[On May 6, 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to formally declare its independence from England. That’s one of many ways this smallest state has made a big impact, so for the 250th anniversary of that occasion this week I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of Little Rhody histories, leading up to this weekend reading list for folks who want to learn more!]
A couple years back, I shared five works that should be on any Little Rhody reading list. I still believe that, so will highlight them again here and then add a few more below:
- William McLoughlin, Rhode Island: A Bicentennial History (1978): From what I can tell, there isn’t a more recent book-length history of the colony and state, and certainly not one as comprehensive as McLoughlin’s.
- John Barry, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (2012): I hope this week’s series has made clear how much more there is to Rhode Island than just Roger Williams—but there’s no way to tell the story of Little Rhody that doesn’t include its founder in a prominent role. Of the many bios and analyses, Barry’s seems particularly interesting in its sense of what it would mean to likewise see Williams as an American origin point.
- S.T. Joshi, I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft (2013): Weird Tale expert Joshi published a one-volume bio of Providence’s own Lovecraft in 1996, but apparently it was significantly cut from his original manuscript; this two-volume edition captures the full scope of Joshi’s biography of the complex, dark in every sense, foundational speculative author who is unquestionably Rhode Island’s most famous literary legacy.
- Christy Clark-Pujara, Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island (2016): I’ve written multiple times in this space, including in Monday’s post on Roger Williams, about Wendy Warren’s New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America (2016). Perhaps Warren’s scope is broader than Clark-Pujara’s project (published in the same year), but that just means they complement each other, with Clark-Pujara able to dive far more deeply into the histories and legacies of slavery in Rhode Island.
- Sowams Heritage Area website (2017+): Scholarly and historical writing no longer happen only in hard-copy publications, of course (and duh, since you’re reading this blog). After I wrote this July 4th column on Bristol in 2022, I was contacted by Dave Weed, the historian who runs the Sowams Heritage Area website and publishes its blog, newsletter, and other layers to this important local history work. I’ve learned a lot from Weed and the site, and would recommend them to anyone interested in Rhode Island histories and stories—which, as I hope this week has made clear, are all of ours.
A few additions to the list:
- David S. Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 1760-1776 (1969): I couldn’t share a reading list weekend post without including at least one text that focuses on the historic anniversary that was the origin for the week’s blog series; while I’m sure there are plenty of articles that have been published more recently than Lovejoy’s book, it still offers a clear and comprehensive overview of the manifold ways in which the littlest colony and state had an outsized influence on the gradual move toward Revolution, culminating in that May 1776 declaration of independence.
- Robert A. Geake, A History of the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island: Keepers on the Bay (2011): There are many ways to learn more about the state’s most longstanding prominent indigenous community, including through its own website and tribal historians of course. But when it comes to Rhode Island histories, you also can’t go wrong with Geake, who has written a ton of books about the state and whose history of the tribe is as thorough and thoughtful as his works always are.
- Larry Stanford, Scandalous Newport, Rhode Island (2013): The Gilded Age stories and histories I traced in Thursday’s post were far from the only time that Newport figured prominently on the national landscape, and most of the time in at least a somewhat unsavory way. Which is to say: Stanford’s book is written in an unquestionably salacious style, but that’s entirely appropriate for anyone who wants to learn more about what lies beneath Newport’s mansions.
Next series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Rhode Island readings, or histories or stories, you’d share?
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