by Keith Stokes | Jan 16, 2015 | Research, Uncategorized
In 1780, a group of African men assembled in Newport, Rhode Island to organize and charter America’s first mutual aid society for Africans known as the Free African Union Society. The Society’s lofty mission included providing funds for indigent families, a burial...
by Theresa Guzmán Stokes | Jun 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
1696 Heritage Group is happy to announce that we have received a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities for our fall program Gilded Age Newport in Color. This program is hosted by the Preservation Society of Newport County and will be held at...
by Keith Stokes | Jan 2, 2014 | Occupations, Research, Uncategorized
The peculiar institution of slavery in Rhode Island had its start and evolution with the sea. The town of Newport, aptly named the “City by the Sea,†would become the fifth most active seaport in all of Thirteen Colonies by the mid-18th century, an era that...
