Numbers in [brackets] refer to the page number in Christy Clark-Pujara’s book where the name appears.
Amy Allen [10]
In 1783 the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to free Amy Allen, who sued for freedom on the basis that she was not black; Allen successfully claimed to be “an abandoned white child raised by an enslaved mother.”
Jane Coggeshall [10-11]
In 1785, Jane Coggeshall, who had been emancipated in 1777, petitioned the General Assembly to confirm her freedom, as she feared her former master’s family sought to re-enslave her. The Assembly voted to declare Jane Coggeshall “entirely emancipated and made free.”
John Slocum [33]
In 1712, John Slocum, a Native American who belonged to Giles Slocum, reportedly murdered his master’s two small sons. He was hanged publicly in Newport.
Peter [33]
In 1727 in Newport, a Native American slave named Peter, owned by Jacob Mott, was found guilty of attempted murder. According to the records he “did, sometime past, maliciously endeavor to murder his said master, by discharging at him a gun, loaded with a bullet and sundry shot, shooting him through the hat, so that it was an extraordinary act of Providence, said Mott was not killed.” For his crimes, Peter was branded with an “R” on his forehead and publicly whipped.
Jethro [34]
In 1728, Jethro, an enslaved “negro” in Kingstown, Rhode Island, stole a canoe from his enslaver and headed to Martha’s Vineyard to “hid among the Indians.
Anthony and Margaret Kinnicutt [39]
These types of laws were particularly devastating for families of color, as it was not uncommon for free families to have an enslaved family member. Such was the case for Anthony Kinnicutt. He was “born free although not wholly of white blood,” and he sold small quantities of liquor and other refreshments to passengers going in and out of Providence. Kinnicutt became one of Providence’s most successful black entrepreneurs. He married an enslaved woman, Margaret Kinnicutt; consequently, he lived apart from his wife and children until 1774, when he bought his five children. His wife Margaret died before he could raise enough funds to free her. Kinnicutt was part of a very small community of property-holding people of color.
Emanuel “Manno” Bernoon [39]
Emanuel Bernoon, manumitted in 1736, ran an oyster bar in Providence; when he died in 1769 he left a house, a lot, and personal property worth £539 to his wife, who supported “herself by taking in washing.”
Tom Wamsley and Negro Tom Commock [39]
Tom Walmsey, who was of African and Native American descent, held in enslavement “Negro Tom Commock,” who labored as a sailor.
Mercy [40]
Mercy, a black freewoman, was convicted of stealing two woolen bed blankets, valued at three pounds, from Jeremiah Wilcox of Newport. She was sentenced to “restore twofold” and “be well whipped with Ten stripes on your naked back at the publick whipping post in Newport.
Hager [41]
On July 28, 1725, in Warwick, Rhode Island, Hager, a “negro” slave, was willed ten shillings; her children were bequeathed five shillings each. Their master Captain Peter Green left Hager and her children money to “induce her [Hager] to be kinde to my Wife.”
Moll [41-2]
In 1772, Christopher Gardner testified that his brother’s slave Moll had scalded his nephew to death, but she was never prosecuted.
Quam [48]
In 1770, Quam, an enslaved skilled tradesman, did just that. His enslaver placed the following ad in the Providence Gazette […]” Quam, a negro man supposed to be about thirty years of age, by trade a cooper, went from his master’s house in Providence (most probably in a delirious condition, being often subject to be), on Sunday the 8th day of July last, and has not been heard of since. He is of middling stature, slim make, of a serious thoughtful turn of mind, inclines to talk but little, but speaks pretty good English, is a good Workman at his Trade, and formerly lived with Mr. Alexander Frazier, of whom he learnt it. Had on an old striped flannel jacket, striped shirt, tow trousers and an old Hat; but took nothing else with him that is known, although he was uncommonly neat and precise in his dress. Whoever can give any Account (if living) where he is, so that his Master may have him again, or will (if he is found living) tenderly and kindly treat him, and return him as soon as possible to his master, shall have two dollars reward, and all necessary expenses and charges paid by Job Smith. [fn 24]
Caesar [49]
Caesar, who was “by Trade a Blacksmith, but principally follows Anchor- Making,” also absconded from his Newport enslaver. Eber Sweet placed thirteen inquiries in the local paper about Caesar’s whereabouts. Despite his efforts Caesar was not recovered.
Caesar Lyndon [49]
Josiah Lyndon also taught his enslaved bondsman Caesar Lyndon valuable skills. Lyndon was the Assembly clerk from 1728 until 1767 and served a single term as governor from 1768 to 1769, and Caesar worked as his business agent. In fact, Caesar had his own small lending business; enslaved as well as free blacks and whites borrowed money from him.
Saint Jago Hopkins [49]
Saint Jago, who was enslaved to Stephen Hopkins—a former Rhode Island governor and a signer of the Declaration of Independence— was part of the crew of the Blackbird, a privateer commissioned by Hopkins in 1762. Saint Jago also worked as a rigger, fitting the ropes and chains used to support the masts and control the sails of the ship, on a twenty-ton schooner.
“Negro Mingo” and “Negro Toney” [49]
On June 23, 1747, two enslaved men, “Negro Mingo” and “Negro Toney,” were rented out to help prepare the Swan for a West Indian voyage.
“Negro Anthony” [49]
“Negro Anthony” was rented six times in a two-year period to help outfit trading ships.
Benjamin Freebody [50]
Like many enslaved men before him, Benjamin Freebody sailed out of Newport, which had become, by the 1730s, the center of North American slave trading. He sailed from Rhode Island to West Africa, to Grenada, to Pensacola, to the West Indies, and finally to New York. It was from New York City on April 8, 1784, nearly a decade after his journey began, that he posted a letter to his enslaver, reminding him of his promise to emancipate him and reporting his beleaguered condition. Two months later, on June 16, 1784, Benjamin wrote to Samuel again, this time imploring him not to sell him: “Being well assured of your goodness which I have experienced for many years . . . I hope and trust you will not sell me to any man without my consent.” There is no record of Samuel Freebody’s response, so we do not know if Samuel ever manumitted Benjamin; however, Samuel did report having slaves in his household in 1800.
Dick [50]
Benjamin Freebody reported that he and Dick, who was most likely owned by Samuel Freebody, received only “one doller,” 2 sea vests, 2 frocks, and material for a shirt and trousers in all their time at sea.
“Negro Mary” [52]
A “Negro woman” named Mary had several children, one call Moll,” and “Negro Moll had several children”; Moll and her children and grandchildren all lived in North Kingstown.
Men and women enslaved by Reverend James MacSparran [52-53]
-Hannibal
–Emblo
-Harry
-Stepney
Maria and George [53]
In 1673, “negro servants” Maria and George were indicted for fornicating; they both were found guilty and sentenced to “fifteen stripes.”
Jethro [53]
In 1728, Jethro, an enslaved “negro,” stole a canoe from his master Robert Wilcox, a yeoman of Kingstown, paddled to Martha’s Vineyard, and “hid among the Indians.”
Quako [54]
Quako, who was “short and thickset,” had letters branded on his shoulders. Robert, who was born in Jamaica, had a burn scar between his cheek and his mouth.
London [54]
London, who ran away from Newport, had “lost” all his toes on both feet.
Prime [54]
Prime, a fourteen-year-old who stood only four feet four inches, had whipping scars on his arms and back.
Sias [54]
Sias, a “bold and impudent” twenty-four-year-old, had “several marks left by the King’s evil on his neck,” a reference to scrofula or tuberculous (swelling of the lymph gland).
Prince [54]
Prince had “small crooked legs.” Seven runaway slaves had survived smallpox and had lifelong scars.
Sarah Thompson [55]
Sarah Thompson, a teenager with “large eyes,” fled to find her mother, who she believed lived in Providence.
Richard [55]
Richard, a “pocked marked” twenty-five-year-old, reportedly ran away to reunite with his wife.
Fortune [56]
In 1762, Fortune, an “abandoned Negro,” set fire to the Long Wharf, the city of Providence’s major port, causing £80,000 of damage. Fortune was summarily executed, “hanged by the neck.”
“Negro Jobba” [56]
In 1673, “Negro Jobba” was indicted for having “carnal copulation with James Gray.” Jobba pled not guilty and the jury agreed.
Hope [56]
In 1673, Hope, “a Negro woman,” was found guilty of fornication with James Pass and was sentenced to either fifteen stripes or a fine of forty shillings to the treasury.
Maroca and Mingo [56]
Maroca, a slave on James MacSparran’s Narragansett Country farm, was involved in a consensual relationship with another slave named Mingo, who lived on a neighboring farm, and they had two children together, despite MacSparran’s order to end the relationship. When thetwo continued to see one another, he sold their youngest child.
Boston Vose and others [57]
On August 12, 1766, “Boston Vose, Lingo Stephens, Phyllis Lyndon, Nepton Sispson and Wife, Prince Thurston, Caesar Lyndon, and Sarah Searing” left Newport and went out to Portsmouth for a day in the country. They took “a pigg to roast, wine, bread, rum, green corn, limes for punch, sugar, butter, tea and coffee.” Two months after their outing Caesar Lyndon and Sarah Searing married; a year later, Lingo Stephens and Phyllis Lyndon married.
Freelove Gardner [61]
In October 1783, Richard Gardner, a yeoman farmer from South Kingston, sold a 22-month-old baby girl, who was a “Slave for Life,” to Freelove Gardner, a black woman, for “six pence.” Other than ownership, the deed of sale does not specify the relationship between Richard Gardner, the unnamed infant, and Freelove Gardner.
Samuel [68]
Samuel’s manumission record reads: To all Christian people to whom these present shall come, know you that I Robert Lawton of Newport in the county of Newport and Colony of Rhode Island, have in my possession a Negro Boy called Samuel, who according to the law and custom of said colony is deemed a slave and as my property but believing it to be contrary to true Christianity, and the divine injunction of the author thereof to hold mankind as my property or continue them in a state whereby they may be subjected to slavery after my decease, and in consideration thereof and together causes met thereunto moving, I do for my self and my heirs executive administrator and Assigns Manumit Release and Discharge, him the said Negro from a state of slavery and hereby declare him to be henceforth free as amply and fully so, as if he had been Born of free parents.
Nab [75]
Nab, an enslaved woman “aged about thirty years,” was manumitted by Henry Reynolds of South Kingstown. In the manumission, Reynolds specifically referred to the gradual emancipation law and aligned himself with the broader intentions of the law—to dismantle the institution of slavery. Reynolds manumitted Nab in the name of the law even though the law did not require freedom for those born before 1784.
Cato Rivera and His Mother, Phyllis [77]
Cato Rivera was manumitted by Abraham Rivera in 1794 for faithful service. Nearly a decade later, Cato purchased his mother, Phyllis, for one hundred dollars, from Hannah [Rod] Rivera in 1803. Phyllis was not manumitted, she was sold. Rivera wrote, “Know all men by these present that I Hannah Rivera for and in consideration of one hundred dollars well and truly paid to me by Cato Rivera, a free man and do by these present sell set over and deliver to him the said Cato. Rivera my negro woman named Phyllis mother to the said Cato hereby releasing up all my rights property claim.”
Ceasar [77]
Daniel Weeden manumitted ten slaves; however, the one child he freed was apprenticed until adulthood, “to myself and my heirs and assigns the service of him the said negro [Ceasar] until the fourth day of the ninth month one thousand seven hundred and eighty four when he will (if living) have filled up and arrive to twenty one years of age.”
Experience, Benjamin, Daniel, and Freelove [78]
John Bowen manumitted a “negro” named Experience but apprenticed three minors, Benjamin, Daniel, and Freelove.
Cato Pearce [86-88]
Cato Pearce was born in the Narragansett Country three years after the slave trade ban and six years after implementation of the Gradual Emancipation Law. While Pearce was born free, as the 1784 gradual emancipation law dictated, his parents were enslaved; thus he was to remain in theservice of his mother’s master until his twenty-first birthday. He was a “statutory slave.” When Pearce was just five or six years old his mother ran away. Pearce reminisced, “I ’member she told me to be a good boy and should bring me somethin’ when she came back. She left three children behind; I was the oldest, and the youngest was only ten months old.” He never saw her again. Pearce was left, effectively, parentless; his father lived on a neighboring farm and would have been unable to see to his children’s daily needs.
Mary Caesar [95]
A few black women went into business for themselves. Mary Caesar, for example, sold cakes, while other black women peddled vegetables, fruits, candy, and bread; others hawked liquor on the streets.
Elleanor Eldridge [95]
Elleanor Eldridge, a landlord, became the largest black property holder in the state.
Jane Whipple [100]
In 1787, the Providence city council ordered Jane Whipple, a “negro” or “mulatto” who was born in Providence and had lived in the city for a total of twenty years, removed to Cumberland, where she had served as an indentured servant from the age of five to eighteen.
Huldah Abbey [100]
In 1787, the Providence Town Council rejected Huldah Abbey’s application for legal residence. She was born in North Providence but had lived in Providence “nearly” all of her twenty years.
Bristol Rhodes [101]
Even Revolutionary War veterans were restricted from “legally” relocating. On September 9, 1794, Bristol Rhodes was ordered by the Providence town council to leave town and return to Cranston, his last place of legal residency. Rhodes, a former slave, had earned his freedom fighting in the Continental Army and had lived in Providence for five years. Neither his freedom nor his service to country shielded him from the legal disabilities of his race.
Prince Thurston [100]
In 1793, Prince Thurston, “a poor black adjudged by the Hon. Town Council to belong to Newport,” was ordered removed and turned over to the Newport overseer of the poor when he failed to pay his bill at a local boardinghouse in Providence.
Watty Greene, Cato Gardner and Mary Ceasar [100]
Watty Greene, a “mulatto” girl, Cato Gardner, a “negro” man, Mary Ceasar, a “mulatto woman,” and several families of color were all removed from Providence for illegal settlement after complaints from “honorable” white men.
Mary Cooper [100-101]
In 1816, Mary Cooper, a “woman of color,” was banished to her birthplace (Rehoboth) after her white employer complained of her bad behavior. According to her employer, Mary was a thief and a drunk. She also reportedly neglected his children and threatened to burn his home and kill his family.
Patience Ingraham [101]
Patience Ingraham, a “mulatto or Indian” woman who ran an informal boardinghouse, was charged with “keeping a common, ill governed, and disorderly house and of permitting to reside there, persons of Evil Name and Fame, and of dishonest conservation, drinking, tipling, whoring and misbehaving themselves to the Damage and Nusance of the Town.”
Ishmael Brown, John Hix, Jack Grene and Samuel Strange [101]
Ishmael Brown, John Hix, Jack Grene, and Samuel Strange, all black boarders in Ingraham’s house, were ordered to appear before the town council, who turned them over to Henry Bowen, a white man, for workhouse duties as punishment.
Henry T. Wheeler [103]
Dance halls were common in Hardscrabble, such as the home of Henry T. Wheeler, a black man, who ran his business on the first floor of his two-story home. Near Wheeler’s home, on the evening of October 18, 1824, several black Hardscrabble residents refused to step off the sidewalk to let a group of whites pass. Their refusal to move aside set the stage for violence; Wheeler’s home was the first target. Forty whites, carrying clubs and axes, gathered in front of the Wheeler residence and began destroying it. The rioters literally took the home apart, tearing it down to its studs. The rioters were so systematic in their efforts that they took breaks in order to catch their breath. Their success encouraged more destruction. The rioters grew to fifty or sixty strong. They destroyed twenty structures—nearly all of the black-owned homes and businesses in Hardscrabble.
Christopher Hill [105]
Following the Hardscrabble riot, “a large number of coloured people” left Providence for Saint Domingue (modern day Haiti)—the independent black republic in the West Indies. Christopher Hill, a widower with three children who worked a series of odd jobs—gardening, woodcutting, and farming—emigrated to Liberia with his family after his home was destroyed in the riot.
Hosea Easton [110-111]
In 1828, New Englander Hosea Easton cataloged the continuing racism faced by black Americans in his Address: Delivered before the Coloured Population, of Providence Rhode Island on Thanksgiving Day: Now as we composed a part of the number who are said to be free, of course it becomes our duty to consider how far our liberty extends. The first inquiry is, Are we eligible to an office? No.—Are we considered subjects of the government? No.—Are we initiated into free schools for mental improvement? No— Are we patronized as salary men in any public business whatever? No—Are we taken into social compact with Society at large? No.—Are we patronized in any branch of business which is sufficiently lucrative to raise us to any material state of honour and respectability among men, and this [sic], qualify us to demand respect from the higher order of Society?—No.—But to the contrary. Everything is withheld from us that is calculated to promote the aggrandizement and popularity of that part of the community who are said to be the descendants of Africa.
Abraham Casey [112]
The Free African Union Society (FAUS) was founded in November of 1780 in Newport, Rhode Island. It is the earliest known free black association in the United States. FAUS members held their first meetings in the home of Abraham Casey, a property holder and member of a small but influential black middle class. The Union provided a variety of support services such as paying for burials and providing widows and children of former members with financial aid. All members were required to pay dues and demonstrate good moral character. Union founders were not content to organize African Americans in Newport; they also reached out to blacks in Providence.
Susannah Wanton, Newport Wanton, and Genny Gardner [113]
Susannah Wanton, the widow of Newport Wanton, received payments when her husband was ill; the Union also covered the cost of his burial and even paid for the tea, rum, and sugar that were served at his funeral. Genny Gardner, also a widower of a Union member, was paid one dollar for her “present relief.”
Kingston Pease and Family [113]
Kingston Pease depended on fellow members to conduct his business and care for his family while he made arrangements to relocate to New York.
Issac Rice [114]
Isaac Rice, born in 1792 in the Narragansett Country, ran successful catering and landscaping businesses. His home was allegedly a stop on the Underground Railroad.
John Quamine, Bristol Yamma and Salmar Nubia [114]
John Quamine, Bristol Yamma, and Salmar Nubia all studied theology under the Reverend Samuel Hopkins and Reverend Ezra Stiles.
Caesar Lyndon [114-115]
Caesar Lyndon, who had been owned by Rhode Island governor Josiah Lyndon, had acted as a business agent and secretary for his enslaver; he also ran a small but successful private lending practice. His loans were so successful that he was able to purchase his freedom.
Newport Gardner [115]
Prominent Union member Newport Gardner was also a homeowner, and like Abraham Casey he opened his home as a meeting place. The ABS (founded in 1807) initially met in Gardner’s home. According to local folklore, Gardner was the son of a prosperous African who had been sold into slavery by an unscrupulous Rhode Island slave trader whom his father had entrusted to educate him. Regardless of how he came to be enslaved, his extraordinary intelligence and musical talents were noted and encouraged by his enslaver. Gardner soon became a sought-after musician and used the money he earned giving lessons to purchase his freedom.
Anthony Taylor [119]
FAUS member and officer Anthony Taylor expressed their urgency to emigrate in a letter to William Thornton: “Our earnest desire of returning to Africa and settling there has induced us further to trouble you with these lines, in order to convey to your mind a more particular and full idea of our proposal.” He wanted to know how to procure rights to land and asked for assistance in raising funds to purchase settlement land in Africa.
James McKenzie [119-120]
In November of 1794, Mackenzie set sail aboard the Charlotte to obtain information about settlement in Sierra Leone. Mackenzie arrived safely in Africa and submitted a letter to the Sierra Leone Board of Directors on behalf of FAUS of Rhode Island. The council members decided they would accept up to twelve families. Each family would receive ten acres and a communal town lot. There were, however, some conditions. Potential colonists had to obtain recommendations attesting to their moral character, agree to follow the laws of the colony, provide their own transport, and clear a third of their granted land by the end of their second year. The Council of the Sierra Leone Company wrote directly to local abolitionist Samuel Hopkins, not to the FAUS president and officers, asking him to vouch for the potential colonists. The leading officials in the Sierra Leone Company were white men, who depended on other white men to vouch for the characters of potential black settlers. Sierra Leone, clearly, was not the black utopia that FAUS members had hoped for. Black Rhode Islanders were appealing, not to a self-governed free black colony, but to a colony that was financed and governed by white men in London.
Arthur Flagg Jr., Newport Gardner and Reverend William Patten [123]
Three men dominated ABS leadership: Arthur Flagg Jr., Newport Gardner, and Reverend William Patten. Flagg served as society president from 1807 to 1810 and as secretary from 1813 to 1820. His father, born in 1739 and freed in 1801, worked as a rope maker, owned property in Newport, and had been active in FAUS, where he served as a judge and treasurer. Flagg grew up in the midst of black Newport’s social and political leaders, and FAUS often held meetings in his childhood home. Gardner, perhaps the most politically active black American in post-Revolutionary Rhode Island, acted as ABS president from 1811 to 1820. Patten, a local white abolitionist and minister of the Second Congregational Church of Newport, served as society treasurer from 1810 to 1824. These men were experienced in institution building and were among the handful granted the coveted position of “director” within the society; society directors, elected by members, wielded considerable power and influence in the institution—managing money, planning the academic schedule, and retaining instructors.
Obour Tanner [123]
The African Female Benevolent Society (AFBS) was established in 1809, a couple of years after the African Benevolent Society (ABS). One of the founding members, Obour Tanner, was a former slave who corresponded regularly with famed black poet Phyllis Wheatley.
William J. Brown [127]
A black Rhode Islander born ca. 1812, who attended the African Union Meeting House school, and recalled its dedication in his autobiography, published in 1883.
Paul Cuffe [129-130]
A successful black merchant, sea captain, and abolitionist, who chartered a ship to Sierra Leone.
George Thomas Downing [138]
Prominent in business, Downing spearheaded the campaign to integrate Rhode Island’s public schools. In 1857, he began circulating pamphlets, holding public forums, and writing editorials denouncing separate education for blacks and whites. He asserted that black schools were inferior “in their threadbare facilities, mediocre teachers, and stunted curricula.”
George Henry [138]
The school integration campaign was most strongly supported by middle-class blacks—property holders, businesspeople, and entrepreneurs. For example, George Henry, an affluent black gardener, wrote: “I find myself paying a heavy tax, and my children debarred from attending the schools, for which I was taxed. So a few of us got together and resolved to defend ourselves against such an outrage.”
Charles A. Jackson, William L. Humbert, Charles Freeman, Peter Freeman, Jermiah Noka, and John T. Waugh [146-147]
William L. Humbert, a sought-after tailor, was one of the first volunteers to Rhode Island’s black regiment in the Civil War. He was later promoted to corporal. Charles A. Jackson was so zealous in his recruitment of other black men that he lost his place in the first company and was transferred to the second, where he was promoted to sergeant. Other black men came, whether willingly or unwillingly, as the result of the draft. Charles Freeman was from Bristol, and Peter Freman (no relation) was “from slavery” and “the file leader.” John T. Waugh, a prominent black property holder and public school desegregation supporter, officiated at the presentation and charged the soldiers to “do your utmost to wipe out the foulest blot which stains our land. See to it that history writes that you nobly sustained the honor of the flag.”