w This PDF of The Museum On Site's book, A Thousand Ships: A Ritual of Remembrance Marking the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, is shared according to the conditions of a Creative Commons Attribution-noncommercial- noDerivs 3.0 unported License; no part of the document can be removed and distributed separate from the PDF without permission.

To purchase a copy of the paperback book, please visit www.themuseumonline.com/book An event created by The Museum On Site and Barnaby Evans Book edited and written by Andrew Losowsky & Lyra Monteiro, designed by Jason Tranchida contents FOREWORD BY PROFESsOR JAMES T. CAMPBELL ...... i introduction ...... 1 A Thousand Ships was dedicated to the memory of Rhett S. Jones (1940-2008), one of the first professors of Africana Studies at Brown University, co-founder of the Rites and Reason Theater, and a distinguished scholar The Libation ...... 3 of the history of slavery in the Americas, who passed away shortly before this event. THE PROCESSION ...... 11

The Actors ...... 23

ISBN-10: ...... 77 0615579329 The Triangle

ISBN-13: The Luminaria ...... 91 978-0-615-57932-0 REFLECTIONS ON A THOUSAND SHIPS ...... 99 Copyright 2012 The Museum On Site Epilogue By Barnaby Evans ...... 103 First Revised Edition Methodology of A Thousand Ships by Lyra Monteiro ...... 111 The contents of this book are copyright their respective creators. Credits ...... 123 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. A free PDF of this book can be downloaded at www.themuseumonline.com Further reading ...... 127 For more information, or to obtain copies of the book, please contact [email protected] sponsors ...... 129 by James T. Campbell Professor of United States History, Stanford University

We are inured to statistics. They pervade our world, tidy measures of incalculable suffering: six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust; a quarter million dead in the Indian Ocean tsunamis of 2004; 5.4 million slaughtered in the continuing carnage “Shuttles in the rocking loom of history, in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The figures wash over us, confirming the wisdom of novelist Erich Maria Remarque, whose experience on the Western Front the dark ships move, the dark ships move, during the First World War taught him something about wholesale dying: “The their bright ironical names death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.” like jests of kindness on a murderer’s mouth...” Yet when confronting the transatlantic slave trade, statistics are often all that we have. The names of those who traversed the Atlantic in slave ships are mostly lost to us. First-person accounts by individuals who made the passage and lived to write Robert Hayden, Middle Passage (1962) about it are vanishingly few — the most recent scholarly investigation turned up just fifteen. But statistics we have, and in abundance.H ere are a few to ponder:

In the 375 years after Columbus’s first voyage to the New World, more than 12.5 million Africans were loaded onto slave ships bound for the Americas. About 10.7 million of them survived the passage. About 1.8 million, roughly 15% of the total, did not. Though precise figures are elusive, it is likely that similar or even greater numbers died before leaving Africa, perishing in the coffles marching to the sea or in coastal forts and barracoons, or in their first six months in the Americas, during what contemporaries called the “seasoning” process. Putting these figures

8 A Thousand Ships Foreword i together, at least half of the Africans enslaved in the era of the transatlantic trade As such names suggest, slave ships flew the flags of many different nations. died within a year or two. Most of the rest would follow soon enough: average life About nine million Africans — three-fourths of the total — were transported expectancy on a New World sugar plantation was less than seven years. on Portuguese or British ships, but virtually every European nation participated in the trade, including France, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. About 5.5 million of those trafficked from Africa, or just under 45% of the Though they entered the trade belatedly, Americans also played their part. total, were bound for Brazil. Similar numbers were shipped to the islands of the According to the slave trade database—which is estimated to record only 80% of Caribbean — to Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados, Saint-Domingue, Martiniquez and a score all voyages—1,660 slaving voyages were launched from what is today the United of other sugar-producing colonies. The balance were carried to mainland colonies States. Nearly 60% of those ships — at least 946 voyages — originated in a single in North and South America, including to what is today the United States, the colony and state: Rhode Island. destination of just under half a million Africans, or about four percent of the total transatlantic traffic. Some people may be surprised to hear slavery invoked in the context of Rhode Island. For most Americans, slavery conjures southern images - cotton fields and Precisely how many ships crossed the Atlantic during the era of the slave trade is pillared plantation homes. But the “Peculiar Institution” flourished throughout impossible to say. Slavevoyages.org, a consolidated slave trade database, includes the Americas, including all thirteen mainland colonies and, for a time, all thirteen information about 34,948 distinct voyages, a figure that probably represents original states. About one in ten of the residents of Paul Revere’s Boston were something over eighty percent of the total. The first recorded voyage occurred in enslaved. In New York City, the figure was closer to one in four. Following the 1514; the last in 1866, nearly sixty years after the passage of slave trade abolition bills Revolution, all northern states moved to abolish slavery, but most did so gradually by the legislatures of Great Britain and the United States. The peak of the traffic came and grudgingly. New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey all took nearly a quarter in the eighteenth century, which saw more than seven million Africans transported century to enact gradual abolition laws, and decades longer to abolish the to the New World, but the trade continued well into the nineteenth century. About institution outright. New Jersey, in fact, never did: the last few enslaved men and three million Africans were carried to the Americas, mostly to Brazil and Cuba, after women in the state obtained their freedom only in 1865, following the adoption 1807, when Great Britain and the United States declared the trade illegal. of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Slave ships’ names also lend themselves to statistical analysis. 981 ships sailed Even as they abolished slavery within their own borders, most northern states under some variant of Mary or María. 1,130 ships’ names included Joseph (or Josef, remained economically dependent on the institution. Northern firms supplied João, or José). 467 bore the name of Jesus. The roster also included 190 Elizabeths, slave owners with shipping facilities, banking services, even insurance policies to 138 Sallys, 78 Providences (or Providencias), 210 Friendships (including Amistads, shield them against the death of their enslaved property. Textile mills wove slave- Amizades, Amites, Vriendschaps, and Venskabs), 535 Hopes (including Esperanças, produced cotton into cloth, some of which returned to plantations in the form Esperancas, Espoirs, Hoops, and Habs), and one Charity. of “Negro cloth,” the cheap, coarse fabric used to clothe the enslaved. Factories

ii A Thousand Ships Foreword iii produced the brogans that enslaved workers wore on their feet, the hoes with Over the last few years, the myth of northern innocence has begun to unravel. which they chopped cotton, the blankets beneath which they slept. “Peculiar” it The emergence of a vocal slavery reparations movement (including the filing in may have been, but slavery was more than a southern institution. 2002 of a series of well-publicized, though ultimately unsuccessful, class-action lawsuits seeking monetary damages from prominent northern corporations); Nowhere was the North’s economic dependence on slavery more obvious and the unearthing of a forgotten African burial ground in Manhattan, just a stone’s long-lasting than in Rhode Island. Rhode Island ships dominated the North throw from Wall Street; the discovery, during construction of a new Liberty Bell American portion of the transatlantic slave trade, bearing 100,000 Africans into interpretive center in Philadelphia, of the buried foundations of the nation’s New World slavery, most to the plantation colonies of the Caribbean. Rhode first executive mansion, including the converted smokehouse that served as the Islanders also dominated the Caribbean provisioning trade, as well as the lucrative mansion’s slave quarters: all these developments and more have cast a harsh new eighteenth-century commerce in rum. Newport alone boasted over two dozen light on slavery’s neglected northern dimensions, challenging old evasions and distilleries, where slave-produced sugar and molasses were distilled into the high- demanding a new reckoning of our nation’s racial past. proof rum for which Rhode Island was renowned - rum that was then carried to Africa to procure more slaves, to produce more sugar, more rum, and more slaves. Appropriately, Rhode Island has been one of the primary arenas for this ongoing These circuits of exchange were reproduced in the nineteenth century, as Rhode process of historical recovery. In 2003, Brown University appointed a Steering Islanders turned to cotton textile manufacturing and sought to corner the market Committee on Slavery and Justice, becoming the first American university to on “Negro cloth.” Small wonder that early abolitionists encountered such fierce investigate and publicly disclose its historical ties to slavery and the transatlantic opposition in the state. slave trade. The investigation revealed not only a wealth of entanglements with slavery (including the dispatching of a ship to West Africa by the university’s All these facts were well known to contemporaries, yet in time virtually all would namesake family in 1764, the year of Brown’s founding), but also a robust anti- be forgotten. As historian Joanne Melish has shown, a curious historical amnesia slavery tradition on campus. Many of the historical documents quoted in the pages settled over New England in the nineteenth century. By the time of the Civil that follow were uncovered during the work of the Slavery and Justice Committee. War, New Englanders, and northerners generally, had contrived to forget their own region’s ties to slavery, presenting themselves as defenders of freedom and The real significance of the Brown initiative is to be found not in any specific progress against a decadent, backward South. This amnesia would persist through finding but in the broader public conversation that it helped to inaugurate. In the the twentieth century. “Clearly, the North outstripped the South economically years since 2003, Rhode Island has been the scene of an extraordinary outpouring because its economy was based on freedom and innovation, not slavery,” the of “memory work” related to slavery and the slave trade — the publication of Providence Journal opined in a 2002 editorial, neatly summarizing the prevailing books and newspaper articles, the mounting of new exhibitions in museums and historical (mis)interpretation. historic homes, the introduction of slavery curricula in the state’s schools, the

iv A Thousand Ships Foreword v creation of art installations, dramatic works, and documentary films, including Katrina Browne’s haunting “Traces of the Trade,” which examines the history and legacy of the De Wolfs of Bristol, the nation’s premier slave-trading family. A decade ago, very few Rhode Islanders had any inkling of their state’s historical ties to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. Today, many of the state’s residents know a great deal about the subject.

What are we to do with this knowledge? The book that you hold is, in part, a response to that question. It depicts A Thousand Ships, a collaborative venture of The Museum On Site, a public art organization committed to helping people understand their worlds through the creation of innovative, site-specific, free public events, and the artist Barnaby Evans, the creator of WaterFire, Providence’s celebrated experiential art installation. In October 2008, two centuries after the legal abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than three centuries after the first slave ships embarked from Rhode Island, thousands of people gathered in the heart of Providence, the state’s capital, to reflect on the meaning of their shared history. Standing near the waters where slave ships had once been fitted out for Africa, they fashioned a memorial, not from stone but from water, fire, music and memory. The following is an account of the events that took place

We cannot change the past. But we can change our relationship to it, embracing rather on October 4, 2008, in Providence, Rhode Island. than denying its complexity, acknowledging its pain and tragedy as well as its beauty and grace. In the process, we enlarge our own humanity and the range of possibility in our world. A Thousand Ships expresses that hope.

James T. Campbell is the author of Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005. He teaches at Stanford University, where he holds the Edgar E. Robinson Professorship in United States History. He previously taught at Brown University, where he chaired the Brown Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.

vi A Thousand Ships Foreword ix At sunset on October 4, 2008, tens of thousands of people were gathered by the three rivers that run through downtown Providence, Rhode Island, to watch the lighting of the renowned art installation WaterFire. However, many did not known the history of the waters by which they stood.

This was to be a night of remembrance, an occasion to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the United States’ abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. But it was also an occasion to acknowledge Rhode Island’s involvement in this trade and the enslavement of human beings. Merchants from Rhode Island mounted approximately one thousand slave ship voyages from these waters, carrying more than 100,000 Africans into New World slavery.

More slave-ship voyages sailed from Rhode Island’s harbors than from any other state. Among these ships was one that bore the name of the city itself: Providence.

A Thousand Ships was created by The Museum on Site and Barnaby Evans, in collaboration with dozens of volunteers and the professional staff of WaterFire, in order to launch the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities’ Freedom Festival. It was a night for contemplation and acknowledgement of the past. A night filled with music and silence, movement and stillness, fire and water.

A Thousand Ships was a time for remembering, and a night to remember. We cannot allow ourselves to forget.

x A Thousand Ships The Libation 1 “Life is the pouring out. Some of it is At sunset, three small boats traveled up the river from the historic Providence Harbor on the edge of the Atlantic. In the boats were a seated pilot, a person good, some carrying an unlit torch, and a waterbearer standing upright, looking serene, of it is bad. I holding a large metal bowl. All wore black, with a red sash around their waists. poured a little Meanwhile, surrounding Waterplace Basin, dozens of volunteers, also dressed in black with red sashes, handed out one thousand specially labeled bottles of water bit from my to the crowd. Each bottle represented a single slave ship voyage that began in the state of Rhode Island. They were labeled with an invitation to join in a ritual bowl on one known as “libation,” a pouring out of liquid as an offering. Different forms of side, a little bit this ritual are practiced in many parts of the world, including some of the areas of West Africa to which sailed slave ships from Rhode Island. on the other The boats moved to the center of the basin, surrounded by unlit WaterFire side. The good braziers that were filled with firewood. Slowly, the boats began to spin. Ten more and the bad waterbearers, accompanied by torches, stepped from the crowd to the water’s edge. really makes A loud drumbeat echoed around the Basin. On the shore and in the boats, the torchbearers lit their torches. The waterbearers lifted their bowls. The volunteers the whole.“ who had handed out the water bottles raised bottles of their own high into the air. The booming tones of Paul Robeson’s 1956 recording of “Amazing Grace” - written by a former slave ship captain - filled the space. The bowls and the bottles were tipped towards the water, and a thousand streams of water glinted gold. A thousand streams of water glinted gold in the light of the fires as they poured their contents into the river.

2 A Thousand Ships The Libation 3 Reflections from participants and spectators

People said “Thank you for doing this,” as I handed out the bottles.

About 90% of the people we offered bottles to, took them. I think the younger people kind of got it, they didn’t need a lot of extra information. Some of the older people were hesitant to take the bottles — responding to a stranger is a little difficult for people in New England.

It was an interesting moment for teaching, and for people to understand this story on a visceral and intellectual level. The action reinforced the historical meaning, so people could talk about their participation in the event.

4 A Thousand Ships The Libation 5 I definitely felt that the ritual had an affect I heard a story about a family from on people. The idea of pouring the water, India who took the bottles. One and of being mindful of pouring it, changed person translated the label to the the way some people were thinking about other family members, and they all the evening. participated in the ritual.

The libation with the music in the It felt to me that I was participating background really pulled me to a place, in a part of the water cycle, where and it seemed to pull the audience to a place the water becomes rain and then related to the theme we were addressing, ends up in the river and then to a place where they had to give thought evaporates and becomes clouds. to it, and the implications thereof. Some people were caught up not only with the theatricality of it all, but it really became a Some people wanted to keep the moment of reflection, what it means, and bottle afterwards, so they would still where we’ve come. For me, as an African have that connection. It has more American, and particularly with the lead meaning than than “Oh, I just heard candidate for president right now being an about this history.” African American, I was just overwhelmed by it all.

6 A Thousand Ships The Libation 7 The libation made me reflect on the fact I saw people asking what it was for, that Rhode Island was a major player in and when they found out, they said, slave trade. The ritual was a recognition of “I want to do that.” that fact, and tried to heal the wounds.

People came over to me afterwards, My partner is from Ghana, and he thought and said, “Thank you, Reverend. it was very cool to see libation being used. That was moving spiritually.” He’s not from an area that uses libation, but he is familiar with the tradition. He thought it made sense that people would take to it, as it doesn’t have any religious significance here.

8 A Thousand Ships The Libation 9 On a small wooden stage in Waterplace Basin, a person called for light. A torch was lit, and the man spoke of a public procession, one that would bear witness to a history that took place in downtown Providence. Invited dignitaries and interested observers gathered. Together, they walked next to the rivers.

The group traced a route of five different sites next to the river. At each location, the speaker recited a text explaining the site’s historical connection to slavery and to the slave trade. A fresh torch was lit at each stop as a mark of remembrance of what happened at that place.

As the procession made its silent way on to the next phase of the evening, it was now accompanied by six torchbearers.

1 Citizen’s Plaza, at the confluence of the the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck rivers 2 Market Square, built in 1775 3 Joseph Brown House, built in 1774 4 18th-century warehouses (present location of The Wild Colonial Tavern) 5 The Providence River, by the old port

© Google, Tele Atlas 2011 The following text was recited by the leader of returned to Rhode Island, completing the triangle, the procession during A Thousand Ships. only to trace it again and again. For more than one hundred years, Rhode Island was a key point in Providence in the 1700s. In front of us what was known as the Triangle Trade. here lies the port. What is now downtown Providence was then a large bay. All along Small and large businesses throughout the state both the Great Salt River were sloops and brigantines, fed and fed off the constant stream of ships going schooners and frigates, ships that left from here and in and out of its harbors. The slave trade, and the other major ports in Rhode Island, many of them slave plantation provisioning trade, were literally the heading for the West Indies, laden with the supplies business of the butcher, the baker and the candlestick on which the slave plantations depended. maker. And of many others, as well — barrel makers, rope makers, ship builders, carpenters, doctors, These ships then returned to Rhode Island with raw farmers, rum distillers — all helped to stock the ships, materials, mainly sugar and molasses, the results of provided goods to trade, and purchased the products the labor of enslaved Africans. These materials would brought back from slave plantations. be converted into rum by distilleries in this state.

All of the people of Providence earned their livings The barrels of Rhode Island rum, as well as boxes and built their wealth, directly or indirectly, from a of whale oil candles and assorted weapons, were system based upon the treatment of human beings as then sent from here on yet more ships, which made commodities and upon the exploitation of the labor around one thousand journeys east to the coast of captive Africans and African Americans. of Africa. There, they traded the rum, the candles, money and weapons for Africans who they took as Tonight we will explore a handful of sites and stories of their slaves. these interconnected trades. These stories took place everywhere in Rhode Island in the 1700s and early 1800s. The ships then crossed the Atlantic again to the Caribbean and the southern United States, where The stories we will bear witness to tonight happened they exchanged those people for money and raw right here in a port called Providence, on the banks of materials, mainly sugar and molasses. The ships the Great Salt River.

12 A Thousand Ships The Procession 13 This is the commercial center of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Providence: Market House and Market Square.

Everything was sold here, from ships’ supplies to raw materials and finished goods. And so, most likely, were the enslaved.

Most of the enslaved on Rhode Island ships were taken to the Caribbean. Yet, by the mid 1700s, more than 10% of the population of Rhode Island were enslaved.

In public memory, this site has come to represent the central place where slaves were bought and sold. However, the business of buying and selling human beings took place everywhere in eighteenth-century Rhode Island — not just in official marketplaces, but also in the taverns and in the front rooms of private homes, in company offices and in the banks.

Slave exchanges were held in the Crown Coffee House overlooking Market Square, about where the RISD auditorium is now. Slaves were also auctioned, leased, handed down in wills. They were taxable and listed in inventories as so many items of furniture and cattle.

14 A Thousand Ships The Procession 15 Right here, within a block of each other, lived and worked Reflections from participants and spectators the four Brown brothers: Nicholas, John, Joseph and Moses. Today only this house, which belonged to That for me was the highlight Joseph Brown, survives. of the evening. When I

In the context of Rhode Island’s slave trade, the Brown family, who taught at Brown, I gave my gave their name to the University, were relatively minor players, students a tour of that area. investing in a handful of voyages. Yet the detailed documents they left behind give us some of the most complete records we have of To bring that alive, I thought, the American contribution to the transatlantic slave trade. was great.

The Brown brothers had interests in many industries, including the buying and selling of African slaves. It was from here that they decided to send out the slave ship Sally, which left from their It was good to make a wharf nearby at India Point. continuity between the place The Sally departed to Africa on September 11th 1764, and became and the things that were one of the most disastrous slave voyages in American history. Of the 196 enslaved people on board, 109 died during the journey. done there. I could imagine the market, the warehouses, Here on this block, Moses Brown went on to renounce his part in the trade, and became a fierce abolitionist in word and deed, speaking the ships. Being in the space out against the trade in the State Assembly and the newspapers. and the evocative language really added to that. Here is also where his brother John was to become a strident defender of the trade throughout his political career, as it carried him all the way to the United States Congress.

All this and more happened on this block.

16 A Thousand Ships The Procession 17 Rhode Island’s involvement with slavery The torches were really grew as the colony expanded. The first slaves here were local Native Americans powerful, but when I saw captured in war. By the mid 1600s, white Rhode them all moving together in Islanders sold some of these Native Americans the procession, I was worried slaves in the Caribbean, bringing back enslaved Africans in their place. they might remind people of the KKK. In the early 1700s, white Rhode Islanders began to send ships to Africa to buy slaves. By the mid 1700s, Rhode Island merchants dominated the financing and management of the American transatlantic slave trade, which soon grew into When the narrator said, a major industry. “Let us bring light onto this history,” that was the most These buildings are all that remain of a string of warehouses that lined the 18th-century meaningful moment of the Providence waterfront. Actual slaves were night for me. probably never kept here, but rather the objects — locally made weapons, rum, candles — that would be traded for people in Africa, as well as raw materials such as molasses, which had been bought with human flesh.

18 A Thousand Ships The Procession 19 The transatlantic trade was officially abolished 200 years ago, in 1808. Although some Rhode Island ships continued to flaunt the ban, by then, the state was already in the midst of an economic transition brought on by the industrial revolution — a revolution that was fueled by cotton.

Today, most people don’t think to ask where the cotton came from or who picked it. But at the time, everybody knew. Not only did the cotton come from the hands of slaves, but it was often returned to their backs in the form of coarse, degrading “slave cloth,” specifically manufactured for that purpose in Rhode Island, and purchased by slaveholders in the South and the Caribbean.

Thus, despite the end of the transatlantic slave trade, Rhode Islanders continued to profit from items that provisioned the slave plantations. Until the eve of the Civil War, this city and this state were fully complicit in maintaining the evils of slavery, through their commerce and their growing wealth.

20 A Thousand Ships The Procession 21 “I never knew about Rhode Island and the Six torches were lit in the midst of the crowds. Alongside each torchbearer, an slave trade, and actor began to speak. The stories told were those of black and white individuals related both to Rhode I never would Island and to slavery — either as its victims, its perpetrators, or those who fought have learned if I to end it. hadn’t stopped They included manifests of slave ships that left Providence for West Africa, the letter of commission for the tragic voyage of the slave ship Sally, the memories to listen to of an African child enslaved on a farm in Rhode Island, on-going correspondence the actors and published accounts of the debates between brothers Moses and John Brown concerning abolition, the dictated “confession” of a young enslaved Rhode performing.“ Islander accused of stealing candles, a contemporary graduation oration given at Brown University that condemned the slave trade, and both of the laws abolishing slavery in Rhode Island: the 1652 law that was soon disregarded, and the 1784 law that led to slavery’s eventual demise in the state.

The actors moved throughout the crowd. They stopped at particular sites where a torchbearer stood, waiting. The torches were lit as the actors delivered one or two short texts. The torches were then extinguished, and the actors walked silently to their next location.

After an hour of performance, the actors then joined a torchlit procession that led from Waterplace Basin to Memorial Park. Below are the texts as they were performed during Laws enacted in Rhode Island in the 1700s An act authorizing the manumission of Negroes, A Thousand Ships. In many cases, they were edited from the original source documents for brevity and clarity in mulattos and others, and for the gradual abolition oral performance. • Any theft by a slave in Rhode Island shall be of slavery in Rhode Island, 1784 punished by 15 lashes or banishment to servitude Act of the General Court, Warwick, Rhode Island in the sugar plantations of the West Indies. All men are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of May 19, 1652 • Any ferryman who transports a slave beyond happiness, yet holding mankind in a state of slavery, the Rhode Island border without a certificate of as private property, is repugnant to this principle, and It is a common course practiced amongst permission from his master shall suffer severe subversive of the happiness of mankind. Englishmen to buy Negroes, so that they may financial penalties. have them as slaves forever; let it be ordered, that • Any ship in Rhode Island waters suspected of This General Assembly therefore declares that no person no black mankind or white be forced again into harboring a runaway can be searched by the slave’s or persons, whether Negroes, mulattos or others, who slavery on account of debt. If however they be master with no prior warning or permission. shall be born within the limits of Rhode Island on or brought as slaves into this Colony under 14 years after the first day of March, AD 1784, shall be deemed or of age, they must be set free when they reach 24 • Any man who frees his own slaves must post a considered as servants for life or slaves, and that all slavery years of age. Any man that will not let his slaves bond with the State of Rhode Island of £1,000 per of children shall be hereby taken away, extinguished and go free, or shall sell them away elsewhere, shall slave, to guarantee against any possible crime or forever abolished. forfeit to the Colony forty pounds. misdemeanor committed by his former charge. • Any free Negroes in Providence from 1785 onward For those who claim the mothers of these children as may be evicted from the city on the charge of slaves, the support and maintenance of the children must being “likely to commit a crime.” be at the expense of the town where they reside, provided that the respective town councils can contract such children out as apprentices until they arrive at eighteen years old. Adequate provision must be made for their education in reading, writing and arithmetic, and in the principles of morality and religion.

24 A Thousand Ships The Actors 25 Reflections from participants and spectators Boston News Letter, April 29, 1731 Newport, Rhode Island, June 11, 1731 Boston News Letter, May 7, 1747

The actors were really We hear from Rhode Island news of Captain To The Honorable Joseph Jencks, Esquire By a letter from the Coast of Guinea, via powerful. People stopped George Scott, who some time since went from Governor of Rhode Island Barbados, dated the 14th of January, we have and engaged in the words, Rhode Island to Guinea on the sloop Little George. news of Captain Bear, whose vessel, belonging He was returning with a cargo of 96 negroes, Honored Sir, to Rhode Island, was off the coast of Africa with the presentation and the and at half past four in the morning, the male a number of Negro slaves, and a considerable locations. When people slaves got loose of their irons, rose upon the It is nearly twelve months since one Mr. Royall of quantity of gold dust on board. stopped, they would usually said commander and company, and barbarously Boston imported into Newport 45 slaves, for which the stay until it was over. They murdered three of his men — John Harris, the tax remains unpaid. Colonel Coddington, who acted as The slaves found an opportunity to rise against doctor; Jonathan Ebens, a cooper; and Thomas a merchant for Mr. Royall, has told me that 16 of said the master and men, and killed the master and had an “Oh my God” sort of Ham, a sailor. The said captain and the rest of his slaves have been since carried into Boston, where there all the crew, except the two first mates, who by expression on their faces. company fired their pistols and made their escape, is a tax of £4 per head, and therefore expects they will jumping overboard and swimming ashore saved though it is said they are all now dead except the be free from tax here. their lives. What became of the vessel belonging captain and a boy. The Negroes, we are informed, to Rhode Island, and the Africans is not known. were afterwards taken and made slaves by some I am of the opinion it is not my power to dispense with It was shocking for some other nation. an Act of Assembly that has empowered me to receive people, some wanted to get the tax of goods that are imported through Newport. I their kids away from it. pray your Honor will resolve this matter.

Obedient Humble Servant,

James Cranston

26 A Thousand Ships The Actors 27 A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture Once aboard that Rhode Island vessel, I was bought by Some time after I had another difficulty and oppression The pain of the slave trade, Smith, a Native of Africa, but Resident Above one Robertson Mumford, steward of said vessel, for which was greater than any I had ever experienced since I expressed in those vignettes, Sixty Years in the United States of America, four gallons of rum, and a piece of calico, and called came to Rhode Island. it was pertinent in terms of Related by Himself, 1798 Venture, on account of his having purchased me with his own private venture. Thus I came by my name. This was to serve two masters. My master had left in why we were there. People I was born in Dukandarra in Guinea, about the year the morning and given me a stint to perform that day. wanted their children to hear 1729. My father’s name was Saungm Furro, Prince of Two hundred and sixty slaves were bought for that James Mumford, my master’s son, would order me to do it, they wanted their children the tribe of Dukandarra. vessel’s cargo but the ship was afflicted with the this and that business different from what my master to see this live illustration smallpox, and by the time we arrived in Barbados, no directed me. One day in particular, my master having I was seven years old when they came to us in the more than two hundred were still alive. left me to perform his business, his son came up to me of what was meant to be a reeds, and the very first salute I had from them was and commanded me very arrogantly to quit my present healing process about the a violent blow on the back part of the head with the These were all sold, except myself and three more, business and go directly about what he should order. slave trade. fore part of a gun, and at the same time a grasp round to the planters there. the neck. I then had a rope put about my neck, as had I replied to him that my master had given me so much to all the women in the thicket with me. The vessel then sailed for Rhode Island. The year was perform that day, that I must therefore faithfully complete 1737 and I was eight years old. it in that time. He then broke out into a great rage, took The torches did a great job At a certain time I and other prisoners were put on me to a gallows made for the purpose of hanging cattle, of saying, “This is WaterFire, board a canoe, under our master, and rowed away to and suspended me on it. watch it.” Some people were a vessel belonging to Rhode Island, commanded by Soon after our arrival in Narraganset, in the year Captain Collingwood, and the mate Thomas Mumford. of our Lord 1737, I then began to have hard tasks Afterwards, he ordered one of his hands to go to the there for A Thousand Ships, While we were going to the vessel, our master told us imposed on me. Some of these were to pound four peach orchard and cut him three dozen whips to punish so when they saw the torches, all to appear to the best possible advantage for sale. bushels of ears of corn every night in a barrel for the me with. These were brought to him, and that was all that they knew it was something poultry, or be rigorously punished. At other seasons was done with them. Then I was released and went to they should come and watch. of the year I had to tease wool until a very late hour. work after hanging on the gallows about an hour. This was when I was about nine years old.

28 A Thousand Ships The Actors 29 Newport, November 8, 1755 South-Carolina Gazette, June 17, 1756 Providence, Rhode Island, January 2, 1759

To Captain Caleb Godfrey: Just imported in the Hare, a fine ship that set Shipped by the grace of God in good order by Arthur sail from Newport, Rhode Island, Captain Caleb Fenner, Obadiah, Nicholas and John Brown and others, Our orders are that you use the first favorable wind Godfrey brings us, directly from Sierra Leone, owners of the schooner Wheel of Fortune, currently riding and weather and proceed directly to the coast of a cargo of likely and healthy slaves, to be sold at anchor in the harbor of Providence and by God’s grace Africa, where being arrived you are at liberty to trade on easy terms on Tuesday the 29th of June, by bound for the coast of Guinea, the following are to be at such places as you think best for our interests. Austin and Laurens. exchanged for slaves and other goods:

Don’t purchase any small or old slaves as far as • 48 hogsheads of New England rum possible — young men slaves sell better than women. • 7 barrels of New England rum Keep a watchful eye over ‘em and give them no • 12 hogsheads of tobacco opportunity of making an insurrection. • 10 barrels of flour • 13 barrels of beef Let them have a sufficiently good diet, as the success of your voyage depends upon the health of the • 6 barrels of pork slaves. Proceed from the coast to Charleston in • 11 barrels of water South Carolina, where we shall send letters for you • 12 casks of bread containing instructions for your further proceedings. • 9 boxes of spermaceti candles • 2 barrels of sugar We wish you health and a prosperous voyage. All consigned, marked and numbered, and to be exchanged Your Friends, for slaves and other goods in the aforesaid Guinea on the Samuel & William Vernon coast of Africa, the dangers of the sea excepted. May God send the good schooner to her desired port in safety. Amen.

30 A Thousand Ships The Actors 31 Providence, January 2, 1759 Remonstrance to the Board of Trade in England I think it was very spiritual for regarding the need to maintain the African trade people watching the actors. I hereby receive of John Brown of Providence five small for the colony of Rhode Island, 1764 arms and one barrel of rum, which I am to dispose of on the coast of Africa. With the proceeds, I am to For more than thirty years, this little colony of Rhode purchase for Mr. Brown one likely Negro boy about 13 Island has annually sent about eighteen vessels to Some people treated it very or 14 years old. the African coast, which have carried about eighteen artistically, saying, “That was a hundred hogsheads of rum, together with other articles, William Earle to be sold for elephants teeth, gold dust, slaves, etc. good monologue,” and so on. The slaves have been sold in the English islands of the Caribbean, in Carolina and Virginia. And by this trade alone, remittances have been made to Great Britain to I was a torchbearer, and it the value of £40,000 yearly. was really very enjoyable to Without this trade in slaves, it would have been and participate in shedding light always will be utterly impossible for the inhabitants of on the actors and their stories. this colony to subsist themselves. The person who’s lighting

Delivered to London personally by Stephen Hopkins, the torch is silent, and there’s Governor of Rhode Island, and Chancellor of the College almost a ghostly symbolism of Rhode Island in being the person who’s providing the light.

32 A Thousand Ships The Actors 33 We could have been husband and wife — Sir Mingo to read one. I cannot even love her like mothers do. and I, his sweet corn-rowed bride — but Pastor February 8, 1744, MacSparran baptized her ... then MacSparran chastised me for not being Christian gave her away to Benjamin Mumford. enough. He called my love for my Mingo heathen lust and his permission to marry was never granted to Still nighttime’s not the only time God made for us, for we needed our master’s permission. From the loving. Our second girl we name Jane. Plain name Jane hand of Pastor MacSparran, of South County fame, I might just spare her MacSparran’s iron, but he baptizes received one or two lashes. this one, too, and gives her away to Mistress Alice Gardiner. One or two lashes? Look again at whose hand is writing his diary and then think again. “One or two My love, did you steal the sugar from the sugar bowl? lashes” for receiving presents from my Mingo, my love. Did I steal the sugar from the sugar bowl? MacSparran A hand carved box to hold our kisses in. Mingo freed proclaims I “took the Sugar from the Barril when they sweet elm scraps from the Updike’s pile. A slice of were all away from Home last Monday.” He preaches broken mirror still in its pewter frame, Mingo polished and pulpitizes “I’ve invaded his Peace and his Property up real nice. Guess what bring bad luck to white folk with my evil doings and increased my own sins with likely bring good luck to us. I love my Mingo, yes I do. the sins of uncleanness, stealing and lying.” Maybe I stole the sugar and maybe I didn’t. What’s it going to Yes, nighttime isn’t the only time God made for loving, cost me, this little taste of sweetness on my tongue? and Mingo and I, we had not one daughter but two. How many lashes this time Pastor MacSparran? Pastor My first girl I name Maroca. MacSparran who’s counting your sins?

My name is the only thing I can give her. I cannot give Excerpt from Door of No Return her a needle or thread, not even a hammer or hoe. by Nehassaiu deGannes, 2006 I couldn’t give her a book if I had one or knew how

34 A Thousand Ships The Actors 35 Providence, September 10, 1764

To Captain Esek Hopkins

Sir You are to bring four likely young slaves home for our use, about 15 years old. If you should come on the coast You being master of our brigantine Sally having her in a proper season of the year, your privilege from the cargo on board and ready for the voyage to Africa coast is to be ten slaves, and commission for doing the and the West Indies — our orders to you are that you business is to be 4% for every 104 sold; that is to say, embrace the first and all suitable winds and weather for every hundred & four slaves (or any other article to gain your passage to the windward coast of Africa purchased on the coast), you are to have four. and when arrived there or anywhere upon the coast, dispose of your cargo for slaves — or any other thing Your first mate is to have four slaves privilege. The that you may think may net us as good a profit — and second mate is to have two slaves, and the third mate after you have completed your business upon the coast one, boatswain two slave boys, carpenter and cooper: of Africa, you are to proceed for Barbados in the West one slave boy each. Indies & there dispose of your cargo, of slaves, etc., if you can obtain a good price for them, or otherwise you You are to buy for us and bring home two dozen, or may proceed to any other port or place in the West more, table mats, and any other thing of the kind Indies, and, if you should think it best for our interest, worthy of our curiosity. to proceed from the West Indies to Carolina, Virginia or Maryland & there dispose of the same for hard cash or In general wishing a good voyage and safe return, we good bills. are your friends & owners,

Our thorough acquaintance and satisfaction with your Nicholas Brown & Company ability and integrity makes us the more general and concise in these our orders.

36 A Thousand Ships The Actors 37 Providence, September 11, 1764

Contents of the brigantine Sally in preparation for her voyage to Africa and then the West Indies, to gather and sell slaves and other produce.

• 17,274 gallons of New England Rum • 8 small arms • 40 barrels of flour • 4 barrels of vinegar • 1,800 bunches of onions • 4 barrels of salt • 30 boxes of spermaceti candles • 4 knives • 6 barrels of tar • A grindstone • 2 barrels of molasses • 2 pistols • 24 barrels of beef • 1 table • 22 barrels of pork • 3 chairs • 30 casks of bread • 1 large iron pot • 25 casks of rice • 1 tin kettle with a cover • 13 cutlasses • 7 swivel guns with ammunition • A doctor’s chest • 24 fathoms of rope • 1 new anchor, weighing 294 pounds • 40 handcuffs and 40 shackles • 1 drum

38 A Thousand Ships The Actors 39 Providence, September 28, 1764

To my masters, Mr. Nicholas Brown and Company of Providence, and to all others whom it may concern

Humbly offered by their Negro servant

I, Sharp, have been accused of taking a box of candles from my master Browns in an unlawful way. I do before these people acknowledge the charge to be true. Although at first I tried to evade the charge and to hide the sin that I had committed, by the irresistible power of God on my own conscience I am constrained to make this public acknowledgement of the fact charged on me. I am willing to pay my masters any reasonable consideration for the damage they have sustained by my taking of the candles, and above all am willing and ready to ask their forgiveness, in a most public manner, for the many reflections I have cast on their characters through this unhappy affair. I humbly hope that God will keep me from all other sins for the future, so long as I strive to walk in his ways.

Signed,

The Mark of Sharp: X

40 A Thousand Ships The Actors 41 Recorded by Captain Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island, while on the coast of Africa, in the Account Book of the Sally

May 10, 1765 June 6, 1765 • Traded 8 flasks of rum for 3 pieces of cloth • Traded 8 flasks of rum for 4 pieces of country cloth • Sold Captain Boujon 5 slaves: 3 women and 2 men, and • Traded 2 flasks of rum for 2 small cutlasses received in exchange: 40 large cutlasses, 12 brass pans, 7 pieces of calico, 100 large iron bars, 50 small iron June 7 bars, 22 french guns, and 12 pistols • Traded 2 flasks of rum for 1 flask of powder • Traded 1 flask of rum and 1 small iron bar for May 11 a large cutlass • Traded 2 flasks of rum for 1 piece of cloth • Sold 110 gallons of rum to Lewis Lopes for a June 8 woman slave • Traded 6 flasks of rum, 3 flasks of powder, 4 large iron • Traded 1 flask of rum for a cutlass bars, 1 large cutlass, 1 gun, and 2 pieces of cloth for a • Sold to Captain Boujon a woman slave, and received in woman slave exchange: 2 pieces of calico, 7 large cutlasses, 6 pieces • A woman slave hanged herself below decks of cloth, 2 bunches of beads, 29 large iron bars, 4 guns, and 3 pieces of string

42 A Thousand Ships The Actors 43 June 21, 1765 July 26, 1765 • Traded 10 flasks of rum for 5 pieces of cloth • Traded one barrel and 6 flasks of rum, 1 French gun and • Bought 3 men slaves from Captain Miller for 1 cutlass, 1 iron bar and 1 small cutlass for a boy slave 500 gallons of rum • Traded 18 flasks of rum, 2 small iron bars, July 29 2 cutlasses, 1 large cutlass, 1 brass pan, • One girl slave died 2 pieces of cloth, 1 piece of calico, and 1 white cloth for a woman slave August 1 • Traded 4 flasks of rum for 2 pieces of country cloth June 23 • Traded 2 flashs of rum for 1 piece of white cloth • Traded 2 flasks of rum for 1 flask of powder • Traded 7 flasks of rum to exchange a man slave with • Traded 1 flask of rum, 1 large cutlass, 2 large his foot bitten off by a shark, and got a boy slave in iron bars, and 1 brass pan for a cow his place

June 27 • One boy and one girl slave died

44 A Thousand Ships The Actors 45 Providence, July 15, 1765

To Captain Hopkins

Sir

We wrote you on the 4th of June advising you to go to South Carolina rather than Jamaica, in case you did not sell your slaves at Barbados, but we have had advice from Carolina that their market was so glutted that slaves would not sell for money or bills at hardly any rate.

Therefore we recommend if you can get £28 sterling for your well slaves at Barbados to sell there and lay out the net proceeds in rum or sugar and three or four bags of cotton, with the remainder in full weight money or good bills of exchange. If your slaves should be in good order and you cannot get that price, proceed to Jamaica and there dispose of them for the same pay.

Then proceed home bringing with you five likely boys for our use at 13 or 15 years old — which you must clothe suitably for the season you will come on this coast.

Your family and friends are all well, and we are, sir, your most assured friends and able servants,

Nicholas Brown & Company, Providence

46 A Thousand Ships The Actors 47 Slave deaths during the middle passage of the brigantine Sally, traveling from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean, as recorded by Captain Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island in 1765

August 21st September 3rd September 15th September 29th October 14th November 3rd 1 girl slave died 1 boy slave died 1 girl slave died 1 woman and 1 girl slave died 1 boy slave died and 1 man slave 1 man boy died died of his wounds in the thigh August 25th September 4th September 16th September 30th November 5th from when the slaves rose 1 boy slave died 1 boy slave died 1 woman slave died 2 women and 1 boy slave died 1 woman slave died October 15th August 27th September 6th September 19th October 1st November 10th 1 woman slave died 1 woman and 1 boy died 1 man slave died 1 man slave died of his wounds on 3 women slaves died 1 young man slave died the ribs when the slaves rose October 17th August 28th September 7th October 2nd November 11th 1 woman slave died Slaves rose on us, was obliged to fire 3 boys and 1 girl slave died September 20th 3 men slaves and 2 women slaves died 1 man boy slave died on them and destroyed 8, several 1 boy slave died October 20th September 8th October 3rd November 12th more wounded badly, one in the 1 man slave died 2 women and 2 boys died September 22nd 1 girl slave died 1 woman slave died thigh and one’s ribs broke 1 woman slave died October 23rd September 9th October 5th November 15th August 30th 1 man and 1 woman slave died 1 woman and 1 girl slave died September 23rd 1 man slave died 1 man slave died 1 boy and 1 girl slave died 2 women and 1 girl slave died October 25th September 11th October 6th December 20th August 31st 1 woman slave died 1 boy slave died September 25th 1 man and 1 woman slave died 1 man slave died 1 woman slave died 1 man and 1 woman slave died October 27th September 12th October 8th September 1st 1 boy slave died 1 boy slave died September 26th 1 man slave died 1 woman and 1 girl slave died 2 men and 1 girl slave died October 30th September 14th October 11th September 2nd 1 woman slave died 1 girl slave died September 27th 3 women and 1 man slave died 1 woman slave died 2 men and 1 woman slave died

48 A Thousand Ships The Actors 49 50 A Thousand Ships The Actors 51 And in my feces I laid the mess of Speaking in my tongue Sales of cargo from the brig Sally, owned by My favorite spot to perform speaking in a tongue their crying to my neighbor’s Nicholas Brown and Company, Providence, Rhode Island was up on the stairs. The not understood by those enslavement. lifeless body. who laid in their own Pining for a way — Antigua, 1765 woman that was holding the beside me Only the great sea any way — torch there was really doing October 17th understood— to take the fire 6 sick slaves sold to Mr. John Lynsey for 90 pounds her job, making it clear that But we understood the Each wave trying in the pit of my something important was moans and cries to pacify my soul and being and October 19th disrupt the ship (before it was 2 small sick girls sold to Mrs. Mary Lynsey for going on. She was so incredibly of those whom we as my agony and fear extinguished 9 pounds, 18 shillings attentive, and we drew the would never see again burrowed a fox hole by despair) 3 sick men sold at auction for 39 pounds 17 shillings most crowds. That was also of a life we would never into my use it to October 27th where small children would live DNA burn those chains 4 sick boys sold to Mrs. West for 38 pounds of that held me ... gather around. Afterward, November 2nd the beatings to come. ... My life would be people would applaud. 3 slaves sold to Mr. Williams for 27 pounds one bottle of “An Account of the Captured” The crewmen slipping rum by Kal Champlain, 2008, written November 16th on a floor worth no more for A Thousand Ships 11 sick slaves sold for 185 pounds 10 shillings 9 pence lathered in blood maybe less 4 sick slaves sold for 45 pounds 4 shillings People responded to it. The and and a Port texts were powerful — it was urine of clear that these were about and New slavery in Rhode Island. cursing left no Hope us for me ... for

52 A Thousand Ships The Actors 53 Antigua, November 16, 1765

Sale of Negros put into my hands by Captain Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island, and sold at public auction:

• Alexander Lawrence purchased 1 Negro man for • Joseph Hawkins purchased 1 young Negro man 18 pounds 10 shillings for 20 pounds 1 shilling

• Captain Scott purchased 1 Negro man for 4 pounds • Jonathan Jenkins purchased 1 Negro woman 5 shillings, 1 negro woman for 6 pounds 14 shillings, for 30 pounds and one young Negro man for 14 pounds 5 shillings Expenses for this auction: • Richard Green purchased 1 Negro man for 6 pounds 15 shillings • Sales commission, 4 pounds 15 shillings 3 pence

• Robert Finlay purchased 1 Negro man for 20 pounds • Fee for cryer to publicize this auction, 6 shillings 5 shillings • Cash for liquor to serve at the auction, 3 shillings • Doctor Rooke purchased 1 Negro woman for 31 pounds 10 shillings Total earnings of £185, from the sale of 12 Negro slaves, to be returned to Nicholas Brown • Mr. Walker purchased 1 Negro girl for 8 pounds and Company of Providence, Rhode Island. 10 shillings

• Alexander Brodie purchased 1 Negro woman and Signed by Nathaniel Hardcastle, Auction Master her child for 30 pounds

54 A Thousand Ships The Actors 55 Providence, November 16, 1765

Captain Hopkins,

Sir, last evening we received your letter dated Antigua, October 9th 1765. We need not mention how the disagreeable the news of your losing three of your hands and 88 slaves is to us and all your friends, but yourself continuing in health is of such great satisfaction to us, that we remain cheerful under the heavy loss of our interests.

We have lately had word from South Carolina that it is not advisable to go there, as the value given upon slaves there is falling. But we still advise your going to Jamaica, where we hear they will fetch about £30 per head.

You may assure yourself that whatever you think best we shall be fully satisfied with, and notwithstanding your misfortunes on this voyage, we will, on your arrival at home, employ you in any business you may choose and we are able to execute.

Your family, ours and all friends are well. We are, your friends and owners,

Nicholas Brown & Company

56 A Thousand Ships The Actors 57 Antigua, November 25, 1765 One of the things I was thinking as we walked from Sales of 24 Negroes imported in the brigantine Sally, Esek Hopkins master, from the coast of Africa, representing Nicholas Brown and Company, merchants in Rhode Island: site to site was what we would have done, had we been alive November 2, 1765 Expenses from the sale: back then. I always used to Sold 1 girl slave to Wyniford Rice for £20 • 5 pounds for storage think about what it was like November 5 • 1 pound for bonds and receipts to be a slave, but I never even Sold 1 woman slave to John Bartlett for £28 • 1 pound 10 shillings for drummer, considered what it would November 6 advertisement, and refreshments Sold 1 boy slave to Charles Hosier for £21; and sold 2 men have been like to have been slaves, 7 boy slaves, 1 woman slave, and 4 girl slaves at £18 • 24 pounds 6 shillings for seller’s a white person during that each, for a total of £252, to John Williams commission era. It’s actually affecting my November 9 Net proceeds to be returned to Nicholas life incredibly deeply — every Sold 2 men slaves and 3 boy slaves at £24 each, and 1 man slave Brown and Company of Providence, Rhode decision I make, I think about for £21, for a total of £141, to William Brakenridge and John Island: 457 pounds, 5 shillings, 9¼ pence, for even more closely. Because, Muir; sold 1 boy slave to Doctor McKenzee for £24 the sale of 24 Negro slaves. God forbid, we would ever Total sales for 5 men, 8 women, 6 boys, and 5 girls: £486. Singed in Antigua by slave dealer Alex make those same choices if Willock, November 25, 1765. faced with a similar situation.

58 A Thousand Ships The Actors 59 Antigua, November 25, 1765 Paramaribo, Suriname, August 13, 1770

To Nicholas Brown & Company, Providence: Sales record for the brigantine George, Captain Christopher Sheldon, sent by Nicholas Brown and Company of Providence to Gentlemen, enclosed you have the sales of twenty-four Negroes provision the Dutch colony of Surinam in the Caribbean. put into my hands by Captain Esek Hopkins of the brigantine Sally, the quality of which slaves was very indifferent. • 190 boxes of spermaceti candles • 38 hogshead of tobacco The proceeds thereof is merely £457 5 shillings 9¼ pence • 199 barrels of flour sterling. Had the Negroes been young and healthy I should have • 15 hogshead of rice been able to sell them pretty well. I make no doubt if you was • 6 hogshead of salt codfish for the feeding of Negroes to try this market again with good slaves, I should be able to • 521 pounds of butter give you satisfaction. • 24 barrels of tar • 5 barrels of turpentine If you should want rum or sugar we have very fine prospect of a • 5 barrels of pitch crop and those articles can be bought at a very reasonable price. • 31 barrels of salt • 10 barrels of pork I shall be glad at all times to render you in Providence with my • 16 barrels of beef best services here. • Various quantities of axes, bricks, shingles, oak and pine boards • 1 hogshead of West India rum I am, gentlemen, your humble, • 6 round chairs • 1 horse Alex Willock • 10 sheep

Proceeds from the sale of these items are to be used to purchase sugar, molasses, cotton and slaves.

60 A Thousand Ships The Actors 61 Deed of Manumission Rhode Island General Treasurer’s Accounts, listing enslaved Rhode Islanders enrolled into Providence, November 10, 1773 Continental battalions to fight the English troops, February 25 through September 28, 1778

I am clearly convinced that the buying and selling of I advise said slaves to deposit in my hands a part of Primus Babcock Cesar Harriss men of any color as slaves is unholy. I am also aware their wages from time to time, for support in times of slave of Samuel Babcock of Hopkinton slave of Andrew Harriss of Cranston that holding Negroes in slavery, however kindly they sickness or for the use of your children, or to purchase Cato Bours Backus Hazard are treated, is contrary to mercy and humanity as is the freedom of your children. I no longer consider you slave of John Bours of Newport slave of Robert Hazard of West Greenwich the duty of every Christian. as slaves, nor myself as your master but your friend. Primus Brown Thom Lefavour I therefore set free the following Negroes: Bono, an I hope you do not use your liberty to practice the lusts slave of Gideon Brown of Johnston slave of Daniel Lefavour of Bristol African aged about 34 years; Ceasar, aged 32 years; of the flesh, the lusts of the eye or any occasion for Africa Burk Warsen Mason Cudge, aged 27 years, born in Rhode Island; Prime an temptation, but will be more cautious than you have slave of James Burke of Providence slave of John Mason of Warren African, aged about 25 years; Pero, aged about 18 been until now. I hope that you love one another and years; Pegg, born in this house, aged 20 years. I also all men, as Holy God sees the secret actions of us all, Dick, Jack and July Champlin Cyrus Mawney relinquish the ¼ part I own of the following Africans: and we must follow the duty of the Great Master of slaves of Stephen Champlin of South Kingstown slave of Pardon Mawney of East Greenwich Garrow, aged about 40 years; Tom, aged about 30 All Men. Hercules Gardner Pero Mowrey years; Newport, aged about 21 years; and a child, slave of Ezekiel Gardner of North Kingstown slave of Daniel Mowrey Junior, Esquire, of Smithfield Phillis, aged about two years, born in my family. I call It is to His glorious care and protection I commit and upon my heirs to keep a careful watch over her and fervently recommend you, and bid you farewell. Rutter Gardner Primus, Richard and Samuel Rhodes to give her suitable education, as would be given a slave of Nicholas Gardner of Exeter slaves of Nehemiah Rhodes of Cranston white child. Moses Brown Ebenezer Gray Brittain Saltonstall slave of Samuel Gray of Little Compton slave of Dudley Saltonstall of Westerly

Cato Greene slave of his Excellency, Governor William Greene of Warwick

62 A Thousand Ships The Actors 63 Eh me lady, have you seen my daughter? My little mango-girl Perdita Providence, August 26, 1783 I was accompanying one was stolen from me. She fell out of my bushel-basket, was ripped of the actors, handing out from my arms, just days after her birth. We were out on the sea. Respected Friends: Would I could walk ‘pon water then! programs and answering I was informed yesterday that you were contemplating questions. So many people We had anchored off Newport. Ocean: quiet, quiet. Rum distilleries: sending a voyage to Africa for the purpose of getting Negroes wanted to know what was sweet, sweet, sweet. Spermaceti candle factories: reek reek reek. and selling them as slaves in the West Indies. I have such a going on that we ran out of We slept. We kept vigil. The buzz of Carolinas, Barbados, Antigua respectful opinion of your humanity and integrity that I had to shivering we. I tied my Perdita’s bit of cloth to my bit of cloth. In write and warn you. the literature. order to take her, they’d have to wake me. For we’d heard how these Newport traders like children. These New England colonials like to I remember how it was with me when our company was buy up children-children and apprentice and groom them in craft, engaged in that traffic. Although I was against the voyage, my The performances were so skill or trade, rather than buy up we cost-too-much-to-feed fully- arguments were so weakened by the fact that, at that time, I grown slaves. Well, the hunger gnawing my belly must have drugged owned slaves of my own, so the voyage went ahead. fleeting. Watching them was me, ‘cause morning come and my little girl gone. Her bit of cloth still very different from sitting in tied to my bit of cloth, but the poor bitter cloth empty, empty, empty, I have often thought since that if only anyone had warned me front of a stage and being a and the ship I was on sailing away: Carolinas, Barbados, Antigua. about how badly they thought of this trade, I might have been passive audience. I prayed I’d sprout wings and fly back here some day. Instead the preserved from being involved in such an evil that leaves me spirits gave me a skirt and a head full of stories. Told me march up uneasy when I pray to the most righteous judge of all men. the Atlantic to where the sea crosses roads with an island. Rhode Island. Rogue Island? So, here I am Rhode Island! Come tell me your And so I felt I must write to dissuade and discourage your stories, come tell me your truths. pursuing a voyage that men of your humanity and feelings for the distress of others should not undertake. Excerpt from Door of No Return by Nehassaiu deGannes, 2006 A Friend

64 A Thousand Ships The Actors 65 Providence, November 27, 1786

Dear Brother Moses,

You mention that you had heard that I am I owe an enormous sum of money in Europe, and I am contemplating sending another vessel to Africa in the striving in every trade which appears lawful and right slave trade. I have in fact been preparing the cargo for to me, to pay as much of the debt as possible during my this voyage for the past few days. lifetime, as I wish most ardently to leave my family less involved in debt than is now the case. I have no doubt of your sincerity in being in opposition to this matter, but from the best information I can get, I have tried the tobacco trade, have tried the fish trade, the slaves are positively better off removed from the but have not yet been so fortunate as to lessen the African coast than those who are left behind or carried debt. The Guinea trade or the “Slave Trade,” as you away by the French. more explicitly call it, was and is as just and right as any trade ever was. This trade has been permitted by the Supreme Governor of all things, by all the nations of Europe, and indeed I am exceedingly sorry to differ so much from you in encouraged by our own government. this business, but I know that you are following the light of your conscience. I only wish for the same I lately heard several respectable people say that the charitable disposition toward me. I respect you as a merchants of Newport scarcely earned any property in brother and a friend. any other trade, that all the estates that had ever been acquired in that town had been got in the trade in I am your affectionate brother, slaves from Guinea. John Brown

66 A Thousand Ships The Actors 67 Providence Gazette, February 14, 1789 Providence, February 26, 1789

I observe that there is a society forming here in Providence to promote The creator of mankind made all nations of the abolition of the slavery of the Africans. men of the same blood, and they are bound to promote each other’s happiness, as members I hope that the time and abilities of the society may be principally employed of one great family. It is therefore the duty in pointing out a better method of peopling the West Indies; for the produce of those who acknowledge the obligations of those islands is so highly esteemed by all ranks of people, that it cannot be of Christianity, to extend the blessings of expected that the cultivation of that part of the world will cease, even should freedom to the whole human race. the carrying of the blacks to those parts be totally stopped. In particular, freedom and liberty must be For my part, I wish the whole race of mankind, of every color, all the extended to those of their fellow creatures happiness that was intended for them in their creation; yet none will deny who, by fraud or violence, have been detained that there are distinctions among men; some strong and robust, some weak in bondage. And as the African slave trade is a and effeminate, some industrious and some indolent; of course, some rich system of slavery replete with human misery, it and some poor. In short, everyone seems to have been designed for some is incumbent on all free men to work toward purpose or other for which he is fitted. an end to that unrighteous commerce.

It is universally agreed that the agriculture of the West India islands must From a conviction of these truths and the have an annual supply of laborers, the deaths there exceeding the births obligation of these principles, the subscribers at any given time. So, how are the islands to be supplied? The deficiency have formed themselves into a society under must therefore be made up of white people; but from what country, those the title of “The Providence Society for abolitionists will do well to point out. Abolishing the Slave Trade.”

Signed, A Citizen

68 A Thousand Ships The Actors 69 James Tallmadge, September 5, 1790 It is asserted that the American plantations could not be so well People didn’t respond An oration upon the infringement of the rights of man, delivered at the commencement of Brown University cultivated without the labor of slaves. With equal propriety might verbally, they looked stunned, the robber plead, in excuse for his villany, that he could not live in like they had been taken I am here to speak of the slave trade, a In the Declaration of American Independence, it was admitted affluence without his neighbor’s wealth. trade which in my opinion is repugnant to that man was free and independent; that all were blessed with off guard. It caught people the laws both of God and humanity, and an equal rights and privileges, and that liberty was the birth right Is it not inconsistent with the American character as a free people by surprise that these old unjust and inhuman traffic of human beings. of every individual. to engage in a trade like this, in which the liberty and the life of a texts were being invoked at human being is concerned? Can mankind ever consent that one who But the natives of Africa either have not been considered as WaterFire, which is a neutral was formed with a dark complexion is men, and consequently not entitled to those sacred rights; Shall we not stigmatize with eternal infamy those who were once space that doesn’t have a lot inferior to him who possess a complexion or, though entitled to them, their rights have been impiously willing to pour forth their blood in defence of rights violated by of politics in it. more light? This is a theory that must either infringed by different nations of the earth. a two-penny tea tax; but who are even now stealing, selling and be admitted or rejected. Mankind must carrying men into the most insupportable servitude? either enjoy freedom and independence, or That the Africans are men — that they are human beings — that resolve ourselves to a universal monarchy they are justly entitled to their liberty, to the produce of their Ought we not to expect a day of retribution, a day when justice The juxtaposition of me, with some weak puny white-faced creature labor — in short, to all the rights of man is self evident. From will be universally dispensed; when upstart petty tyrants will be a short, uptight, white for our sovereign, and those whose color what source then has originated the violation of their most stripped of their grandeur purchased with the perspiring blood woman, telling these stories, is furthest removed from white, though a sacred and unalienable rights? They are unconvicted by any of Africans? Newton or a Franklin or a Washington, will national or individual crimes. Their character is as unsullied as balances out the question of be reduced to the most abject slavery. If we the character of any nation on earth, and consequently their But uniting let us plead for mercy while we endeavor that a whose role it is to carry the reject this theory, then all mankind must be rights and privileges ought to remain as uncontaminated. universal emancipation may take place. Then will our present torch now. I felt it was my admitted free and independent, each one slaves be permitted to enjoy the sacred rights of man. Then obligation to be there, and entitled to the rights, the privileges and the Numerous and varied are the pretended causes for the will they have a country to love and defend, and when danger liberty of another. prosecution of the slave trade, but as numerous and varied threatens, then they with all true Americans firmly united, will I have a lot of the texts still as are the pretended causes, avarice is the true fundamental swear to live free and independent, or gloriously expire in its ruins. resonating in my head. principle, the primeval cause.

70 A Thousand Ships The Actors 71 From the diary of Joseph Goodwin, overseer of the Cuban plantation owned by George DeWolf of Bristol, Rhode Island

August 22, 1821 April 24, 1825 Very warm morning. Treated very politely Sabbath day sees all hands employed as usual. For the last ten days by the judge and his lady, when I went to I have not been pleased with my situation. George DeWolf is breakfast. Middle of the day very warm, visiting from Rhode Island, and has very plainly shown a disposition and continues so through the night. to make trouble and difficulty on the estates with the Negroes.

August 25, 1821 I have given Mr. DeWolf one Negro to do with him as he pleased, Morning very warm. One Negro has been thinking it would be better to spoil one than all, but to no effect. sick a long time; one other, a companion I shall go on patiently a few days longer. from the same cargo, also sick. There is very little difference between the two, I will be glad when he returns to his other business in Rhode Island. they have both taken medicine for 6 months to no effect. I have stopped giving February 1, 1827 one of them medicine, shall not give him All hands employed setting out coffee. Mr. and Mrs. DeWolf any more. Time will show the effect. The came here from Rhode Island, and one Negro approached them poorest creatures I ever saw. and begged to be freed. It sent them all crying in the evening, and one Negro ran away.

Since I was up all night chasing the runaway, I found that in the morning 6 males and 5 females had also run away, which makes in all 11. Remaining Negroes on the estates number 201.

72 A Thousand Ships The Actors 73 New Orleans, Louisiana, January 9, 1837 Natchez, Mississippi, January 15, 1841 I felt more empowered performing these texts than To Isaac P. Hazard, South Kingston, Rhode Island: To Isaac P. Hazard, South Kingston, Rhode Island I’d ever felt in my entire life. I F.J. Forstall has ordered 1,200 suits of white shirts Dear Brother, did not have a question in my and blue pants for his Negroes. Trousers should mind about the value of this be an inch longer, jackets wider in the shoulders I am just entering one of the best tracts of the country for information being shared. than before. Also, the orders I sent you already for orders. The Negro cloth we sell is generally well liked, but White and Foley’s New Orleans cotton-press slaves there has been complaint of it wearing out too soon. I actually was fueled when should be of the larger size, as they are generally They say the cotton pods prick out the wool and make people would wince and walk stout Negroes. holes in them. Dr. Pritchard says their Negroes’ suits ripped by. I didn’t feel sensitive or all to pieces. unappreciated, just that we I think the Negro cloth may be made in Newport or Narragansett, as they charge a reasonable amount. I can confirm an order for Negro cloth for Dr. Samuel Gustin. have so much further to go He has four plantations very close by and is wealthy — he is as a society. It gave me a lot Your brother, very particular and knows exactly what he wants and judges of courage. for himself. If the goods suit him, he will order more in the Roland future. He wants his summer goods as early as possible. Full details to follow. His needs include 100 yards of coarse soft flannel suitable for sick Negroes.

Your brother,

Roland

74 A Thousand Ships The Actors 75 “There was a darkness as the chains held the Next to the river is Memorial Park, a small green space containing memorials to both World Wars and the Korean War, as well to victims of gun violence in the city. triangle together, Within the park area is a large triangle of 16 black locust trees. This was used and when they to represent the three legs of the Triangle Trade, the route followed by the one were liberated, thousand ships that sailed from Rhode Island to the West Coast of Africa, and then to the West Indies and southern United States, delivering more than 100,000 all of a sudden human beings into bondage.

there was light. Before the night began, the 16 trees were linked together by more than 400 feet of specially made chain. At the end of the actors’ performance, they moved from The park became throughout WaterFire, joining with the procession of bearing witness, leading ablaze with people to Memorial Park.

light, and I could The torchbearers surrounded the triangle of chains. Three musicians from Mali, based in Rhode Island, drummed a loud beat. On a given signal, the torchbearers suddenly see the stepped forward and set the chain alight. faces of everyone The space was transformed into a triangle of flame. around me.“ © Google, Tele Atlas 2011

78 A Thousand Ships The Triangle 79 Reflections from participants and spectators

It was very emotional. Just to see those chains broken symbolically was so beautiful.

Even if people didn’t understand its meaning, the mere fact of seeing this amazing ring of fire would have given them something to take away with them.

80 A Thousand Ships The Triangle 81 I understood what the burning of the chains meant. To see it go up in flames was the most impressive thing I’ve seen this year. It was better than having a baby. It was really that thrilling for me.

82 A Thousand Ships The Triangle 83 When the whole triangle was in flames, and one of the chains fell to the ground — that was the most powerful moment of the night. It made me think that it takes something really strong and passionate and powerful to bring freedom.

84 A Thousand Ships The Triangle 85 86 A Thousand Ships The Triangle 87 As I looked around, everyone was very emotional, taking it so seriously. People were so moved. Their focus was completely there, their energy contributing to the moment.

The beat of the drums, when the chain caught fire ... it was definitely liberating. It was fantastic, a real spectacle.

88 A Thousand Ships The Triangle 89 “I felt that each of the luminaria was a life that After the chains were burned, a gospel choir gathered to sing songs of memory would burn and celebration. Fire dancers stepped into the triangle to perform. Finally, members of the public were invited to fill the reclaimed space with the brightly for a light of luminaria lanterns. while and then People walked over to stare at the flickering lights. Some held hands. Others was going to stood alone. Shortly before midnight, the fires in the WaterFire braziers on the river dimmed and died. The sound of Paul Robeson’s “Amazing Grace” echoed die.” across the water once more. Reflections from participants and spectators Many of the choir were The choir singing felt like a Caucasian, and they asked completion, like something had questions to those of us who been released. It was a joyous were African American. We moment after thinking about all gave the information we had these awful things. to give. We weren’t taught this history in school, and I’m not even sure they’re getting this I thought they were just beautiful. today. The pattern they made in the end, it looked like a ship. It was a quiet time for reflection, representing all the pain and suffering. It was a really good conclusion.

92 A Thousand Ships The Luminaria 93 The first song we sang was proclaiming how we were going to honor the Lord, we were going to stick with him and see how it was going to turn out. It is a song that is symbolically aligned with the slave trade. We’re in a time of oppression still, and when are we ever going to rise up from this as a people? And I mean all people.

Song number two was a truly spiritual song, probably one sung as they worked in the fields and were whipped. It is very symbolic of slavery and how we believe in the power of the Lord and what he can do for us.

The third song was “Amazing Grace,” a song written by a former slave ship captain.

94 A Thousand Ships The Luminaria 95 People took a moment to place The luminaria became a really a candle with their families, amazing oral piece, spreading and as they walked away, they the history and informing would tell others what to do. people of what was going on. The fact that people who weren’t involved took that People seemed really curious. initiative was very moving. We’re so drawn to fire. It was an amazing teaching moment, asking them to take a light I saw a couple of young girls that represented one of the place their luminaria in the thousand ships, and place it in triangle, and then go back the triangle. I saw people give to get more. They took these them to their children, and go to people who were sitting with them to the circle. It was nearby watching, and they really, really powerful. got these people to stand up and place the luminaria in the triangle. There was a look of absolute joy on their faces as they did this.

96 A Thousand Ships The Luminaria 97 “It felt like a really important thing for the community to The morning after the event, a open symposium was held at Brown University to do. I would have discuss A Thousand Ships, and the combination of history, art and public ritual more broadly. The statements below were made at the symposium, and in the been sorry if it days and weeks that followed. had happened I learned there were a lot of people here in Rhode and I’d not been Island that care about things like slavery — beyond a a part of it.” few academics and those who follow the history of our community. People think that this is important and are willing to give up their time and talent to demonstrate that this is something that shouldn’t be forgotten.

It proved what I’ve already felt — that art can be instructive, and a tool for engagement and teaching. And that it is important for us to create ritual and be part of ritual. The barriers that come down by allowing people to be a part of this discussion is much more positive and meaningful than a lecture. Throughout the night, I was feeling I believe that talking about the history of I learned you can engage people even I thought it was a wonderful way to very quiet, and wishing that my eight- Rhode Island is always an opportunity to if they don’t know they want to be broaden the conversation about slavery year-old daughter was there. I had change people’s thinking about today. engaged. to people who wouldn’t otherwise originally planned to bring her with necessarily pay a lot of attention to it. me, and in preparation for that, we had talked about the history of oppression. Acknowledging slavery as part of a civic I can only speak for myself here, but I took out an inflatable globe, explained event like WaterFire said something — it maybe the reason you don’t see that many A Thousand Ships was a testament to the origins of humans and went through showed that the whole community saw people of color coming to an event about the fact that people in this community many years of history with her. She sat this as significant. If there were people of slavery is that it isn’t very relevant for can come together to make something on my lap for about an hour and a half. color who felt included and acknowledged us. The black folks I know, we get a little happen. Things that I had seen as I wanted to give her the sweep of at a civic level through WaterFire for the “race weary.” We get tired of being talked challenges, such as working with so change. When I was helping set up first time, that’s really big. about as victims, in the negative. We’re many different groups, don’t seem so the luminaria and talking to people, I well aware of our own history. But, it’s like insurmountable any more. was wondering how she would have my grandmother used to say: slavery is just understood what was happening. I I think there’s a lack of language for how we got to America, it’s not about who think she would have understood it people to have these conversations we are. There are also a lot of black folks I’m a firm believer in the ripple effect of as a hopeful thing. sometimes. The reason for that is that who shy away from these things, because something like this. You may not see the language is inadequate. What I liked we’ve been there, done that, and we want effect right away, but it will happen. about the event was that much of it was to celebrate things that are so much more silent — sometimes narration is really interesting and relevant about our history, important for framing, but the actions and who we are. themselves were very important.

100 A Thousand Ships Reflections on A Thousand Ships 101 by Barnaby Evans, Creator of WaterFire

I am writing this in the presence of long shadows. I am at the Long Bar in the historic Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The tourists are drinking their bright pink Singapore Slings, but shadows lie overhead amidst the dark wood beams, in the slow choreography of the large palm-leaf fans. Now mechanized, similar fans were once powered by slaves.

It is notable that Governor Raffles, on replacing the Dutch, eliminated the slave labor system that had dominated the island. Raffles is credited for not imposing an English cultural stamp on what was already a diverse settlement representing all of Asia and beyond. This historic intervention and example set the tone for much of the pluralism we now see in modern Singapore. This palimpsest of old and new confronts us always, but the richness of history can bring forward these depths for our deeper appreciation of the world.

A Thousand Ships was just such an occasion. Could we cast some useful light on the shadowed, forgotten history of a place, even amidst the baubles and distractions of our present era, or in this case amidst the beauty, spirituality and peace of WaterFire? To look back at the slave trade in the midst of the joy many associate with WaterFire might seem perverse. But I welcomed the opportunity to work with The Museum On Site to collaborate on heightening just such a juxtaposition. That this dark history needs to be told in Rhode Island as well as in Singapore is all The seed of freedom established by Roger Williams was enhanced by existing the more remarkable considering the principles of human liberty on which Roger Native American views on freedom, political structure and self-expression. Rhode Williams founded the city of Providence 375 years ago, naming the city after the Island was the first to sever ties with England, and was the first place in the Divine Providence that he felt allowed him to create it as a haven for all. world to deliberately found a government with complete freedom of religious expression, separation of church and state, freedom of thought, rights of women, Roger Williams was banished from Boston for preaching a number of heresies, and equality among all men. many of them related to freedom. Williams argued for what he saw as liberties intrinsic to the individual soul. He was firmly opposed to Puritanism’s overarching Despite Rhode Island being founded as a beacon of hope and freedom, a forerunner control of its citizens. Williams argued for the need of a “wall of separation” for our nation’s engagement with freedom, liberty and democratic governance, between the garden of the church and the affairs of the state. Williams decried there was a troubling counter story and another legacy that we intended to the personal empires that were being created with the blessing of divine authority. confront with A Thousand Ships. Rhode Island was the leading British colony engaged with the slave trade. On the anniversary of the American prohibition of Before he could be taken in irons back to England, Williams escaped into the the international slave trade, it was as important as ever to raise attention to this American wilderness of New England in the teeth of an icy winter. No man would history and to find ways to remind people that our city’s story was more complicated have had much chance of surviving that winter alone, least of all a man of the than is often acknowledged. How might the ancient glow of firelight illuminate not cloth with little experience of the wilderness. Yet Roger Williams had planted a just the highlights, but also the shadows of Rhode Island’s history? seed of freedom and one of the first fruits of that act would lead to his survival. WaterFire is many different things to many people — community gathering, civic One of Roger Williams’ denunciations of the Puritans involved their demonization ritual, celebration, meditation, festival. A lesson in sobering history is not on many of the Native Americans, the misrepresentation of them as primitive and soulless, people’s agenda at WaterFire, nor sadly at most other times either. Indeed, one of and hence the calculated dispossession of their lands. Williams disputed the legal the challenges we face as a nation is our short attention span and our poor grasp of and religious authority of the English king’s charter, which considered the lands our own history. As such, there is a disturbing resistance to facing the consequences unclaimed and empty. Williams had contact with the adjacent tribes and had of our past. It is no surprise that every citizen is aware of Rhode Island’s storied learned some of their languages. This contact and his respect for the native people fame as a birthplace of freedom, though none seem to have learned of the state’s are what saved his life that winter, as the Wampanoag took him in and sheltered predominance in the slave trade. Thus, to offer history in any traditional form is him from the cold. The Narragansett then granted him permission to purchase likely to lose those who are most in need of learning of their own past. Unaware land to found Providence the next spring, as a refuge. of the past, many are thus also unaware of the depth of their own ignorance of history. As it was notoriously put, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”

104 A Thousand Ships Epilogue 105 When faced with this challenge for A Thousand Ships, we chose to honor both the libation, to the musical selections such as Paul Robeson’s historic recording of scholarship and the actual historic sites, but to present these sources in unusual “Amazing Grace,” to the procession, to the readings, to the burning of the approaches and in a theatrical or even ritualistic manner. We sought ways to break triangle, to the placement of the candles. A Thousand Ships achieved a coherence through the chasm of indifference by activating the audience into first perceptual and a persuasive power that spoke eloquently to tens of thousands of visitors awareness, then participation, followed by education, finally leading towards that evening. understanding. This joint creation, both a work of historical remembering and an artwork of History gains its strength from its specificity and its concise clarity. Ritual gains its public ritual, was a powerful, engaging, revelatory work of art that also persuaded strength from the very muteness of its form, from its mystery, its very inexplicable viewers to engage in a bracing, informed confrontation with the historic facts of nature. Ritual’s visual and sensory strengths are largely emotional, preverbal, the slave trade in Rhode Island. It affected many thousands that night and cast and hence ahistorical. Epideictic rhetoric underscores the communion that can light upon some of the dark shadows of our state’s past — a record of freedom occur when people gather together in a charged physical space. Civitas and ritual both exemplary and chilling. experience tap into the strength of such a gathering and reinforce the social authority of such testimony. Emotionally tuned resonance within the shared symbolic structures of a work of art can encourage hierophantic epiphany, and Barnaby Evans is a versatile artist who works in several media, including a recognition of a larger truth, once obscured. Finally, the emotional messaging site-specific sculpture installations, photography, film, garden design, of a work of art can better penetrate the ground defenses of a skeptical public, architectural projects, writing and conceptual works. He is best known for leading them to approach new understandings and to ask new questions. his WaterFire installation, which he conceived in 1994 and continues to direct, both in Providence, and more recently in Singapore, Columbus, Ohio, and These are two opposing approaches. The cultural historians of The Museum On Kansas City, Missouri. Site sought to bring in specific historic detail and ground it to place, where I as an artist kept weaving their ideas into a fruitful tapestry of ritual encounters. It was an intensely satisfying collaboration because each party could see that a coherent dialog was being established between the concrete evidence of history and the emotive ritual of place, between the specific requirements of the historian and the mysterious powers of the dramaturgy of public ritual. Between us, we created a series of enigmatic encounters, each with a historic key to its understanding provided within the context of the experience. From the opening ritual of the

106 A Thousand Ships Epilogue 107 WaterFire Providence® is an independent, non-profit arts organization whose mission is to inspire Providence and its visitors by revitalizing the urban experience, fostering community engagement and creatively transforming the city by presenting WaterFire for all to enjoy.

This award-winning sculpture by Barnaby Evans, installed on the three rivers of downtown Providence, has been praised by Rhode Island residents and international visitors alike as a powerful work of art and a moving symbol of Providence’s renaissance. WaterFire’s over eighty sparkling bonfires, the fragrant scent of aromatic wood smoke, the flickering firelight on the arched bridges, the silhouettes of the firetenders passing by the flames, the torch-lit vessels traveling down the river, and the enchanting music from around the world, engage all the senses and emotions of those who stroll the paths of Waterplace Park. WaterFire has captured the imagination of over ten million visitors, bringing life to downtown, and revitalizing Rhode Island’s capital city.

www.waterfire.org

108 A Thousand Ships By Lyra Monteiro, Co-Director of The Museum On Site

A Thousand Ships arose out of an opportunity, and an anniversary. In early 2008, 1 A screening of the the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICH) approached several non-profits documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep and other interested community members with an idea for a “Freedom Festival.” North (Ebb Pod Productions, This would serve both as a statewide commemoration of Congress’ abolition of 2008) at Brown University was the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, and as a kick-off for a new granting initiative originally envisioned as part of A that would focus on African American history in Rhode Island. Barnaby Evans, the Thousand Ships; however, due to scheduling issues, it went ahead creator of WaterFire, was in attendance at these meetings, and offered the public on September 27, and served as event he ran as a site for launching the Freedom Festival. a valuable prelude for the event at WaterFire the following week. In late July 2008, Andrew Losowsky and I, as Co-Directors of The Museum On This film follows descendents of the United States’ largest Site (TMOS), responded to Evans’ invitation with a proposal for an event called slave-trading family, who A Thousand Ships, which would bring to life the history of Rhode Island’s lived in Rhode Island, as they involvement with slavery and the slave trade. Over the following 11 weeks, Evans rediscover their ancestors’ stories and reflect upon its meanings and TMOS collaborated to transform these initial ideas into an immersive, site- in the present. The screening specific, performative exploration of the links between the people and the place was followed by a powerful of WaterFire, in partnership with eight local non-profit organizations, engaging discussion about slavery, legacy more than seventy community volunteers. The event was presented to the public and modern-day race relations, led by several members of the on October 4, 2008 (after the original date, September 27, was rained out), with a 1 family portrayed in the film. public forum on the event held the following day at Brown University. The purpose of this essay is to describe the overall approach of TMOS in presenting might be a good use of leisure time, and programming events that are more humanities research to the public, as exemplified by our collaboration with attractive to a traditional museum-going audience. Many forward-thinking Barnaby Evans on A Thousand Ships. museums bemoan their narrow reach, and have taken steps in recent years to target communities that rarely visit their museums with tours, brochures, and The Museum On Site’s work always follows two precepts. First, instead of placing object labels in languages other than English, as well as exhibitions designed to our work within a conventional gallery space, we set it in locations where a appeal more directly to non-Euro-American audiences.4 While we find these moves broad mix of people already gather for non-educational reasons — such as laudable, we recognize that, no matter how well they are conceived and executed, airports, shopping malls, city streets and public festivals. Secondly, we limit our these measures will take time to have a major impact within the traditional subject matter to stories that have direct relevance to the place in which they are institutions of museums, and the communities they wish to serve. presented — focusing on the past, present and future of people and things in that location, as well as local geography. Another concern that we have with traditional museum practice is the relationship 2 This trend stands out most that museum exhibits tend to suggest between their subjects and their visitors.5 dramatically with the free These precepts emerged out of our dissatisfaction with the limitations of 4 Broadly speaking, museum exhibits tend to reinforce the identity of their primary museums of the Smithsonian Reports on this innovative work traditional museums. We are strong believers in the power of museum methods, Institution in Washington, D.C., are regularly featured in museum- audience (predominantly highly educated, white, upper-middle-class), by either and in the value of social storytelling. However, we are frustrated by two recurring which attract a broader audience industry publications, including presenting the achievements of a historical society which they are encouraged issues faced by most, if not all, traditional museums: limitations in their audience; than many other museums, adult the American Association of to regard as the “past” of their own identity group; or showcasing views of an visitors are disproportionately Museum’s magazine Museum, and and the problematic relationships that are often implied to exist between that college-educated and white the International Journal on the exotic other, against which they can more strongly reaffirm their own, normative audience and the material presented in museums. (“Eaters of the Smithsonian Inclusive Museum. identity. While these tendencies are now widely discussed within the museum Sun: Characteristics of Visitors profession, few models have been developed that go against the grain of 5 Study after study has shown the dramatic demographic limitations of the to Smithsonian Museums,” This critique applies primarily to traditional museum exhibition and design.6 Even the ethnic museums that have 2 2006, available online at www. history and art museums, but, with audiences of traditional museums. For example, during a free, family-oriented si.edu/OPANDA/docs/Rpts2006/ some variations, it is also applicable been developed in the past few decades — such as the Arab American National monthly event at the museum closest to the venue of A Thousand Ships, a recent SIVisitorChrctrstcs.pdf). to other types of museums. Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and El Museo del Barrio in New York City — tend survey found that 41% of adult visitors held graduate degrees, and 87% were 3 6 to adopt traditional exhibition techniques, relying in part on the authority that white; while people of color make up more than 50% of Providence’s population Data from an unpublished For two notable exceptions, see the museum “style” conveys in order to assert the value of their own identity to visitor experience survey Mining the Museum: An Installation 3 and more than 25% of adults in the city have not graduated from high school. conducted by Lyra Monteiro for by Fred Wilson (The New Press, their community and to the traditional museum-going classes. The fact that this was the case even for a free event highlights the extent of the the Education Department of the 1994), and Susan Vogel’s article, barriers to entry faced by populations who are not part of the “museum-going Rhode Island School of Design “Always True to the Object, in Our While we continue to work with more established institutions in both diversifying Museum of Art, February 23, Fashion,” in Exhibiting Cultures: classes.” These include, but are not limited to, language barriers, transportation 2008; Providence demographics The Poetics and Politics of Museum their audiences and rethinking their methods of presentation, we founded The issues, lack of awareness about the existence of the museum or why visiting it from 2010 US Census. Display (Smithsonian Books, 1991). Museum On Site to explore work that frees itself from these challenges. The

112 A Thousand Ships Methodology 113 collaboration with Barnaby Evans at WaterFire was our first opportunity to and Justice, which represented the culmination of the committee’s three-year implement these ideas and approaches. investigation into the historical ties of the Brown family, and other founders of the university, to slavery and the slave trade. The committee’s work had significantly As mentioned above, one of the main precepts of TMOS’s work is a commitment raised awareness of the history and legacies of slavery in a region where it had to the stories of a particular place. Three rivers run through downtown largely disappeared from public memory; we sought to find ways to introduce its Providence: the Woonasquatucket and the Moshassuck, which merge to form the findings to a broader public, and also to deepen the emotional connection to this Providence River. These rivers, along with the land along the rivers’ banks, are history for those who already knew it, by creating experiences that would link this where WaterFire takes place. The Providence River, and its eastern bank along the history to that of the river, the city, and the state in a more meaningful way. base of College Hill, were the sites of many significant events related to slavery and the slave trade in Rhode Island: slave-trading voyages were planned, ships The other critical component in creating this event was a consideration of our that carried provisions to the slave plantations in the Caribbean were moored, audience. WaterFire was then in its 13th season, and while it had collaborated the abolition of the trade and of slavery were debated, and human beings were with various community groups to bring different musical and artistic experiences bought, sold and forced to labor as slaves throughout this area. More broadly, to hundreds of thousands of people, many of those attendees continued to the physical space in which A Thousand Ships took place was the State of Rhode think of WaterFire as a relatively unchanging event in which braziers were lit, Island, and given Providence’s role as the capital of that state, we opted to expand atmospheric music was played, and maybe the occasional surprising, delightful our definition of the “place” to include the rest of the state as well, to match the experience might cross their path — such as a mime handing them a carnation, parameters and goals of RICH’s Freedom Festival. or discovering a stage filled with jazz musicians. The distinctly non-educational expectations of the audience presented both a challenge and an opportunity for Having articulated the boundaries of the “place” whose stories we would tell, we our attempt to bring a centuries-old history to life. set to work exploring the history of slavery and the slave trade in Providence and elsewhere in Rhode Island. While I am myself a scholar of the history of slavery, we In addition to their expectations, another exciting feature of the WaterFire did not attempt to perform any original historical research for this project. Instead, audience was its diversity: WaterFire attracted and continues to attract people of we drew upon the many recent studies of Rhode Island’s slave past, and consulted all ages and backgrounds, both locals and a substantial number of tourists. We with both academics and community historians to identify key points related realized that each member of this audience would have a different relationship to the chronology, geography and scope of enslavement carried out by and to the history of slavery in Rhode Island — from those who might learn about perpetrated against Rhode Islanders, both on other continents and at home (see it for the first time that night, to those who would welcome an opportunity to Further Reading for a list of these resources). The seminal work for our exploration memorialize collectively the horrific events that had haunted their understanding was the 2006 Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery of the state and its story.

114 A Thousand Ships Methodology 115 We were also sensitive to the fact that the general atmosphere of WaterFire is Justice Report itself from a table in Memorial Park. We also invited all attendees not one in which a topic of this gravity would normally be addressed. While we to join us the next morning for a symposium at Brown University, at which around took advantage of this to catch our audience unaware, we were cognizant of our 30 scholars and community members discussed public engagement with Rhode responsibilities to attendees who may have arrived for a relaxing evening with Island’s involvement with the institution of slavery, and the challenges involved friends and family, and would instead have confronted potentially upsetting issues in presenting these issues through an event like A Thousand Ships. Finally, over related to the city’s and state’s slave-trading past, and racially unequal present. the following month, we interviewed a few dozen participants and spectators to collect their feedback on various aspects of the event, some of which appears in One of the ways in which we addressed this was by making each aspect of the the pages of this book. observation relatively brief — for example, the actors’ performances of texts related to Rhode Island’s history of slavery were kept to a minute or less; and by As with any subject around which community members have such strong having well-trained and visible volunteers (all wore black shirts and pants, with a emotions, we realized that it was essential that as many stakeholders as possible red sash around their waists) on hand to answer questions throughout the event. felt included in the process of creating A Thousand Ships, and to honor their However, we were aware that more complex historical questions, or conversations contributions throughout. In some cases, we were unsuccessful — one local African about race, might be beyond the capacity of many volunteers, so we also staffed a American theater group declined to participate, but complained later that they table with scholars who could field such questions. Even though very few people hadn’t been involved. Others expressed discomfort about being part of the event, approached the scholars for conversation that evening, we felt it was important citing concern about how their own racial identity would be relevant, including a to have them on hand, in case they were needed — a kind of intellectual first-aid white South African dancer, and a mixed-race African dance troupe from Rhode team, if you will. Island. While it would have been impossible to include everybody’s views and perspectives, we endeavored to keep our process as open as possible to outside We were aiming to create an atmosphere of awareness and memory related to contributions, while Barnaby, Andrew, and I retained creative control. In order to this history, rather than to provide a comprehensive account of slavery in Rhode solidify the sense of group accomplishment surrounding the event, we offered our Island. As a result, it was important to us to provide futher information for those various collaborators a buffet dinner following the lighting of the luminaria, and who heard only fragments of the story, and were interested in learning more many important conversations continued over food and drinks. about it. Throughout the evening, our volunteers handed out programs that told attendees where and when the different observations would take place, provided While we will never know the full impact of the event on those who attended it, more general information on the event, and listed a website containing further the reactions we observed on that night, and at the seminar the following day, information. These programs were stapled to the front of the event calendar made clear the deep capacity of individuals to create meaning out of the ritual for RICH’s Freedom Festival. We also distributed free copies of the Slavery and elements of A Thousand Ships. The red sashes around the waists of volunteers, the

116 A Thousand Ships Methodology 117 libation, the luminaria candles, the processions, the torches, the triangle of chains community. While formal surveys of the audience would have been disruptive, — each audience member assigned their own understandings of the meanings we noted from observation the limited numbers of non-white faces within the of these symbols, and through them gained their own connection to what they crowds, and anecdotally heard from individuals who said that their community witnessed and participated in, even if that proved to be unconnected to the did not feel welcome at WaterFire or other civic events. Our audience was entirely overall story we were trying to tell. those present on that night. It might take a very different medium, location and approach to reach a broader variety of people within the Providence community. One of the biggest lessons of A Thousand Ships for us was the power of a compelling idea to mobilize volunteers and community organizations, in order We learned a great deal from creating A Thousand Ships. Throughout the process to make incredible things happen, even at short notice. In addition to the many of conceiving and producing our first project, Barnaby Evans proved an inspiring, dedicated staff and volunteers that regularly stage WaterFire, a diverse group of generous and engaged collaborator, and we remain hugely grateful for the people—ranging from high school students to executives at major organizations— opportunity to work with him. We are also humbled and energized by how devoted hundreds of hours to the preparations for A Thousand Ships. Their much people still talk of the event, three years later. They are the reason we passion and commitment gave us the energy we needed to make it happen. made this book.

Another key factor in the success of the event was the Rhode Island community’s While the bicentennial of Congress’ abolition of the transatlantic slave trade has interest in the historical involvement of their state with the institution of slavery. been and gone, it is important to us that the story of what happened on the rivers By the time we presented A Thousand Ships, many people had learned about of Providence in October 2008, and, more importantly, more than 200 years ago, is this history through the conversations surrounding Brown’s Slavery and Justice not forgotten. That story is as vital today as it ever was, in how we tell our history, investigations, and had come to care about it deeply. This probably explains, at and in how we understand ourselves. least in part, why we encountered far less confusion and hostility than we had anticipated to the presentation of the history of so perennially contentious a subject as slavery. The way that the WaterFire crowd communicated within itself Lyra Monteiro is a curator, public artist and historian, who co-founded The also helped spread some of the stories contained within our interpretation: rather Museum On Site with Andrew Losowsky in 2008. She is currently a curatorial than an authoritative, faceless curator declaring what they were learning and why consultant at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and it was important, strangers turned to one other to ask about the meaning of the Culture (scheduled to open on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in 2015), and libation, the procession, the triangle of chains. an educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York. She is also completing a PhD dissertation at Brown University, exploring the intersections of At the same time, we came to understand the limitations of this free, public race and history in the early United States. event in the center of the city, in terms of its ability to reach a cross section of the

118 A Thousand Ships Methodology 119 The Museum On Site is dedicated to helping people understand their worlds through site-specific, free public experiences that share ideas and information in accessible and stimulating ways.

Founded by Andrew Losowsky and Lyra Monteiro in 2008, The Museum On Site brings the techniques and approaches of museums — as well as theater, advertising, and other experience-based media — to places where people already are, including festivals, city streets, shopping malls and public transit. Our projects, which have so far addressed the history and legacy of Rhode Island’s transatlantic slave trade, and the past and present of a busy street in downtown Providence, encourage deeper emotional engagement with issues of local importance, through the use of performance, participatory ritual, and web-based information exchange.

The Museum On Site works sensitively with scholarly research, and brings together academics and local community groups in order to leverage the resources of the community at large. We aim to inspire our audience to seek out additional information related to the themes of our projects, by providing supplemental educational opportunities and resources. Furthermore, we are committed to documenting and archiving our process, inviting discussion and debate throughout the development and implementation of events, performing evaluations of our projects, and sharing our methods and discoveries with fellow public arts and humanities practitioners. www.themuseumonline.com A Thousand Ships was a creation of The Museum On Site and Barnaby Evans

Photography Bristol Photography Workshops and Gordon Stillman Photography

BOOK DESIGN LLAMAproduct / Jason Tranchida

Reflections from participants and spectators Jim Alves, Linda A’Vant-Deishinni, Ramona Bass Kolobe, Jerry Blitefield, Julian Bonder, Marcia Brown, Jim Campbell, Betsy Cazden, Neta Crawford, Risa Gilpin, Nara Hernandez, Elizabeth Keiser, Kathleen McAreavey, Reverend William Mathis, Meghan McKenna, Sharon Monteiro, James DeWolf Perry, Erminio Pinque, Ray Rickman, Dannie Ritchie, Micah Salkind, Sylvia Ann Soares, Keith Stokes, Bela Teixeira, Mary Tinti

Images of Historical Documents John Carter Brown Library Actors Excerpts from Door of No Return by Nehassaiu deGannes Ramona Bass Kolobe, Kalyana Champlain, Marc Francis, Elizabeth Keiser, © Nehassaiu deGannes Suzie Keyes, Sylvia Ann Soares 539 Manhattan Avenue #3 New York, NY 10027 Choir RPM Voices RI (Clarice Thompson, Director) Door of No Return premiered at Rites & Reason Theatre, Brown University, January-February 2006, Karen Allen Baxter, Producer/Managing Director. Directed Drummers by Kelli Wicke Davis; Set Design by Donna Maria Bruton; Lighting by Porsche McGovern; Costumes by Marilyn Salvatore; Voice & Dialect Coaching by Thom Sidy Maiga, Seydou Coulibaly, and Issa Coulibaly of Troupe Komee Josee Jones; Music composed & performed by Nisha Purushotham and Cathy Clasper- Torch. (In subsequent performances, Cathy Clasper-Torch has at times been Libation Label and Program replaced by Abdul Mateen.) Written by Andrew Losowsky and Barnaby Evans Designed by Tom Payne The development of Door of No Return received funding from RI Foundation, RI State Council for the Arts, RI Council on the Humanities, New England Foundation SOURCES OF ACTORS TEXTS for The Arts, City of Providence Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture & Tourism, Brown The historical documents from which the texts performed by the actors were derived are University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Private Donations. housed in the following repositories, which retain copyright for the documents: Door of No Return has also been performed & presented at The GAMM Theatre/ Brown University Archives RICH Freedom Festival 2008; the Historic YMCA Theatre in Cambridge, MA, at John Carter Brown Library the invitation of the City of Cambridge Diversity Committee; The Black Theatre New-York Historical Society Network Conference in Winston-Salem, NC, Portsmouth Abbey, RI, Wheaton Rhode Island Historical Society College, MA, Goddard College VT Board of Governors’ Weekend; The Power Rhode Island State Archives of Words Conference, and at APAP in New York. In 2009, Montreal’s Levier/ “An Account of the Captured” by Kalyana Champlain, written for performance at A Thousand Ships, 2008 Engrenage Noir commissioned the French/English bilingual translation of Door of No Return.

124 A Thousand Ships Credits 125 ADDITIONAL THANKS TO ALL OF OUR OTHER VOLUNTEERS, SCHOLARLY ADVISORS AND SUPPORTERS WHO HELPED MAKE THE EVENT AND THIS BOOK POSSIBLE, INCLUDING: Mark Abbott, Brenda Allen, Jim Alves, Ara Aranguri, Linda A’Vant Deishinni, Toby Ayers, Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, Karen Baxter, Big Nazo, Montana Blanco, Jerry Blitefield, Julian Bonder, INTERNET RESOURCES Stephan Brigidi, Leslie Brown, Katrina Browne, Zac Bruner, Rudy Cabrera, Jim Campbell, Jose Cantillo, Alma Carrillo, Betsy Cazden, Rita Cidre, Ann Clanton, Reza Clifton, Andy Connolly, Brown University’s Slavery and Justice Report Joan Countrymen, Connie Crawford, Neta Crawford, Elvis Custodio, Julia Dahlin, Sarah Dawson, www.brown.edu/Research/Slavery_Justice/documents/SlaveryAndJustice.pdf Nehassiau deGannes, Cheryl DiMarzio, Anani Dzidzienyo, Mary Farrell, Adolfo Fernandez, Holly Fulton, Risa Gilpin, Elena Gonzales, Morgan Grefe, Mags Harries, Patti Heckman, Dave Herman, Priscilla’s Homecoming Nara Hernandez, Holly Jensen, Garry Johnson, Jennifer Jones, Paul Kochanek, SueEllen Kroll, www.yale.edu/glc/priscilla Phyllis Labanowski, Heather Lee, Rochelle Lee, Jenna Legault, Richard Lobban, Barbara & Monty Losowsky, Steve Lubar, Marlon Maignan, Barry Marshall, William Mathis, Kathleen McAreavey, Repository of Historical Documents for the Slavery and Justice Report Almond McDevitt, Emily McElveen, Meghan McKenna, Joanne Melish, Munir Mohammed, Neah http://dl.lib.brown.edu/slaveryandjustice Monteiro, Sharon Monteiro, Leah Nahmias, Charles Newton, Asha Nurse, Tom Payne, Ron Potvin, Denise Oliveira, Julia Osburne-Rothstein, Bill Peebles, Constance and Dain Perry, James DeWolf Slavery and Justice Online Exhibition Perry, Keisha-Khan Perry, Erminio Pinque, Marisa Quinn, Dannie Ritchie, Seth Rockman, Ralph www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/jcbexhibit Rodriguez, Tricia Rose, Micah Salkind, Megan Sandberg-Zakian, Chelsea Shriver, Lisa Silveria, Ruth Simmons, Victor Smith, Cheryl Snead, Spogga, Gordon Stillman, Keith Stokes, Theresa The Trans-Altantic Slave Trade Database Guzman Stokes, Miranda Summers, Carrie Swan, Bela Teixeira, Optat Tengia, Elmo Terry-Morgan, www.slavevoyages.org Mary Tinti, Meghan Townes, Nitin Trivedi, Valerie Tutson, Jess Unger, Annie Valk, Jim Vincent, Ted Widmer, Terrance Wong “The Unrighteous Traffick: Rhode Island’s Slave History,” by Paul Davis of the Providence Journal http://tinyurl.com/unrighteoustraffick

Choices Curriculum for high school classes: “A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England” www.choices.edu/slavery Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North www.tracesofthetrade.org

BOOKS Brown University’s Commission to Commemorate the History of Slavery in Rhode Island The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807, by Jay Coughtry (Temple University Press, 1981) Brown University’s Rites and Reason Theatre John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780-1860, Providence Black Repertory Company by Joanne Pope Melish (Cornell University Press, 1998) Rhode Island Black Heritage Society Inventing New England’s Slave Paradise: Master/Slave Relations in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island Black Storytellers Narragansett, Rhode Island, by Robert K. Fitts (Routledge, 1998) Rhode Island Council for the Humanities Rhode Island Historical Society Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution, by Charles Rappleye (Simon and Schuster, 2006) Rhode Island for Community and Justice WaterFire Providence Inheriting the Trade, by Thomas Norman DeWolf (Beacon Press, 2007)

The creation of this book, and its distribution to institutions in Rhode Island, is made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The findings, conclusions and opinions expressed in this book do not necessary represent the views of the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, or of the National Endowment for the Humanities. w

We cannot change the past. But we can change our relationship to it, embracing rather than denying its complexity. In the process, we enlarge our own humanity and the range of possibility in our world. A Thousand Ships expresses that hope.

— Professor James T. Campbell Stanford University

On October 4, 2008, tens of thousands of people in Providence, Rhode Island, participated in a unique memorial to the victims of slavery. Co-created by The Museum On Site and Barnaby Evans, A Thousand Ships: A Ritual of Remembrance Marking the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade took place at WaterFire, an art installation that lights bonfires on the rivers in downtown Providence — the same rivers on which ships engaged in the slave trade, more than two centuries earlier.

This book presents images and documentation from A Thousand Ships, as well as reflections from participants and spectators.

Foreword by James T. Campbell Professor of United States History, Stanford University ISBN 9780615579320 90000 >

Epilogue by Barnaby Evans, Creator of WaterFire

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