Picking up where Rhode Island's Founders left off Dr. Patrick T. Conley, Rhode Island's preeminent historian and president of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, takes us through the Ocean State's history from 1790 to 1860. Learn how Samuel Slater, the so-called Father of the Factor System, pioneered the making of modern Rhode Island, how Elizabeth Buffum Chace founded the Rhode Island Women's Suffrage Association and what political circumstances led Governor Thomas Wilson Dorr to the ...

In an era when immigration was at its peak, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route to southern New England. One of its most important ports was in Providence, Rhode Island. Nearly eighty-four thousand immigrants were admitted to the country between the years 1911 and 1934. Almost one in nine of these individuals elected to settle in Rhode Island after landing in Providence, amounting to around eleven thousand new residents. Most of these immigrants were from Portugal and Italy...

Take a journey with us back to early America, where Rhode Island's founders laid the groundwork for America's policy of religious freedom. Dr. Patrick T. Conley, Rhode Island's preeminent historian, is our guide for this expedition, teaching us about the individuals and events that shaped Rhode Island's identity. Learn what led Roger Williams to write The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution and discover how James Franklin, older brother of Benjamin, left a lasting impact on the future of American...

Rhode Island's contribution to World War II vastly exceeded its small size.Narragansett Bay was an armed camp dotted by army forts and navy facilities. They included the country's most important torpedo production and testing facilities at Newport and the Northeast's largest naval air station at Quonset Point. Three special, top-secret German POW camps were based in Narragansett and Jamestown. Meanwhile, Rhode Island workers from all over the state - including, for...

The Providence River begins its journey from the confluence of the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers, in the capital city from which the river takes its name. A short distance downstream, the Seekonk River joins with the Providence as they flow on toward the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The history of the Ocean State was made on the banks of this historic river. It was here that Roger Williams established the first settlement dedicated to religious liberty, Rochambeau's army made its fir...

The classic history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of enslaved people.**"Gripping." —**New York Times**“A stinging indictment of slavery.” —**NPR Books?Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution—the nation's original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America's later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bon...

'…from time to time a study comes along that truly can be called ‘path breaking,’ ‘seminal,’ ‘essential,’ a ‘must read.’ How the Irish Became White is such a study.' John Bracey, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachussetts, AmherstThe Irish came to America in the eighteenth century, fleeing a homeland under foreign occupation and a caste system that regarded them as the lowest form of humanity. In the new country – a la...

The first in a sweeping, multi-volume history of Abraham Lincoln—from his obscure beginnings to his presidency, death, and the overthrow of his post-Civil War plan of reconciliation—“engaging and informative and…thought-provoking” (The Christian Science Monitor).From his youth as a voracious newspaper reader, Abraham Lincoln became a free thinker, reading Tom Paine, as well as Shakespeare and the Bible. In the “fascinating” (Booklist, starred revi...

"Traces the history of abolition from the 1600s to the 1860s . . . a valuable addition to our understanding of the role of race and racism in America."— Florida CourierReceived historical wisdom casts abolitionists as bourgeois, mostly white reformers burdened by racial paternalism and economic conservatism. Manisha Sinha overturns this image, broadening her scope beyond the antebellum period usually associated with abolitionism and recasting it as a radic...

The “magisterial” (The New York Times Book Review) second volume of Sidney Blumenthal’s acclaimed, landmark biography, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, reveals the future president’s genius during the most decisive period of his political life when he seizes the moment, finds his voice, and helps create a new political party.In 1849, Abraham Lincoln seems condemned to political isolation and defeat. His Whig Party is broken in the 1852 elect...

What would George Washington do about weapons of mass destruction? How would Benjamin Franklin feel about unwed mothers? What would Alexander Hamilton think about minorities in the military? Examining a host of issues from terrorism to women's rights, acclaimed historian Richard Brookhiser reveals why we still turn to the Founders in moments of struggle, farce, or disaster. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Adams and all the rest have an unshakable hold on our collective ...

Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition that "all men are created equal"? The usual answer is racism, but the reality is more complex and unsettling. In Bind Us Apart, historian Nicholas Guyatt argues that, from the Revolution through the Civil War, most white liberals believed in the unity of all human beings. But their philosophy faltered when it came to the practical work of forging a color-blind society. Unable to convince...