Early Rhode Island’s reliance on, and enrichment by, the slave trade helped shape nearly every town from South County to Newport, Providence and Warren. Now two new projects, one in Warren and one contributed to by a Warren resident, will help teach future Ocean Staters about the trade’s history here.

A historical marker spelling out Warren’s years involvement in the trade was recently raised at the Warren Town Wharf. Sponsored by the town, Warren Heritage Foundation and Warren Preservation Society, it is one of three markers planned. Others, on different topics, will be installed soon at the Warren United Methodist Church and Burr’s Hill.

The wharf marker commemorates Warren’s close ties to the slave trade, as the “Middle Passage” in the triangular slave trade of the 1700s and early 1800s.

From its founding in 1747, Warren was home to a large population of ship builders, blacksmiths and associated tradespeople whose work contributed to the trade, which was then legal. Though Rhode Island banned the African slave trade in 1787, that did little to stop the lucrative business, however.

In 1789, Warren merchants launched the town’s first illegal slave ship, The Abigail. Voyages continued into the early years of the 19th century, and over the next two decades Warren ships made no fewer than 30 illegal trips, “leading to the death or enslavement of more than 2,800 men, women and children,” the marker reads.

“Warren families who invested in the voyages profited directly from the sale of human beings while others made money by constructing, financing, provisioning and manning the ships. There are historic homes in Warren that were purchased with profits from the slave trade.”

Medallions
Concurrently, Warren artist Allison Newsome recently contributed to another statewide project to mark the state’s long history in slaving.
Ms. Newsome recently designed a medallion that will be placed on historic sites across the state as part of the Rhode Island Slave History Medallion project. The project’s goal is to identify sites throughout the state that have a historical connection to the enslavement of Native Americans and Africans. Her medallion features a death’s head based on a gravestone carved by Pompei Stevens, a slave carver in the John Stevens Shop on Thames Street in Newport.

With the original sculpture made in clay, bronze casts are being made in Canton, Mass. and will be installed throughout the state.

Ms. Newsome said project organizers first contacted her last year and came down to her studio to talk. The provided her with a comprehensive documentation on the project and what they were looking for, and she took it from there. Complete with a period-correct font, she said she is happy with the way the medallion turned out — “they really wanted it to look like a Pompei Stevens,” she said.

Though the medallion’s design is a nod to the past, it will feature high-tech features, notably QR codes that viewers will be able to scan with their smartphones, to call up more historical information on each property and its connection to slavery.