Rhode Island History

This book by Edwin Gaustad was the first book I read on Roger Williams in 2002.  It inspired me to proceed with research on Williams during the ensuing decade while I was working full time as a litigation lawyer and then, finally, in retirement, when I wrote and published my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience.  Gaustad is, in my view, one of the finest interpreters of Roger Williams, though he did not meticulously document his factual statements with footnotes or endnotes.  I wrote this review of his book in 2002.

For 29 years prostitution was decriminalized in Rhode Island (if it occurred indoors). Sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls were integrated into economic development. The number of sex businesses grew rapidly and organized crime groups operated brothels and extorted money from adult entertainment businesses. Rhode Island became a destination for pimps, sex traffickers, and other violent criminals. The lack of laws impeded police from investigating serious crimes, including sex trafficking. Below is a bibliography of sources on the research we did on prostitution and sex trafficking and the advocacy work we did to end decriminalized prostitution. Harm of Decriminalized Prostitution to Victims, Families & Community Sex Trafficking and Decriminalized Prostitution in Rhode Island by Melanie Shapiro Since decriminalization in 1980, the sex industry has expanded and Rhode Island has become a destination for commercial sex in New England. The goal of this project was to research the history of decriminalization, gather information on Asian massage parlor brothels, and determine if sex trafficking is occurring in these establishments.

An annotated transcription and facsimile of Mrs Almy’s Diary describing the Franco-American siege of Newport, Rhode Island, in August 1778 from the point of view of a loyalist woman living in Newport with her children, while her patriot husband attacks the town.

74 Rhode Island History: 72 (2016). http://www.rihs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/RHS_Journal-74-2.pdf This article describes a little-known story of greed, ambition and profit in the Newport slave trade when fate brought together two men born worlds apart in a New York City Federal courtroom in April 1805.  One was Thomas Addis Emmet, an Irish lawyer and patriot who was disbarred, banished and imprisoned for advocating equality for Catholics in Protestant-dominated Ireland.  The other was Philip Morse Topham, a young Newport R.I. captain who sailed from Newport to Africa and then the West Indies’ slave markets and was subsequently arrested and prosecuted under the federal slave trade law.  The trial, with Emmet as counsel for the plaintiff, the New-York Manumission Society, resulted in an unprecedented victory for the antislavery movement and the prospect of a prolonged prison confinement for the young Newport slaver captain. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Newport had returned to a position of prominence in the U.S. slave trade and its slaving merchants fought vigorously to free Topham, as one of their own, from the snares of the antislavery forces. One-hundred-and-sixty of Rhode Island's "highest officers of Government" and "most respectable Inhabitants" petitioned President Thomas Jefferson, imploring him to pardon Topham. Leaders of the state's Republican Party, loyal to Jefferson, led the pardon campaign. Placing principle over politics, Jefferson refused to issue the pardon until Topham had served at least two years in prison, much to the dismay of Topham's supporters who felt that Jefferson had abandoned them when the time came for the distribution of political favors.

The definition of "theocracy" has perplexed scholars for many centuries.  Some argue that theocracy exists only when religious leaders are also the actual, official political leaders and, as such, impose their particular theological views on the populace at large.  This essay argues that effective control of a polity by religious leaders and their theology is dispositive, regardless of the governmental organization that exists on paper.  For example, Roger Williams pointed out that in many theocracies (including that of seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay) "the Magistrate is but the Ministers Cane through which the Clergy speaks . . . ."  "The Bloody Tenent Yet More Bloody" (London, 1652), 131.  The present essay was incorporated, with some additions and revisions, into Appendix B of Alan E. Johnson's book "The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience" (http://www.amazon.com/First-American-Founder-Williams-Conscience/dp/1511823712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436397728&sr=1-1).  For a summary of some of the points in this book, see the author's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOlUZaehYk7WmwW8v9oBMzQ) about Roger Williams, including an interview (https://youtu.be/mGRl5lIbdYY) with the author about this book.

Note:  The sentence and citation on page 5, n.1, in this article referring to John M. Barry's book on Roger Williams should be qualified by Barry's remarks elsewhere in his book:  "Technically, the Bay was not a theocracy. Consistent with the admonition to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar’s, and to God those which were God’s, the plantation prohibited a minister or church officer from simultaneously holding a government office. (For this reason some historians have argued that Puritan Massachusetts actually advanced the concept of separation of church and state.) But if not a theocracy, Massachusetts was theocentric."  Barry, Roger Williams, 169.  As discussed in this article, I disagree with the position that Massachusetts Bay was not a theocracy.

This paper examines the 1531 Maggiolo Planisphere, the 1536 Gemma Frisius Globe, the 1541 Gerard Mercator Globe, the 1569 Gerard Mercator World Map, the first edition of the 1592 Molyneux Globe of the Petworth House, the second edition (1603) of the Molyneux-Hondius Globe, and the 1587 Hondius-Rogers Map as they illustrate and pertain to the Newport Tower in Newport, Rhode Island. We also present images of the tower on two versions of the “Armada Portrait” of Queen Elizabeth. Included in the discussion are elements of North American exploration, the latitude and longitude positioning of the Newport Tower, the confirmation that previous assertions that the tower structure depicted on the 1569 Mercator map was the Newport Tower, and the deconstruction of the GROENLAND Prime Meridian, again, on Mercator’s 1569 work.

Clearly written by a very young historian, this paper delves into a very old debate over which state deserves credit for kick-starting the American Revolution by organizing a colonial union, Virginia or Massachusetts.  The historiographical football has traditionally been the formation of committees of correspondence.  This paper examines that question and the events surrounding it, concluding that historians, for more than 200 years, have been asking the wrong question about the issue, and confusing Massachusetts' intracolonial system with Virginia's intercolonial one.  Still, the paper posits the question anew within the context of statebuilding    and finds that its one still worth attempting to answer.

Nicholas Alahverdian had everything going for him -- he was 14 years old, he was working for his state's legislature, and he had aspirations to attend Harvard or Yale. Unfortunately, Rhode Island politics is a blood sport. Since Nicholas was in DCYF foster care due to his abusive parents, he also served as a lens through which he could share with lawmakers the direct impact the state had on its children and adolescents. 

What Alahverdian found was a broken system immersed in disarray. As a result of his political activism, Nicholas made enemies amongst the bureaucrats in state agencies, the Family Court, and Governor Donald Carcieri himself. Alahverdian began to tell the members of the Senate and House what was happening in the infamous DCYF night-to-night program. He detailed torture and abuse. Alahverdian was later sent to facilities hundreds of miles from home where he could contact no one.

This powerful lawsuit is available as an ebook for the first time and is a preparatory document to Alahverdian's official biography.

Makers Unknown: Material Objects and the Enslaved examines material culture to understand the ways in which the institution of racial slavery shaped the daily lives of all Rhode Islanders. Typically, historic archives preserve the objects and documents of prominent merchant families. When we reread these objects and archives to better understand the lives of the individuals whom they enslaved, we find within the gaps of the formal archives, new narratives. Makers Unknown represents the work of artisans of color whose contributions to their craft remain unrecognized. This is our starting point. The material culture produced by enslaved and free people of color for themselves or in their capacity as an unending source of coerced labor gives us a lens into their agency, humanity, and the many ways they negotiated freedom.

An investigation into everyday community life in late 19th century Central Falls, Rhode Island, as viewed through the lens of a local newspaper column.The Weekly Visitor was Central Falls’ first newspaper and was published by E. L. Freeman & Co. from 1869 until 1890, when it merged with the Pawtucket Times. The newspaper was credited with “greatly contributing to the growth of and development of Central Falls and
vicinity.” Every Friday, on page two of the newspaper, a short column titled the Local Intelligence informed readers of events of interest to the community. By examining the content of the column, I hope to gain some insight into the everyday lives of the laborers working in the this industrialized mill village, albeit through the lens of the white, privileged
editors of the paper.

This book is about Roger Williams (ca. 1603-83), who was banished from the colony of Massachusetts Bay for advocating freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, Native American rights, and related matters.  He founded the town of Providence in what became Rhode Island on the basis of full liberty of conscience and complete separation of religion and government.  For additional information, see the uploaded PDF and links.

The book is available in paperback and Kindle e-book editions at Amazon websites throughout the world.  The paperback is also available at some other websites and bookstores.

See also my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOlUZaehYk7WmwW8v9oBMzQ) about Roger Williams, including an interview (https://youtu.be/mGRl5lIbdYY) with me about this book.

For Errata and Supplemental Comments, see the separate document uploaded at https://www.academia.edu/13798228/Errata_and_Supplemental_Comments_to_The_First_American_Founder_Roger_Williams_and_Freedom_of_Conscience.

Alan E. Johnson

Covering the period from 1870-1906, the mill is examined from multiple perspectives. Complex relationships and interactions between the laboring workforce, the prominent owners, and the overseers in-between are highlighted. Archival material illuminating the lives of the mill workers have been sought out. The public’s perspective is examined by looking at how the industry was portrayed in Victorian print culture. Finally, a contemporary viewpoint looks at how the mill has changed over time, most recently adapted into residential spaces.

Tom R. Chambers created this photo album of Descendants of many of the First Settlers of Rhode Island to pay tribute to the trials and tribulations that their Ancestors were subjected to during the early to middle 1600s. It offers a unique look and study of the State's early history as it relates to images of Descendants (contemporaries) as icons or symbols to pay tribute to and talk about their Ancestors' (First Settlers') contributions through text extracted from The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island (and other sources).

Alexander Dorner arrived at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1938 with plans to continue the radical museum work he had begun at the Provinzialmuseum in Hanover, Germany. There he had collaborated with artists such as El Lissitzky to create strikingly new and immersive exhibition environments. At RISD he likewise intended to transform the Museum’s galleries while also expanding the Museum's public to include traditionally underserved groups, such as Providence's diverse immigrant communities. Although Dorner initially had the support of the School’s board of trustees and the good will of its president, he quickly ran into problems and left under a cloud of suspicion after only three years. Members of RISD’s hierarchy came to see Dorner as a disruptive outsider, stubbornly resistant to assimilation, who threatened their power and that of an entrenched local elite.

Four edited and annotated documents, with an introduction, on the English Colony of Rhode Island's response in preparing for the impending war with France in 1755.  A 37-page pamphlet prepared for and published by the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars, Dec 2017.

These errata and supplemental comments were prepared after my book "The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience" was in the publication process and too late for inclusion in the book itself. This updated document includes corrections and supplemental comments to both the paperback (by page number) and Kindle ebook (by location number) as of June 5, 2020.  Alan E. Johnson

The lack of a law against indoor prostitution can create a "zone of impunity in which police can't go, and where traffickers can exploit their prey," according to Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador at Large to Combat Human Trafficking and Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in the U.S. State Department.

Describes four synagogues and a Hillel House spanning a century of Jewish settlement and building in Providence and Woonsocket, Rhode Island,  and in telling their history and describing their art and architecture, the author covers major developments of Jewish art and design of the 20th century.

Tom R. Chambers returned to Providence to showcase a sampling of his coverage as Mayoral and City Photographer for Providence, 1985-1990. The exhibition comprises 60 prints of city activities and its people 26-31 years ago. The coverage over a six-year period is a direct result of a mayor's presence and activity throughout the environs of a city. It is assignment-based via a press secretary's office, City Hall.

Explores the development of sericulture in colonial New England, with a particular focus on the experiments undertaken by the Rev. Ezra Stiles in the production of raw silk at his home in Newport, Rhode Island in the 1760s and 1770s. Argues that these attempts reveal the increasing intermingling of different impulses: literature, patronage, environmental history, political economy, consumer culture, and especially the place of gendered labour in pursuing economic diversification at the household level.

Published in TEXT: Journal of the Textile Society, 41 (2014): 4-12. Won Natalie Rothstein Silk Award.

Establishing the ownership and deed track of a house associated with oral histories (legends) reveals that the latter often celebrates an event, a family, and possession of local power. The stories that surround houses speak of kinship, family, and local events as entangled with national history and ideology and embed these into the material fabric of a home. They express ways of thinking and feeling about society and convey these down through descendent generations. The legends are patterned in a fashion characteristic of myth; they collapse or extend both time and space, transmute individuals into ancestral heroes, and displace those of lesser stature. House histories take an architectural element of a house and give it protective capabilities well beyond its normal role. Houses thus become icons of strength and vitality.