= 0 January 8, 1788 Connecticut YES=128 NO= 40 February 6, 1788 Massachusetts YES=187 NO=168 April 28, 1788 Maryland YES= 63 NO= 11 May 23, 1788 South Carolina YES=149 NO= 73 June 21, 1788 New Hampshire YES= 57 NO= 47 June 25, 1788 Virginia YES= 89 NO= 79 July 26, 1788 New York YES= 30 NO= 27
JOINING LATER IN ADHERENCE TO THE US CONSTITUTION: 12 & 13
November 21, 1789 North Carolina YES=194 NO= 77 May 29, 1790 Rhode Island YES= 34 NO= 32
READ THE FULL TEXT
1790. A State convention at Newport, in May, voted, to adopt the Federal Constitution; and this State came into the Union, the last of the original thirteen; and the event was commemorated by great public demonstrations of joy. The population of the town was 6380. President Washington again visited this town, with several distinguished public men in his suite. His arrival was announced by a discharge of artillery and the ringing of bells. A procession of citizens was formed, and he was conducted to the Golden Ball Inn, kept by Henry Rice, now the Mansion House. He was complimented by a public dinner, at which three hundred citizens attended. A very respectful and cordial address was made to him by a Committee appointed by the town, to which he suitably replied, and departed in the evening.
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June 1, Tuesday: In Providence, Rhode Island there was a “drunken frolick through the streets” in celebration of the new Constitution, and in the evening “the India ship warren was Illuminated with lanterns & rockets were thrown from the great bridge.” READ THE FULL TEXT
During this month George Washington would give his support to a plan by which the new federal government would be assuming and funding the Revolutionary War debts of the several states. Congress would be choosing Philadelphia as the interim capital for the United States but, to assuage Virginia, which was the foremost opponent of this assumption of debt, the federal Congress would select a site on the Potomac River in Virginia for its permanent capital, to be occupied in ten years time.
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July 14, Wednesday: In France this was, of course, the 1st anniversary of Bastille Day. Alexander von Humboldt and Georg Forster were in Paris for the celebration. Humboldt would return to his studies. Forster would join the revolution and, four years later, die in disgrace and misery.
At some point during this year a federal grand jury, in its first session, returned an indictment of murder against James DeWolf (1764-1837) of Bristol, son of Captain Mark Anthony DeWolf (1726-1792), for having thrown
The Family Crest
a woman overboard when she exhibited symptoms of the small pox. The indictment read “James DeWolf, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil ... did feloniously, willfully and of his malice aforethought, with his hands clinch and seize in and upon the body of said Negro woman ... and did push, cast and throw her from out of said vessel into the Sea and waters of the Ocean, whereupon she then and there instantly sank, drowned and died.”
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(The murderous James DeWolf, protected of course by his influential uncle Simeon Potter and other family members, would never be required to answer to this indictment.)
TRIANGULAR TRADER In Providence, Rhode Island, per Volume 22, page 290 of the town records, John T. Clark on behalf of the firm of Clark & Nightingale, distillers engaged in the Triangular Trade, manumitted “Quam a Negro Man late a Servant to us for life”:
^ÇÉã tÄÄ `xÇ àÉ ã{É à{xyx cÜxyxÇàá y{tÄÄ vÉÅx à{tà jx VÄtÜ~x 9a|z{à|ÇztÄx ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{xVÉâÇàç ÉycÜÉä|wxÇvx`xÜv{tÇàá? yÉÜ9 |Ç VÉy|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x fâÅ Éy Y|yàç fÑtÇ|y{ `|ÄÄxw WÉÄÄtÜá àÉ âá |Ç [tÇw Ñt|w uç dâtÅ t axzÜÉ `tÇ Ätàx t fxÜätÇà àÉ âá yÉÜ Ä|yx 9 yÉÜ w|äxÜá Éà{xÜ zÉÉw VÉÇy|wxÜtà|ÉÇá âá à{xÜxâÇàÉ ÅÉä|Çz? {täx ÅtÇâÅ|ààxw 9 áxà yÜxx? à{x át|w axzÜÉ `tÇ ÇtÅxw dâtÅ {xÜxuç yÉÜ âá 9 ÉâÜ [x|ÜáA exÄ|ÇÖâ|á{|Çz tÄÄ VÄt|Å ÉÜ g|àÄx àÉ à{x yt|w axzÜÉ `tÇ {|á áxÜä|vxá ÉÜ _tuÉâÜ yÉÜxäxÜ {xÜxtyàxÜ \Ç j|àÇxyá ã{xÜxÉy jx {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áâuyáÜ|uxw ÉâÜ atÅxá tá à{x Y|ÜÅ Éy ÉâÜ [Éâyx à{|á yÉâÜàxxÇà{ Wtç Éy ]âÄç? |Ç à{x çxtÜ Éy ÉâÜ _ÉÜw bÇx à{ÉâytÇw fxäxÇ {âÇwÜxw 9 a|Çxà牉 VÄtÜ~9a|z{à|ÇztÄx j|àÇxyá ftÅTÜÇÉÄw
SLAVERY We wonder at the magnificent gentility of these white folks engaged in the Triangular Trade, in setting free this man of color who was their servant for life, and we also wonder — how old might Quam have been at the point at which he was thus made free?
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August 18, Wednesday: After a very rough crossing of the Narragansett Bay, at about four in the afternoon, honored with a federal salute of thirteen cannons, “General George Washenton President of the United States landed at the lower end of the town [of Providence, Rhode Island] & walked up in grand procession to Mr Dagget’s tavern.” (According to the journal of Congressman Smith, this grand procession included three “negro scrapers” who were making “a horrible noise.”)
After dining that evening, President George Washington strolled uphill to the College of Rhode Island, which had been gayly illuminated by the students. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
September 7, Tuesday: In the evening in Providence, Rhode Island, from the yard of the Baptist church, an “air- balloon” ascended into the skies.
1791
THE COLUMBIAN ALMANACK AND MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE AND FUN FOR 1791. By William Lilly Stover, professor of astronomy and astrology, Newport (Rhode Island): P. Edes. The type pages of this almanac are wider than those of its contemporary Rhode Island almanacs. The Court Register is placed above the astronomical calculation for the month in the space formerly filled by poetry. It contains an account of the masonic initiation.
THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1791. By Elisha Thornton of Smithfield. Newport: P. Edes.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1791. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. It has a cut of the eclipse on the title page.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1791. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence, John Carter. A cut of the eclipse is included.
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In Worcester, Massachusetts, Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) was printing the most extensive Bible published here in Colonial times, the FIRST QUARTO BIBLE. Thomas walked on eggshells, making careful comparison of 30 different editions of the King James Bible and then having every sheet that was set in his press examined by the clergymen of Worcester. Thomas had been apprenticed to a printer at the age of 6, had illustrated a book with woodcuts at the age of 13, and would retire in 1802 at the age of 53 as one of the richest men in America — no doubt, a considerable part of this wealth would come from printing various editions and sizes of this Bible (Benjamin Franklin would refer to Thomas as “The Baskerville of America”). In his prospectus announcing this quarto edition the printer agreed to accept, in partial payment, “wheat, rye, indian corn, butter or pork, if delivered at his store in Worcester or at the store of himself and Company in Boston by the 20th day of December, 1790, the remaining sum of twenty-one shillings to be paid in cash, as soon as the books are ready for delivery.” HISTORY OF THE PRESS
Arthur Fenner was re-elected as Governor of Rhode Island. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
Nicholas Brown, Jr. became a trustee of the College of Rhode Island in Providence from which he had graduated five years earlier, the institution which eventually would come to bear his name. BROWN UNIVERSITY
Colonel Timothy Pickering, Canandaigua lawyer Thomas Morris, the Reverend Kirkland, Horatio Jones, and Jasper Parrish negotiated with native headmen Red Jacket, Cornplanter, and Good Peter (the Indian preacher) and local tribes at New Town point (Elmira, New York). Nearly 500 Senecas encamped at Friend’s Landing on Seneca Lake. At the request of Good Peter, “Universal Friend” Jemimah Wilkinson made an appearance. Her topic was “Have We Not All One Father?” Good Peter’s sermon following her sermon, “Universal Friend” requested that his words be interpreted. Good Peter declined to provide this interpretation, commenting succinctly “if she is Christ, she knows what I said.”
Following this conference, a delegation of Seneca headmen set out to visit President George Washington at the nation’s capital, Philadelphia.
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Noting “the great advantages which had resulted to Boston from the bank established there,” Moses Brown and John Brown helped a group of wealthy merchants found, and John served as the chief executive officer, and Moses served as a director of, the first bank in Rhode Island, incorporated in Providence and named the “Providence.” (During June 1865 this institution would be reorganized as a national bank and renamed the “Providence National Bank.”)
Four guys –Samuel Slater, and a woodworker, and an elderly black employee of the merchant Moses Brown, and the ironmaster David Wilkinson of Slater Mill in Pawtucket (meaning “waterfall”) near North Providence,– bankrolled by a 5th guy, said Friend Moses, and using the water power of the Blackstone River, with children working his “spinning jennies” in the production of yarn made of cotton from slave plantations, were at this point able to begin the farming out the large quantities of manufactured yarn to local women who were to work in their homes for piecework wages, weaving this yarn into cloth on consignment. The English thread-spinning technology had been duplicated entirely from Slater’s memory. This mill would begin to operate satisfactorily as soon as they had made a correction in the slope of the carder teeth he had specified.
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(Obviously, our Bill of Rights was arriving, in this former colony that had been the very last to ratify the Constitution, not one instant too soon. :-)
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Water power would replace at least for the most part the brute labor that had been being provided by animal and human treadmills:
(The treadmill illustrated above was one in use for punishment at the Brixton House of Correction in 1821. Prisoners walked the treadmill for ten minutes and then had a five minute breather. Talking was forbidden. Although the treadmill at Coldbath Fields prison drove a flour-mill, in other prisons the power produced was not utilized. Of course, in factories the treadmill was not for punishment and the power was always utilized.)
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Mr. Samuel Slater was able to get his hands on eight children between the ages of 7 and 12 as his first work crew in his factory at Slater Mills, to tend his water-powered carding and spinning machines — machines which were utterly lacking in any safety guards over their power belts and pulleys. Clearly, the only families which would put their children to this sort of dangerous labor were families which were desperate to get food on their table and shelter over their heads. Get this, such children might otherwise be destitute and victimizable! Slater made no agreements that these children, who should have been in school, would be trained as apprentices in any craft: they were not indentured to learn a lifetime skill, but were to be mere low-wage machine fodder without a future, in his dark Satanic mill. You can visit this mill today. It’s right off the freeway but now it is deceptively lovely and lonely and silent there. There is nothing whatever about the place which might cause child abuse to spring to one’s mind.
Get ready, here comes the unholy alliance of “the lords of the lash and the lords of the loom”! By 1810 the United States would boast 87 such cotton mills, able to provide employment for 4,000 workers, some 3,500 of whom would be women and children who might otherwise be destitute and victimizable.89
We owe so much to technology and the profit motive! (Don’t let Adam Smith’s invisible hand slap you in the face. :-)
White imitation slaves are infinitely superior to black real ones, because there’s never any agitation to emancipate the imitation white ones — if they get old or sick or get caught in the machinery and injure themselves, you can just tell them to get lost!
By 1796 there would be three forges, a tanning mill, three snuff mills, an oil mill, a clothiers works, three fulling mills and two nail mills, at this falls on the Pawtucket River, all being run by water power rather than muscle power. Human workers were being allowed to use their brains rather than their brawn — isn’t that superior?
March: The Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade brought its first legal case. The Rhode Island owners of the brigantine Hope would be fined £200 for continuing to participate in the international slave trade after such participation had been outlawed by the General Assembly.
89. As Friend Moses Brown, Rhode Island’s premiere industrialist, had pointed out,
“As the manufactory of the mill yarn is done by children from 8 to 14 years old it is a near total saving of labor to the country.”
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April: The Reverend James Manning, who had requested to be relieved of his duties as pastor of the Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, preached a farewell sermon.
May 27, Friday: Captain Charles Williamson met with his employers, the association formed by William Johnstone Pulteney MP, former governor of Bombay William Hornby, and English promoter Patrick Colquhoun, to advise that he’s cut a deal to sell 300,000 acres of New York land to Archibald Boyd of Baltimore, pending their approval of course (for close to £75,000 they would of course authorize the deal).
In Providence, Rhode Island at 3PM, David Cumstock the young murderer was hanged before a crowd estimated at 10,000, to all appearances unrepentant, with the Reverend Snow offering the prayer at the gallows.
July 24, Sunday morning: While offering the prayers this morning at the family home in Providence, Rhode Island, the Reverend James Manning became stricken with apoplexy. BAPTISTS
July 29, Friday: The Reverend James Manning died in Providence, Rhode Island.
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November 12, Saturday: Moses Brown and Oziel Wilkinson registered their deed to an irregular plot of seven acres,
MOSES BROWN bearing two dwelling houses, a barn, and a corncrib, with water rights (this is the essential phrase: “with water rights”), on the bank of the Blackstone River next to the steepest waterfall there, where Samuel Slater’s mill was to be constructed.
Although now this land is part of the town of Pawtucket (the town’s name meaning “waterfall”), the two capitalists registered their deed as then part of North Providence. The price paid had been “$350 Spanish mill
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dollars” and Brown owned three shares in the property to Wilkinson’s one share.
RHODE ISLAND
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1792
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1792. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1792. By Elisha Thornton of Smithfield.90 Newport: P. Edes.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1792. Providence: Bennett Wheeler. A cut of the eclipse appears on the title page.
At Providence the Congdon and Carpenter iron works was established. 1792. Weybosset Bridge was rebuilt, with a draw to admit vessels into the cove. It was fifty-six feet in width, ornamented with handsome balustrades, and furnished with six lamps. The town was aided in raising funds for its erection by the grant of a lottery, which was called the Great Bridge Lottery.
90. Elisha Thornton had been born in Smithfield, Rhode Island in 1748, and was the first native Rhode Island almanac maker. He would discontinue publishing his own material with this issue and thereafter would vend his calculations to other printers.
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In Kingston, or Little Rest, a new jail built of stone replaced an older jail structure on the other side of the road.
The Reverend Jedidiah Morse provided an impression of Rhode Island as he encountered it.
REVEREND JEDIDIAH MORSE
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February 15, Wednesday: On September 14, 1796, some four and a half years after the fact, Isaiah Burr of Warren and Newport, Rhode Island would appear before the Town Clerk of Providence to certify that, in consideration of a payment of sixty spanish milled Dollars received, he had on this day in the past sold a piece of the property of his deceased father, to wit a black boy named Jack, to Bacchus Overing to have and to hold for and during the natural Life of Said Jack. This transaction was duly recorded on page 144 in Volume 25 of the town records:
^ÇÉã tÄÄ `xÇ uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá à{tà \ \át|t{ UâÜÜ Éy jtÜÜxÇ |Ç à{x fàtàx Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇw \Ç~xxÑxÜ [sic] yÉÜ tÇw |Ç VÉÇá|wxÜtà|ÉÇ Éy à{x fâÅ Éy á|åàç áÑtÇ|á{ Å|ÄÄxw WÉÄÄtÜá à{x exvx|Ñà ã{xÜxÉy \ {xÜxuç tv~ÇÉãÄxwzx {täx utÜzt|Çxw zÜtÇàxw 9 áÉÄw tÇw uç à{xáx cÜxáxÇàá wÉ zÜtÇà? utÜzt|Ç tÇw áxÄÄ âÇàÉ Utvv{âá bäxÜ|Çz tÄÄ Åç e|z{à? g|àÄx tÇw \ÇàxÜxáà |Ç tÇw àÉ t uÄtv~ UÉç ÇtÅxw ]tv~ à{x cÜÉÑxÜàç Éy Åç Ytà{xÜ wxvxtáxw? tÇw tÄÄ à{x e|z{à? g|àÄx tÇw \ÇàxÜxáà Éy tÄÄ tÇw tÇç Éà{xÜ cxÜáÉÇ vÄt|Å|Çz âÇwxÜ Åç tyÉÜxát|w Ytà{xÜ àÉ {täx tÇw àÉ {ÉÄw à{x át|w UÉç ]tv~ tá à{x ÑÜÉ@ ÑxÜàç Éy à{x át|w Utvv{âá tÇw {|á XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw tyá|zÇá yÉÜ tÇw wâ@ Ü|Çz à{x ÇtàâÜtÄ _|yx Éy à{x ft|w ]tv~? tÇw \ wÉ {xÜxuç yâÜà{xÜ vÉäxÇtÇà tÇw tzÜxx àÉ tÇw ã|à{ à{x át|w Utvv{âá {|á XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw tyá|zÇá à{tà \ ã|ÄÄ ãtÜÜtÇà tÇw wxyxÇw {|Å |Ç ÑÉyáxyá|ÉÇ Éy à{x át|w UÉç ]tv~ tÇw \ {xÜxuç u|Çw Åç XåxvâàÉÜá tÇw [x|Üá uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá tzt|Çáà à{x VÄt|Åá ÉÜ WxÅtÇwá Éy tÇç cxÜáÉÇ ã{tàxäxÜA Z|äxÇ âÇwxÜ Åç [tÇw tÇw fxtÄ à{|á y|yàxxÇà{ Wtç Éy YxuÜâtÜç DJLEA fxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç à{x ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy eÉu à gA gâv{Åâàç \át|t{ UâÜÜA } ç à{ ‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰ axãÑÉÜà e{Éwx \áÄtÇw Yxu DH DJLEA exv|xäxw [sic] Éy à{x ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxw Utvv{âá bäxÜ@ |Çz à{x fâÅ Éy á|åàç WÉÄÄtÜá ux|Çz à{x VÉÇá|wx@ Ütà|ÉÇ ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxwA à \át|t{ UâÜÜA ‰eÉu‰‰‰‰‰ ‰gA‰‰‰ ‰gâv{ÅâàçA‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰‰ } exvÉÜwxw fxÑàxÅuxÜ DG à{TWDJLIA j|àÇxyá ]xÜA g|ÄÄ|Çz{táàgÉãÇ VÄxÜ~ SLAVERY MANUMISSION We note several interesting elements in this record. First, would the delay of some four and a half years have been the period of time during which Bacchus Overing was coming up with the sixty spanish milled Dollars? (I cannot think of any other explanation, offhand.) And we immediately note the utterly strange fact, that within the body of the note the family name of Bacchus Overing was omitted — does this utterly strange fact signal to us that the purchaser Bacchus was himself a man of color? (I cannot think of any other explanation.) Now putting two and two together, –could it be that this Bacchus Overing was the father of this “black Boy named Jack the Property of my Father deceased”, –that he was purchasing his own son, to set his son free?
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March 19, Monday to 24, Saturday: In Providence, Rhode Island, the Reverend John Pitman was noticing that his “old negro Dinah” was infested with lice. Finally he “determined to send her away.” SLAVERY
1793
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1793. Providence, Rhode Island: B. Wheeler. A cut of arms of the United States appears on the title page.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1793. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: John Carter.
THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK FOR 1793, by Elisha Thornton, and PHILLIPS’S UNITED STATES DIARY, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1793. Warren: Nathaniel Phillips. The first Warren almanac. A cut of the Arms of the United States appears on the title page.
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CARLETON’S ALMANACK (ENLARGED AND IMPROVED) FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1793.... Osgood Carleton. Boston: Printed and sold by Samuel Hall, No. 53, Cornhill. Carleton was “a Teacher of Mathematicks in Boston,” and produced almanacs for the years 1790-1798. In this year’s “enlarged and improved” edition he devoted two calendar pages to each month, rather than one. At the top of each calendar page was an important event of American history. This included an excerpt from THE MEMOIRS OF CAPT. JOHN SMITH. A lunar eclipse was illustrated by a cut.
(Same.) 2d edition.
Initial issue of the MASSACHUSETTS FARMER’S ALMANAC, prepared by Robert Bailey Thomas. This publication would become something of a recognized New England institution, in much the same fashion as in this century the National Geographic Magazine has become a recognized national institution:
THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE: “Your literature,” continued Zenobia, apparently delighted with her description, “will be the Farmer’s Almanac; for, I observe, our friend Foster never gets so far as the newspaper. When you happen to sit down, at odd moments, you will fall asleep, and make nasal proclamation of the fact, as he does; and invariably you must be jogged out of a nap, after supper, by the future Mrs. Coverdale, and persuaded to go regularly to bed. And on Sundays; when you put on a blue coat with brass buttons, you will think of nothing else to do, but to go and lounge over the stone-walls and rail-fences, and stare at the corn growing. And you will look with a knowing eye at oxen, and will have a tendency to clamber over into pig-sties, and feel of the hogs, and give a guess how much they will weigh, after you shall have stuck and dressed them. Already, I have noticed, you begin to speak through your nose, and with a drawl. Pray, if you really did make any poetry to-day, let us hear it in that kind of utterance!”
THE NEW ENGLAND CALLENDAR: OR ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1793. BEING FIRFT AFTER BIFFECTILE, OR LEAP YEAR, AND THE 17TH OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF AMERICA. CALCULATED FOR THE LATITUDE OF BOFTON, BUT WILL FERVE FOR EITHER OF THE ADJACENT STATES. “Richard Aftrologer.” Boston: Printed and sold by Nathaniel Coverly.... This was one of several issued in this year by Coverly. The title cut was of a cherub consulting a globe. There were three pages of epigrams and epitaphs.
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Publication in Providence, Rhode Island of Friend Job Scott’s tract ON SALVATION BY CHRIST. SALVATION BY CHRIST
In Providence, Rhode Island, the Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade, which had in its lawsuits experienced a little legal success and a few legal setbacks, lapsed into inactivity (until 1821, when its President, David Howell, would bring it back to life). THE TRAFFIC IN MAN-BODY
June: Friend Elias Hicks of Long Island visited the monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends on Nantucket Island.91
This was part of Friend Elias’s 14th ministry journey. That summer he was traveling with the young James Mott, Jr., future bridegroom of the newborn Lucretia Coffin. LUCRETIA MOTT
On this long journey, he had gone from the Jericho meetinghouse on Paumanok Long Island (still extant, pictured above) across the sound to Port Chester meeting, up the Connecticut shore to Stamford meeting, on up the shore to Stonington meeting, into Rhode Island to the Westerly meeting, up to the meetings in and around Providence and Taunton, back down and round through the Newport meeting and the New Bedford MA meeting to the Falmouth meeting, and at this point out to the meeting on Nantucket Island. He would continue back up across Cape Cod to the Sandwich meeting and on up along the South Shore to the Scituate meeting, and on to the Boston area and the Salem meeting, and north to the Newburyport MA and Hampton and Dover NH meetings, and on to the Portland ME meeting, and beyond that crossing the “great river Kennebeck” twice and reaching to the Fairfield and Winthrop meetings, and then the Pittsfield NH meeting, and then back down into Massachusetts and to Boston, visiting again some meetings already preached at and attending New England Yearly Meeting, and then striking west presumably through Concord, over to the
91. Other famous-name visitors to Nantucket Island: John Easton, former Rhode Island deputy governor, Metacom, sachem of the Wampanoag, Frederick Douglass, and Henry Thoreau.
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North Adams meeting in the north-west corner of Massachusetts, and up through Vermont to the Sharon, Hanover, and Vergennes meetings, and up across Lake Champlain to the Grand Isle meeting, and then back down through Vergennes again to the meetings in Saratoga and Albany and Hudson NY, and then back home to Jericho by way of the Brooklyn meeting of New-York. Total mileage they would put on their horses during this traveling season: 2,283 miles. During this absence his child Sarah would be born, and the two traveling ministers by November had spoken at about 123 meetings.
It was at some point during this year that Friend Elias’s young orphaned relative, Edward Hicks who had been taken into the Quaker household of David and Elizabeth Lewis Twining, having reached the age of 13, was being put out as an apprentice to the Tomlinson brothers, coachmakers in Attleborough.
1794
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1794. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence, Rhode Island: Carter and Wilkinson.
THE RHODE-ISLAND ALMANACK, WITH AN EPHEMERIS FOR 1794. By Elisha Thornton. Warren: Nathaniel Phillips for Jacob Richardson, Newport.
(Thornton’s?) SHEET ALMANACK FOR 1794. (Providence?) Broadside. Advertised in Providence Gazette.
PHILLIPS’S UNITED STATES DIARY, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1794. Warren: Nathaniel Phillips.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1794.... [Benjamin West]. Providence: Printed ... by Bennett Wheeler. Title cut of lunar eclipse.
Two-plus pages were devoted to “Thirteen Allegories.” Described the “famous thieves vinegar” that had been such an effective remedy during the 1666 plague in London. The arms of the United States and of Rhode Island appear on title page of this and subsequent Phillips almanacs.
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The new silver and gold coins of the United States began to be current.
Nehemiah Dodge opened a jewelry manufacturing shop near the Roger Williams spring on North Main street in Providence, Rhode Island, and announced himself as “a goldsmith and jeweler, clock and watchmaker.” His novelty was to manufacture his gold ornaments, such as gold necklaces, knobs, and twists, gold rings, and miniature cases, not out of the usual sort of costly eighteen-carats-fine gold, but out of a cheaper alloy which would sell in volume. He is therefore considered by some as the person who pioneered the important jewelry industry in Providence. (Seril Dodge had, however, at about the time of the Revolutionary War, established a jewelry manufacture shop two doors north of the “Baptist meeting house” which stood on the site of Roger Williams’s house of worship on North Main street in Providence, Rhode Island, and had there made silver shoe buckles for feminine adornment. There had been in addition a number of jewelers who made a specialty of the making of ornaments of a similar character in the years immediately following, such as Calvin Wheaton, Ezekiel Burr and William Burr, Caleb Wheaton, Edward Spaulding, John Gibbs, David Vinton, and William Hamlin. Nehemiah Dodge’s significance, therefore, is not so much as an early artisan, but as a developer of mass-market manufacture. By 1810, approximately a hundred fabricators would be employed in this industry in Providence, and they would be producing about $100,000 worth of jewelry per year. By 1815, there would be about 175 and the value of their annual product would have risen to about $300,000. In 1822, the value of their annual product would be estimated at $600,000. In 1832 the industry would employ 282 locally. Note however that since the purchase of new jewelry is the luxury most readily postponed in hard times, there have of course always been great fluctuations in this activity from year to year as the nation’s economy has boomed and tanked.) READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
In New York, John Stevens demonstrated a steamboat.
David Wilkinson, a son of Oziel Wilkinson, in company with Elijah Ormsbee, also built a steamboat, in which they made a trip of three and a half miles, from Winsor’s Cove to Providence, Rhode Island. They did not seem impressed with the idea that the scheme could be made of practical value and after their “frolic” (as Wilkinson called it) was over, they dismantled the boat. In the course of his reminiscences, sent, in after years, to the society for the Encouragement of Domestic Industry, Wilkinson says that while they were engaged in the construction of this steamboat a young man from Connecticut, who gave the name of Daniel French, came to his shop in Pawtucket, and asked and obtained leave to look over the steamboat. He examined everything carefully, and seemed greatly interested. Many years afterward, while riding by rail from Utica to Albany, Mr. Wilkinson says, he fell into a conversation with a gentleman regarding Fulton’s steamboat, and the gentleman declared that Fulton never would have succeeded had he not kept an ingenious Connecticut Yankee locked in for several weeks to draw plans for him. On inquiring the name of the Connecticut Yankee, Mr. Wilkinson was told it was “Daniel French.” READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
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1795
A POCKET ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1795...TO WHICH IS ANNEXED, THE MASSACHUSETTS REGISTER.... Boston: Printed and sold by Thomas & John Fleet. The first 20 pages was an almanac, most likely that of Nathanael Low. The remainder of the pages were devoted to tables and listings such as the Massachusetts county census of 1791, Light Houses on the Head Lands and Islands of the United States, Practitioners of Law in Massachusetts, Cutters employed in Aid of the Customs, Post Office Matters, and Ministers, Churches and Religious Assemblies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
AN ASTRONOMICAL DIARY: OR ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1796.... “Isaac Bickerstaff.” Boston: Printed for B. Larkin, E. Larkin.... The calculations correspond closely to those of Osgood Carleton’s almanac for 1796.
PHILLIPS’S UNITED STATES DIARY; OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1795. Warren, Rhode Island: Nathaniel Phillips.
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ANDERSON REVIVED: BEING AN ALMANACK, AND EPHEMERIS FOR 1795. By John Anderson. Newport: Henry C. Southwick and Co.
WHEELERS’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1795. Providence: Bennett Wheeler.
(Same, with variation on last ten pages.)
NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1795. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson.
THE RHODE-ISLAND REGISTER FOR 1795. Bartlett ascribes this to Elijah Fenton. It was bound both with the Bickerstaff and with the Thornton almanacs for 1796.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1795. By Elisha Thornton. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson.
THORNTON’S SHEET ALMANACK FOR 1795. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson. Broadside. Advertised in Providence Gazette.
An African Freedmen’s Society was formed in Providence, Rhode Island, that until the civil war would be serving as a destination point for those escaping from slavery on the Underground Railroad through Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, into Rhode Island — a center around which they might re-order their lives. (Please note that there is a rather large distinction to be made, in regard to the Underground Railroad, between a waystation and a destination point, in that a waystation may be considered to be a mere part of the mechanism of the railroad whereas a destination point is not to be so considered. There is a very considerable difference between a function and a payoff.) A former slave, Ichabod Northrup, who had fought in the Revolutionary War, was among the founders of this association. (At first the Bethel group would meet in the homes of members and in the Quaker meeting house at the corner of North Main Street and Meeting Street. Such churches were disapproved of by the white community, but as one meeting place would be removed by the authorities, it would be replaced by another, and sometimes two or three. Eventually the congregation would be able to obtain its own building — the lot would be purchased in 1820 and a building would be constructed on it in 1866. In 1961 the building would have become so shaky that the congregation would sell the plot to Brown University in order to purchase their current Bethel Church at 30 Rochambeau Avenue and Hope Street.)
At some point during the 18th Century, a stairs was installed at the steepest point of Meeting Street, below Congdon Street.
July 24, Friday: Asa Fairbanks was born in Franklin, Massachusetts to Captain Asa Fairbanks and Julitta Metcalf Fairbanks. He would become a prominent merchant of Providence, Rhode Island, beginning in the hat and cap business, –going on into the grocery business –and winding up as a cotton merchant. He would become an active abolitionist.
August: John Brown of Providence conspired with Captain Peleg Wood of Newport to inject another Rhode Island negrero vessel into the international slave trade.
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November: In August John Brown had conspired with Captain Peleg Wood to inject another negrero vessel into the international slave trade. This had turned out to be the Hope, an old square-rigger, fitted out in Providence. The ship’s mission was to load a cargo of human beings along the Slave Coast and dispose of them for a large profit in the barracoons of Havana, Cuba, and not in secret — thus testing the Rhode Island law that had recently rendered this sort of activity very illegal.
1796
A POCKET ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1796...TO WHICH IS ANNEXED THE MASSACHUSETTS REGISTER.... Boston: Printed and sold by T. & J. Fleet. The first 20 pages of this formed an almanac with calculations by Nathanael Low. The remainder was devoted to tables and listings such as of Federal, State and local officials, Practitioners of Law in Massachusetts, Physicians and Surgeons Practicing in Boston, Post Office Matters, and Ministers, Churches and Religious Assemblies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Paul Revere is to be found, as President of the Mechanic Association in Boston.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR ALMANACK FOR 1796. Providence, Rhode Island: B. Wheeler. There is a cut of arms of Rhode Island on the title page.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1796. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson.
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It contains the man of signs cut.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1796. By Elisha Thornton. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson.
THORNTON’S SHEET ALMANACK FOR 1796. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson. Broadside. Advertised in Providence Gazette.
PHILLIPS’S UNITED STATES DIARY; OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1796. Warren: Nathaniel Phillips. The Rhode Island Historical Society has a copy sewed with March as the first month.
Joel Metcalf, a tanner and currier of Providence, Rhode Island, purchased a pew in the local Congregational Church. His deed to this pew is preserved at the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence, along with his business’s account books.
John Brown, and other influential merchants of Providence, Rhode Island, recommended the construction of a canal from their port city inland to Worcester, and thence westward to the Connecticut River. 1796. A canal company was incorporated to run a canal to Worcester. The Massachusetts legislature refused a charter, and the project failed at that time. In 1823, it was revived and
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accomplished, but was unproductive, and proved a total loss of the funds invested by the public spirited proprietors.
In Providence, John Brown took Thomas Poynton Ives as a partner. The firm of Brown and Ives would become world famous. One of their ventures would be the very successful trading ship Ann and Hope (named for their wives).
February 23, Tuesday: George Curtis was born in Worcester, Massachusetts to David Curtis and Susannah Stone Curtis. In Providence, Rhode Island he would be the father to two children, James Burrill Curtis and George William Curtis, who in their young adulthood would be helping Henry Thoreau to raise the ridgepole of his shanty on Walden Pond.
WALDEN: At length, in the beginning of May, with the help of some of my acquaintances, rather to improve so good an occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity, I set up the frame of my house. No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than I. They are destined, I trust, to assist at the raising of loftier structures one day.
The “acquaintances” who participated in this rustic “raising”92 ceremony on the Walden Pond shore were: • Bronson Alcott • Ellery Channing • Waldo Emerson
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• Edmund Hosmer • Edmund Hosmer’s three sons Edmund Hosmer, Jr., John Hosmer, and Andrew Hosmer • the brothers James Burrill Curtis and George William Curtis
March 10, Thursday: Cato Pearce would remember that when he was about 6 his mom “ran away from her master,” Giles Pearce, leaving him and two others (one a 10-month infant) behind. The children would never see her again: “I ’member she told me to be a good boy and she would bring me somethin’ when she came back.” On this day the North Kingstown, Rhode Island slavemaster placed an ad in a Providence newspaper, the United States Chronicle, offering a $10 reward for his slave woman’s capture and return: RAN-AWAY from the Subscriber, in North Kingstown, County of Washington, on the 5th instant, A NEGRO WOMAN, about 27 years of Age, 5 feet 4 inches high, and walks with her Head very upright, had on when she went away, a dark Flannel Short Gown, and a Petticoat, a white Petticoat, a Man’s Gray Gown, and a napped Felt Hat partly worn. Whoever will return said Negro to her Master, shall receive the above Reward, and all necessary Charges, paid by JOSHUA PEARCE, in North Kingstown, near the Devil’s Foot.
92.“No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than I.” I would maintain that WALDEN is chock-full of references to the gallows, references that nowadays we don’t “get” simply because we no longer live in the sort of culture, in which public execution is an unchallenged holiday convention. For instance, I would maintain that this particular paragraph, apparently so innocent, includes an implicit reference to being hanged. While the raisers of a house frame are the friends and neighbors who push with poles and pull with ropes as a frame is being lifted from its temporary horizontal position to its permanent vertical position, the raisers of a person may by extension be the outraged citizens who are pulling on the rope that elevates a criminal by the neck toward the extending horizontal branch of a tree. This is not the sort of gallows humor which would have gone unnoticed in the first half of the 19th Century, not in America it wouldn’t. This is an implicit reference to Thoreau’s Huguenot ancestors of honored memory, who rather than tugging together upon the indecent public end of that hanging rope, in la belle France, had sometimes found themselves tugging alone upon the noose at the decent end. GALLOWS HUMOR
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1797
THOMAS’S MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT, RHODE-ISLAND, NEWHAMPSHIRE & VERMONT ALMANACK ... FOR ... 1797. Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts, for Isaiah Thomas. Ten pages of this almanac were devoted to President George Washington’s Farewell Address, dated September 17, 1796, a communication in the form of an oration which actually was only printed, never delivered. The author pointed out that “this valuable legacy to his country (printed variously) sells from 12 1/2 to 50 cents” and was therefore a bargain — since the cost of this almanac was but 10 cents.
PHILLIPS’S UNITED STATES DIARY: OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1797. Warren, Rhode Island: Nathaniel Phillips.
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1797. Providence: B. Wheeler. The United States arms appear on the title page.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1797. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson. A cut of the eclipse is shown.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1797. By Elisha Thornton and Eliab Wilkinson. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson.
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It contains two cuts of the eclipse and the man of signs.
August: President John Adams visited Providence, Rhode Island. 1797. The town was visited by the yellow fever. Many deaths occurred; the schools were suspended, streets deserted, and consternation depicted on every countenance. President John Adams visited the town in August, stopping at Esek Aldrich’s Hotel (now Washington Hotel,) and was honored with testimonials of great respect, with the ringing of bells, firing of cannon, a military escort, and an address from the Town’s Committee. The College edifice was brilliantly illuminated in the evening. COLLEGE OF RHODE ISLAND
August 5, Monday: There was a preliminary appearance in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island on this day, in preparation for the trial of John Brown on charge of being engaged in the international slave trade.
Per Jay Coughtry, Associate Professor of History at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas: On August 5, 1797, John Brown, the premier merchant and first citizen of Providence, Rhode Island, reluctantly entered federal district court in his hometown and became the first American to be tried under the U.S. Slave Trade Act of 1794. After months
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of out-of-court wrangling with the plaintiffs, officers of a state abolition society, it appeared that Brown would now stand trial for fitting out his ship Hope for the African slave trade. The voyage had concluded profitably in Havana, Cuba, with the sale of 229 slaves a year earlier.93 Brown’s accusers included his younger brother, Moses, a tireless opponent of both slavery and the slave trade since his conversion, on the eve of the American Revolution, from the family’s Baptist faith to the Society of Friends. A founding member and officer of the Abolition Society, chartered in 1789, Moses Brown had been fighting Rhode Island slave traders, including brother John, for a decade, since the passage of the largely ineffective state statute of 1787 that prohibited the trade to state residents.94 In this instance, the society’s traditional tactic –cajoling a pledge from the accused to forswear slaving in the future in exchange for dropping the suit– had failed. Even so, as Moses had pointedly reminded John before trial, the charges thus far were limited, involving only the comparatively mild first section of the three-year-old federal statute. A conviction would therefore require nothing more than forfeiture of the vessel, an aging one at that. What John should most fear, Moses advised, were “larger prosecutions” should he further provoke the Abolition Society by refusing to settle out of court.95 Ultimately, the elder Brown ignored his brother’s mediation efforts and offered only an eleventh hour plea for a continuance to haggle over milder pledge terms. Its patience exhausted, the Abolition Society flatly rejected that ploy whereupon the case proceeded swiftly to trial. As predicted, the district court judge had little choice but to assent to the arguments and evidence in the prosecution’s narrowly defined case. Consequently, John Brown lost his vessel at a local auction in late August, thereby closing the forfeiture case. When the Abolition Society again sought Brown’s promise to abandon his African commerce, he refused, quickly prompting the “larger prosecutions” Moses had warned him about.96 Meanwhile, Moses had become suspicious of John’s continuing recalcitrance. It seemed premeditated in his younger brother’s view, perhaps a deliberate strategy devised by John’s “friends at Newport” (i.e., slave traders) to guarantee further suits over the illegal sale of the slaves. Such litigation, while potentially more costly, would also require a jury trial, and the slave traders assumed that local juries would not convict one of their own. They were right. Within six months John Brown announced his court victory over the “Wicked and Abominable
93. Jay Coughtry, THE NOTORIOUS TRIANGLE: RHODE ISLAND AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE (Philadelphia, 1981), pages 214- 215. 94. NOTORIOUS TRIANGLE, chapter 6. See also Mack Thompson, MOSES BROWN: RELUCTANT REFORMER (Chapel Hill, 1962), pages 175-190. 95. Moses Brown to John Brown, March 15, 1797, MOSES BROWN PAPERS, vol. 9, no. 29, Rhode Island Historical Society; Moses Brown to John Brown, ibid., vol. 9, no. 32. 96. John Brown to Moses Brown, July 29, 31, 1797, MOSES BROWN PAPERS, vol. 9. nos. 43 and 44, Rhode Island Historical Society. See also NOTORIOUS TRIANGLE at 215.
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Combination I mean the Abolition Society.”97 This insiders’ view of the foregoing case of the ship Hope is documented, along with numerous other key prosecutions, in the correspondence of John and especially Moses Brown, now available in this microfilm series, PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE: SELECTIONS FROM THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Moreover, Moses Brown’s letters reveal not only the Abolition Society’s formal legal stratagems but also its traditional policy of intense but informal negotiating with slave traders who often yielded to the group’s demands without a court fight. Cyprian Sterry, for example, the principal slave trader in Providence during the 1790s with fifteen voyages to the African coast in 1794 alone, fully succumbed to the society’s persistent pressure. He escaped prosecution (along with his captain, Samuel Packard) for an African voyage involving the ship Ann by signing a written pledge to leave the slave trade forever.98 Despite occasional successes in and out of court, in general the campaign against the slave traders in the wake of federal prohibition was proceeding haltingly at best. Moses Brown continued to monitor the efforts of customs officials in the Rhode Island district for the Abolition Society, which increasingly relinquished its early prosecutorial role to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Congress bolstered the federal district attorney’s legal arsenal with amendments to the 1794 statute in 1800 and again in 1803. Meanwhile, an aggressive secretary of the treasury appointed a special prosecutor for the district in 1801. The new laws closed the most obvious loopholes in the original act while the appointment of a resident special prosecutor provided a full-time federal agent who could focus exclusively on the escalating volume of vessels clearing state ports for Africa.99 Documentation for these events not only reveals the growing docket of slaver cases but also regularly exposes the personal and political dimensions of enforcement and evasion. By century’s end, for example, it had become clear that slavers had rendered nearly null the local auctions designed to separate owners from their slaving vessels. African merchants and their influential supporters simply intimidated all potential bidders and then repurchased their ships for a fraction of their assessed value. To end such bogus sales-at-auction, the government in 1799 sent Samuel Bosworth, surveyor of the port of Bristol, to bid for the D’Wolf family’s recently condemned schooner Lucy. Twice within twenty-four hours of the scheduled sale, John Brown and two D’Wolf brothers, the country’s largest slave traders, visited Bosworth at home to dissuade him from his duty. Despite a threatened dunking in Bristol harbor, Bosworth “with considerable fear and trembling” arrived at the wharf on auction morning where he was met by a party of local “Indians” 97. John Brown to Moses Brown, July 31, 1797, MOSES BROWN PAPERS, vol. 9, no. 44, Rhode Island Historical Society and Moses Brown to John Brown, November 17, 1797, ibid., vol. 9, no. 49; John Brown to James Brown, June 21, 1798, John Brown Papers, box D, Rhode Island Historical Society 98. John Brown to Moses Brown, MOSES BROWN PAPERS, vol. 9, no. 43. See also NOTORIOUS TRIANGLE at 213-214. 99. NOTORIOUS TRIANGLE at 216-222.
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in unconvincing native garb and with faces blackened. No Bristol version of the patriotic tea party ensued, fortunately. Instead, Bosworth’s captors hustled him aboard a waiting sailboat and deposited him two miles down the bay at the foot of Mount Hope. The government never employed that strategy again.100 Such an outrage was not the limit of “the trade’s supporters” arrogance, however. Soon, Special Prosecutor John Leonard would personally feel the wrath of Rhode Island’s African merchants. Even his limited success in libeling several of their vessels under the anemic section one was enough to prompt an attack on his person. They apparently feared that Leonard’s February 1801 victory in prosecuting a D’Wolf captain caught redhanded by a U.S. Navy cruiser would set a costly precedent. Consequently, several overzealous supporters of the slave trade assaulted Leonard on the steps of the federal courthouse in Washington.101 Even John Brown thought this response somewhat extreme, especially as he was then involved in concocting a federal legislative solution to his slaving constituents’ problem. During the hectic months between Thomas Jefferson’s election and inauguration as president, Brown successfully spearheaded a move in Congress to create a separate customs district for the port of Bristol. Following passage of the requisite legislation late in February 1801 and the eventual appointment of customs officers amenable to the slave traders’ needs, the effort to stop the slave trade in the courts permanently stalled. The end of Rhode Island participation in illegal African commerce would begin only years later with the implementation of the Anti-Slave Trade Act of 1807 on January 1, 1808. This now constitutional statute outlawed all foreign slave trading by American citizens in any capacity. By the time violations of this new law carried the death penalty in 1819, Rhode Islanders, along with other New Englanders, had found new markets for their commerce and textile factories for their surplus capital. The brief revival of the slave trade in clipper ships of the antebellum era from ports such as Baltimore would proceed without them.102
September 20, Wednesday: President John Adams, the governor of Massachusetts, and other notables and gee- whizzers and gawkers assembled for the launching of the great hull of the USS Constitution into the tea- colored waters of the Charles River. From the diary of the plump young Reverend William Bentley of Salem: “Went to Boston to see the Frigate Constitution launched.” The hull slid some nine yards along its greased skidway and stuck fast. Bored and frustrated as we might well imagine, the notables and other gee-whizzers and gawkers went away.
100. Samuel Bosworth to Oliver Wolcott, August 1799, Shepley Papers, vol. 9, no. 8, Rhode Island Historical Society; Jonathan Russell to Albert Gallatin, March 18, 1804, ibid., vol. 9, no. 7. George Howe tells the tale of the Lucy in his MOUNT HOPE: A NEW ENGLAND CHRONICLE (New York, 1959), 107-108. 101. John Brown to Benjamin Bourn, February 1801, Peck MSS, vol. 11, no. 66, Rhode Island Historical Society. 102. John Brown to James D’Wolf and Shearjashub Bourn (n.d. but 1800), JOHN BROWN PAPERS, Rhode Island Historical Society; John Brown to Shearjashub Bourn, February 1801, Peck MSS, box 11, no. 66, Rhode Island Historical Society. The full story of the separate district issue and the eventual end of slave trading from Rhode Island is detailed in NOTORIOUS TRIANGLE at 225-229 and 233-237.
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October 5, Thursday: John Gardner Wilkinson was born in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, a son of a Westmoreland clergyman, the Reverend John Wilkinson, an amateur enthusiast for antiquities. Both parents would soon die, and the child would inherit a modest income.
Baptist businessman John Brown of Providence became on this day the 1st American to go on trial in a federal district court under the first section of the US Slave Trade Act of 1794, for sending out his old ship Hope in the African slave trade. Brown had fitted out his ship Hope as a negrero, and a year earlier it had brought a cargo of 229 new slaves to Havana, Cuba.
Accusers included Brown’s younger brother Friend Moses Brown, who had become a tireless opponent of both enslavement and the international slave trade since his conversion from the family’s Baptist faith to the
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Religious Society of Friends. A founding member and officer of the Abolition Society chartered in 1789, Friend Moses had been fighting his state’s slave traders, including his own brother, during the decade that had elapsed since the passage in 1787 of a largely ineffective state statute that had prohibited the trade to residents of Rhode Island.
The penalty, if the case was lost, would be comparatively mild: no jail time, merely the confiscation of the Hope, since any more substantial penalty would necessitate a jury trial and there was no reasonable expectation that a local jury would convict their prominent fellow citizen. (In fact no American slave trader would meet with the death penalty for engaging in the international slave trade until the initial year of our civil war, and even then, only exactly one-count-’em-one such American slave trader would ever actually be hanged by the neck until dead — isn’t history interesting?) W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Of the twenty years from 1787 to 1807 it can only be said that they were, on the whole, a period of disappointment so far as the suppression of the slave-trade was concerned. Fear, interest, and philanthropy united for a time in an effort which bade fair to suppress the trade; then the real weakness of the constitutional compromise appeared, and the interests of the few overcame the fears and the humanity of the many.
December 21, Thursday: John Clark of Providence, Rhode Island recorded that “This month has been ... exceeding cold, the thermometer in our dining room with a good fire being about 48 F.”
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1798
Benjamin West became the College of Rhode Island’s Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy.
PHILLIPS’S UNITED STATES DIARY; OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1798. Warren, Rhode Island: Nathaniel Phillips. (These almanacs had been put out in Warren since 1793, but this one would be the last of the series.)
WHEELER’S NORTH-AMERICAN CALENDAR, OR AN ALMANACK FOR 1798. Providence: B. Wheeler. The United States arms appear on the title page.
THE RHODE-ISLAND CALENDAR OR ALMANACK FOR 1798. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Printed for and sold by Joseph J. Todd, at his bookstores in Providence and Newport. There is no ruled border on the text.
NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1798. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson. Cut of man of signs appears.
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At the age of 12, Mrs. Betsey Metcalf Baker would later allege, in her family home on Benefit Street in the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island, under the encouragement of an aunt, she fashioned her 1st bonnet out of split oat straw, shaping it along the lines of an expensive imported bonnet which she had seen in a local store. She used a seven-strand braid, bleached, and lined the hat with pink silk. Later she would be teaching this craft, which she termed a God-given gift, to neighbor women, and thus helping to establish a rural New England economy termed the “straw town.”
Here is an American straw bonnet dating to about the year 1800:
The primary source of such bonnets had been the Italian peninsula (headcoverings from the Livorno area were termed “Leghorns”) — but the British blockade of Napoleonic Europe had made such commerce difficult and the President of the United States of America had been encouraging American artisans to remedy this problem.
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Here is a typical “Leghorn” bonnet: STRAW TOWNS
From this year into 1800, the US would be engaged in an undeclared naval war with France. This contest would include land actions, such as that of the city of Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, at which our marines would capture a French privateer under the guns of the harbor’s forts. CONSULT THE DOCUMENTS US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
According to Frederick C. Leiner’s MILLIONS FOR DEFENSE: THE SUBSCRIPTION WARSHIPS OF 1798 (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999), as the summer approached, the USA seemed on the verge of open war with France.103 “Egged on” by the exposure of the XYZ Affair as well as by “galling seizures of merchant ships,” the merchants and shipmasters of Newburyport began to discuss among themselves “what action they could take to help the country,” and began to solicit funds among themselves to construct, for the use of the United States Navy, a 20-gun warship to be named the Merrimack, for which their Moses Brown (that is, not the Quaker Moses Brown) would serve as captain. Before this frenzy was over, ten port towns up and down the coast would have not only pledged funds but also begun the construction of such warships. The idea was to hunt down the French privateers and to convoy with American merchant vessels both along the Atlantic coast and in Caribbean waters. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania would have begun the Philadelphia, a 44- gun ship for which Stephen Decatur was to be the captain (note, this is not at all the same ship as that monstrous boondoggle, the first USS Pennsylvania launched in 1836), Baltimore, Maryland would have begun the Maryland and the Patapsco, 18-gun ships for which John Rogers and Henry Geddes were to be the captains,
103. Alexander DeConde, THE QUASI-WAR: THE POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY OF THE UNDECLARED WAR WITH FRANCE 1797-1801 (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1966)
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Boston, Massachusetts would have begun the Boston, a 24-gun ship for which George Little was to be the captain, Norfolk, Virginia would have begun the Richmond, a 16-gun ship for which Samuel Barron was to be the captain, New-York, New York would have begun the New York, a 36-gun ship for which Richard V. Morris was to be the captain, Salem, Massachusetts (?) would have begun the Essex, a 32-gun ship for which Edward Preble was to be the captain, and Charleston, South Carolina would have begun the John Adams, a 20-gun ship for which George Cross was to be the captain. The federal Senate would initiate a bill to purchase such gunships from the subscribers using 6% certificates of obligation, and that bill would be signed into law by the end of June before even the first keel had been laid. In addition to these eight subscription ships, the George Washington, an 24-gun ship commanded by Patrick Fletcher that was already five years old, would be sold to the US Navy by John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island in exchange for some of these 6% certificates.
October 26, Friday: Mary Elizabeth Burrill was born in Providence, Rhode Island to James Burrill and Sally Arnold Burrill. She would give birth in Providence to two children, James Burrill Curtis and George William Curtis, who in their young adulthood would be helping Henry Thoreau to raise the ridgepole of his shanty on Walden Pond.
WALDEN: At length, in the beginning of May, with the help of some of my acquaintances, rather to improve so good an occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity, I set up the frame of my house. No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than I. They are destined, I trust, to assist at the raising of loftier structures one day.
The “acquaintances” who participated in this rustic “raising”104 ceremony on the Walden Pond shore: • Bronson Alcott • Ellery Channing • Waldo Emerson • Edmund Hosmer • Edmund Hosmer’s three sons Edmund Hosmer, Jr., John Hosmer, and Andrew Hosmer • the brothers James Burrill Curtis and George William Curtis
104.“No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than I.” I would maintain that WALDEN is chock-full of references to the gallows, references that nowadays we don’t “get” simply because we no longer live in the sort of culture, in which public execution is an unchallenged holiday convention. For instance, I would maintain that this particular paragraph, apparently so innocent, includes an implicit reference to being hanged. While the raisers of a house frame are the friends and neighbors who push with poles and pull with ropes as a frame is being lifted from its temporary horizontal position to its permanent vertical position, the raisers of a person may by extension be the outraged citizens who are pulling on the rope that elevates a criminal by the neck toward the extending horizontal branch of a tree. This is not the sort of gallows humor which would have gone unnoticed in the first half of the 19th Century, not in America it wouldn’t. This is an implicit reference to Henry Thoreau’s Huguenot ancestors of honored memory, who rather than tugging together upon the indecent public end of that hanging rope, in la belle France, had sometimes found themselves tugging alone upon the noose at the decent end. But there is more on this topic at:
GALLOWS HUMOR
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1799
Benjamin West left his position at the College of Rhode Island to open a school for navigation in his home in Newport, Rhode Island.
FLEETS’ REGISTER AND POCKET ALMANACK FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1799. Boston: Printed and sold by J. & T. Fleet. The first 20 pages of this were devoted to an almanac, most likely by Nathanael Low. The remainder consisted of tabulations of various items of interest such as that the Federal tax on slaves was 50 cents per head, and the names of the ten coroners doing business in Cumberland County.
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1799. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence: Carter and Wilkinson. It has man of signs cut.
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The Rhode Island brigantine Orange (or is this a typographic error in regard to a voyage in 1779?) brought a cargo of 120 new slaves from the coast of Africa.
William Ellery seized the DeWolf schooner Lucy (Captain Charles Collins) for engaging in the slave trade and put it up for auction in Bristol. Local surveyor Samuel Bosworth was appointed to bid on the vessel on behalf of the government. After John Brown of Providence and several other slavers had attempted unsuccessfully to intimidate Bosworth, the DeWolfs simply hired thugs who, costumed as native Americans, kidnapped him and took him several miles up the bay while with a trifling bid the DeWolfs recovered their vessel.
John Brown, as ever a strong defender of the absolute righteousness of the international slave trade, was elected to the US House of Representatives. He would sponsor legislation to create a separate Customs House in Bristol, in facilitation of the international slave trade that was still being conducted through that port by James DeWolf and Shearjashub Bourne.
The DeWolf Crest W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Meantime, in spite of the prohibitory State laws, the African slave-trade to the United States continued to flourish. It was notorious that New England traders carried on a large traffic.105 Members stated on the floor of the House that “it was much to be regretted that the severe and pointed statute against the slave trade had been so little regarded. In defiance of its forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and vessels of the United States were still engaged in that traffic.... In various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, without secrecy, shame, or apprehension.... Countenanced by their fellow- citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes had been transported from Guinea, and, by smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. So little
105. Cf. Fowler, LOCAL LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT, etc., page 126.
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respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common consent.”106 These voyages were generally made under the flag of a foreign nation, and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port to escape confiscation. South Carolina’s own Congressman confessed that although the State had prohibited the trade since 1788, she “was unable to enforce” her laws. “With navigable rivers running into the heart of it,” said he, “it was impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into the country. The law was completely evaded, and, for the last year or two [1802-3], Africans were introduced into the country in numbers little short, I believe, of what they would have been had the trade been a legal one.”107 The same tale undoubtedly might have been told of Georgia.
January 5, Saturday: The Providence Insurance Company was chartered. RHODE ISLAND
Amos Eaton received his diploma from Williams College. Williams College, Williamstown, Berk- shire County, Massachusetts.
This certifies that Amos Eaton was admitted a member of the Freshman Class in this college in Septr 1795, and pursued his studies partly here & partly under private In- structors till Septr 1797, when, having sus- tained, with reputation, the public examina- tion with his Class, he was dismissed in good and honorable standing.
Signed by name and sealed with the Seal of this College, this 5th day of Jany 1799. Eben Fitch
106. Speech of S.L. Mitchell of New York, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress, 1st Session, page 1000. Cf. also speech of Bedinger: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, pages 997-8. 107. Speech of Lowndes in the House, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress,, 1st Session, page 992. Cf. Stanton’s speech later: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 9th Congress, 2d Session, page 240.
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President of Williams College
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May 3, Friday: On page 4 of Volume 27 of the records of deeds and mortgages for the city of Providence, Rhode Island, the heirs of Joseph Brown (to wit Obadiah, Elizabeth, and Mary Brown and Richard and Eliza Ward) prepared a Power of Attorney for Obadiah as their Lawful Attorney to show the Town Council, in order to obtain its consent for their liberating, manumitting, and feting Free a 24-year-old black Woman named Phillis, ownership of whom they had recently inherited from their father: MANUMISSION [flourish] `tÇâÅ|yá|ÉÇ SLAVERY {{stamp}}[x|Üá Éy ]ÉáxÑ{ UÜÉãÇ WxvAw àÉ c{|ÄÄ|á UÜÉãÇA‰ ^ÇÉã tÄÄ ÑxÉÑÄx uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá? à{tà jX? XÄ|étuxà{ UÜÉãÇ? ã|wÉã Éy ]ÉáxÑ{ UÜÉãÇ Ätàx Éy cÜÉä|wxÇvx |Ç à{x fàtàx Éy e{Éwx \áÄtÇw 9vA ÅxÜv{tÇà wxvxtáxw tÇw `tÜç UÜÉãÇ? e|v{tÜw jtÜw 9 XÄ|ét jtÜw? ã{É àÉzxà{xÜ ã|à{ butw|t{ UÜÉãÇ tÜx à{x ÉÇÄç yâÜä|ä|Çz [x|Üá tà _tã àÉ à{x Xáàtàx Éy à{x yt|w ]ÉáxÑ{ UÜÉãÇ? wÉ tâà{ÉÜ|éx ? vÉÇáà|àâàx tÇw tÑÑÉ|Çà à{x át|w butw|t{ UÜÉãÇ ÉâÜ _tãyâÄ TààÉÜÇxç yÉÜ à{x ÑâÜÑÉáx Éy tÑÑxtÜ|Çz uxyÉÜx à{x [ÉÇÉÜtuÄx à{x gÉãÇ VÉâÇv|Ä Éy át|w cÜÉä|wxÇvx tÇw à{xÜx tvvÉÜw|Çz àÉ _tã àÉ Ä|uP PxÜtàx? ÅtÇâÅ|à tÇw yxà yÜxx t VxÜàt|Ç uÄtv~ jÉÅtÇ ÇtÅxw c{|ÄÄ|á? Ätàx à{x yxÜätÇà Éy à{x yt|w ]ÉáxÑ{ UÜÉãÇ tÇw ÇÉã à{x yxÜätÇà Éy à{x át|w ã|wÉã tÇw [x|ÜáN tá yâÄÄç > vÉÅÑÄxàxÄç tá ãx vÉâÄw wÉ ÉâÜáxÄäxá |y cÜxáxÇàáA[sic]———————— [flourish]TÇw ãx wÉ xÇztzx àÉ {ÉÄw y|ÜÅ>itÄ|w ã{tàáÉxäxÜ Åtç ux wÉÇx uç ÉâÜ yt|w TààÉÜÇxç uç i|Üàâx {xÜxÉyA———————— àÉ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá? ãx {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ yxà ÉâÜ [tÇwá\Ç tÇwj|àÇxyá yxtÄá tà yt|w cÜÉä|wxÇvx? à{|á à{|Üw Wtç Éy `tç? tWAbÇx g{ÉâátÇw YxäxÇ [âÇwÜxw > Ç|Çxàç Ç|ÇxA———————— f|zÇxw? fxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw XÄ|étuxà{ UÜÉãÇ ((L.S.)) |Ç à{x ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy âá } `tÜç UÜÉãÇ ((L.S.)) ZxÉA g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà } e|v{tÜw jtÜw ((L.S.)) \áttv ZÜxxÇwãÉÉw XÄ|ét jtÜw ((L.S.)) cÜÉä|wxÇvx lxA \Ç cÜÉä|wxÇvx `tç FAw tWADJLLA———————— cxÜáÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw XÄ|étuxà{ UÜÉãÇ? `tÜç UÜÉãÇ? e|v{tÜw jtÜw > XÄ|ét jtÜw yâuávÜ|uxÜá àÉ à{x yÉÜxzÉ|Çz \ÇáàÜâÅxÇà tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x ytÅx àÉ ux à{x|Ü yÜxx Tvà tÇw Wxxw ã|à{ à{x|Ü {tÇwá > fxtÄá tÇÇxåxw?UxyÉÜx Åx? ZxÉA g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà ]âáA cxtvx [flourish] tÑÑxtÜxw uxyÉÜx à{|áVÉâÇv|Ä j{xÜxtábutw|t{UÜÉãÇXáÖâ|ÜxtÇw ÑÜÉwâvxw ã|à{ {|Å c{|ÄÄ|á? yxÜätÇà Éy à{x [x|Üá Éy]ÉáxÑ{UÜÉãÇ wxvxtáxw yÉÜ à{x ÑâÜÑÉáx Éy {tä|Çz {xÜ Åtwx yÜxxN à{x VÉâÇv|Ä ÉÇ wâx |ÇÖâ|Üç? wÉ tw}âwzx à{tà à{x át|w c{|ÄÄ|á |á âÇwxÜ à{|Üàç çxtÜá Éy Tzx? àÉ ã|à? Éy à{x Tzx Éy àãxÇàç yÉâÜ çxtÜá? tÇw à{tà y{x |á Éy áÉâÇw UÉwç tÇw `|Çw? tÇw à{x VÉâÇv|Ä wÉ vÉÇáxÇà? à{tà à{x át|w c{|ÄÄ|á ux ÅtÇâÅ|ààxw tÇw Åtwx yÜxxA———————— WÉÇx tà t gÉãÇ VÉâÇv|Ä {ÉÄwxÇ[sic]tà cÜÉä|wxÇvx ÉÇ à{x f|åà{ Wtç Éy `tç tWADJLLA———————— [flourish]j|àÇxyá? ZxÉA g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà gAVÄ~A—————
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May 6, Monday: On page 5 of Volume 27 of the records of deeds and mortgages for the city of Providence, Rhode Island, Obadiah Brown, acting on his own behalf and on behalf of the other heirs of Joseph Brown (to wit Elizabeth and Mary Brown and Richard and Eliza Ward), and having in his hand a written Letter of Attorney, did Liberate, manumit, and fet Free a fervant Black Woman named Phillis Brown — in the fullest and completest manner that the fame may or can be done:
[flourish] ? à{tà\ à{x ã|à{|Ç ÅxÇ= à|ÉÇxw butw|t{^ÇÉã UÜÉãÇ tÄÄ`xÇ yÉÜ ÅçáxÄy? uç tÇw à{xáxcÜxáxÇàá tÄáÉ |Ç à{x ux{tÄy Éy à{x ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxw XÄ|étuxà{ UÜÉãÇ? `tÜç UÜÉãÇ?e|v{= =tÜw jtÜw tÇw XÄ|ét jtÜw? uç ä|Üàâx Éy à{x ã|à{|Ç ãÜ|ààxÇ _xààxÜ ÉyTààÉÜÇxç wÉ_|uxÜtàx? ÅtÇâÅ|à? tÇw yxàYÜxx à{x ã|à{|Ç ÅxÇà|ÉÇxw yxÜätÇà UÄtv~ jÉÅtÇ ÇtÅxw c{|ÄÄ|á? |Ç à{x yâÄÄxáà tÇw vÉÅÑÄxàxáà ÅtÇÇxÜ? à{tà à{x ytÅx Åtç ÉÜ vtÇ ux wÉÇxA ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw fxtÄ\Ç tà át|w j|àÇxyá cÜÉä|wxÇvx à{|á Y|åà{ wtç Éy `tçA tWA bÇx g{ÉâátÇw YxäxÇ {âÇwÜxw tÇw Ç|Çxàç Ç|ÇxA————————— f|zÇxw? fxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw |Ç ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy âá ——————— butw|t{ UÜÉãÇ ((L.S)) } ——————————— ZxÉA g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà} ]ÉáA ———————— UtÄv{A cÜÉä|wxÇvxlxAcÜÉä|wxÇvx`tçIà{A DJLLAcxÜáÉÇtÄÄç tÑ= =ÑxtÜxw butw|t{ UÜÉãÇXáÖÜA tÇw Tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x tuÉäx \ÇáàÜâÅxÇà uç {|Å yâuávÜ|uxw? àÉ ux {|á yÜxx äÉÄâÇàtÜç Tvà tÇw Wxxw? UxyÉÜx Åx? ZxÉA ——————————— g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà ]âáAcxtvx exvÉÜwxw `tç Jà{A tWDJLL j|àÇxyáZxÉA g|ÄÄ|Çz{táà gÉãÇ VÄxÜ~}
MANUMISSION SLAVERY
PROVIDENCE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
PROVIDENCE GOING ON, AND ON ...
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2013. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: November 28, 2013
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GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, upon someone’s request we have pulled it out of the hat of a pirate that has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (depicted above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of data modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture. This is data mining. To respond to such a request for information, we merely push a button.
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Commonly, the first output of the program has obvious deficiencies and so we need to go back into the data modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and do a recompile of the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process which you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place your requests with
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