African American--History.

Abstract

In November 1975, the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities funded our first project "Blacks in Rhode Island - a Heritage Discovered." This booklet is a very brief representation of the discoveries and findings in libraries, historical societies, personal collections of both Black and White citizens throughout the state.

Scope and Contents The presence of African-Americans looms long and large over the history of Rhode Island. Early in its establishment as an English colony in the 1630s, the colonial legislature promulgated a law that prohibited "the common course practiced among Englishmen to buy Negroes" and sought to prevent "such practice among us" (1652). As it turned out, however, this law could not override the influence of the colony's limited natural resources and its advantageous maritime location. By the...