The Little Compton Historical Society and The Brownell Library are pleased to welcome Ray Rickman to Little Compton to speak on “Racism and its Roots in Slavery” at 6 PM, Wednesday, August 3, 2016. The event is free and open to the public and will take place in the tent behind the Brownell Library. Refreshments will be served thanks to a generous “Friend of the Brownell Library.”

Ray Rickman is a long-time advocate for equality and justice in Rhode Island and is considered a leader in the promotion of African American history and culture. He resided in Little Compton every September for eleven years from 2000 to 2011.

Mr.  Rickman has been a prominent figure in Rhode Island politics and culture since he came to this state over three decades ago.   He is a former State Representative from College Hill in Providence and served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2000 to 2002. Mr. Rickman is also a rare book dealer and conducts general and African American cultural tours of the College Hill neighborhood. He is a former president of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and was secretary of the Rhode Island Historical Society for seven years. He was also the first treasurer of the Heritage Harbor Museum and is a member of the Rhode Island 1663 Colonial Charter Commission. He and the late Posey Wiggins co-taught a class using the 1883 William J. Brown autobiography as a tool to teach about racial and cultural issues in 19th-century Rhode Island.  In the 1970s, Rickman served as Chief of Staff for United States Congressman John Conyers, Jr. During his tenure working for the Congressman, Ray worked next to Rosa Parks.

Ray currently serves as the president of the Rickman Group, a consulting firm that helps nonprofit organizations and other small businesses with development and fundraising and as the executive director of Stages of Freedom, a non-profit organization that produces and promotes Black cultural events to raise funds for their programs that engage and empower youth of color in Rhode Island.

Among Stages of Freedoms’ programming is Swim Empowerment, which raises funds to provide swimming lessons to youth of color and to increase the state’s awareness of the history of exclusion of African Americans from public pools and the resulting disparity in drowning related injuries and death that disproportionately afflict communities of color.

This talk is a collaboration between the Brownell Library and the Little Compton Historical Society and is part of a year-long project honoring the 200^th anniversary of the end of slavery in Little Compton. The Historical Society will be hosting other speakers is a series featuring authors and historians with expertise on slavery and freedom in New England. The series is made possible by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and will run through February 2017. Each event is free and open to the public.

Joanne Pope Melish, a nationally-recognized authority on gradual emancipation in New England, will begin the Little Compton Historical Society’s Slavery and Freedom Speakers’ Series on Tuesday, July 19 at 7 PM at the United Congregational Church on the Commons. Dr. Melish has entitled her talk The Worm in the Apple: Slavery, Emancipation, and Race in Rhode Island. She will discuss, among other topics, the amnesia that New England developed concerning its history of slave-holding and the emergence of racism as a means of control once slavery ended in the North.

Dr. Melish is well-known as the author of “Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780-1860” (Cornell University Press) a book that has been frequently used and discussed in university classrooms across the country since its publication in 1998. Dr. Melish is Associate Professor of History Emerita at the University of Kentucky, where she also directed the American Studies Program for several years. Dr. Melish received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University and now resides in Rhode Island. In addition to Disowning Slavery, she has authored many essays on race and slavery in the early republic and on slavery in public history. Currently she is working on a book-length project tentatively entitled “Gradual Alienation: How a Multiracial Laboring Class Formed, Persisted, and Became Invisible in the Post-Revolutionary North.”

The Historical Society’s Slavery and Freedom Speakers’ Series is generously sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. The talks are free and open to the public.  Reservations are not required.

If Jane Should Want to Be Sold

Stories of Enslavement, Indenture & Freedom

in Little Compton, Rhode Island

Book & Special Exhibition 2016

Restoring Voices

This summer the Little Compton Historical Society will restore the voices of over 250 forgotten people to our local history. The Historical Society’s latest project uses hundreds of primary source documents to bring to light the lives of people of African, Native American, and European descent who were enslaved and forcibly indentured in Little Compton between 1674 and 1816. The organization will share their stories with the public in a year-long effort that includes a book written by Managing Director Marjory O’Toole, a special exhibition that will run through February 2017, a permanent addition to the Wilbor House tour, a memorial to the enslaved in the Old Burying Ground, a lecture series, programs for school children and a research database.

Sponsors

The project has been sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the Newport Country Fund, The Rhode Island Foundation and The Ocean State Charities Trust as well as over 70 local donors.

The Book

Entitled If Jane Should Want to Be Sold, Stories of Enslavement, Indenture and Freedom in Little Compton, Rhode Island the Historical Society’s new book is based on three years of primary source research and tells the true stories of people like Jane who were enslaved by Little Compton families. Jane’s story includes a decision whether or not to be sold, a marriage, a move to another community, and the loss of a son in the Revolution. The Revolution also factors into the story of Boston Wilbor, an enslaved man who secured his freedom by volunteering to serve in the Rhode Island First Regiment. Jane and Boston are just two of the dozens of men, women and children whose stories appear in the 300 page, full-color, softcover book. The book will be available at the Historical Society on July 1 and 2 for anyone attending the special events scheduled on those days and during normal business hours thereafter. The Society will also offer the book in our booth during the Congregational Church Fair on Saturday, July 9 and the Little Compton Antiques Festival on August 5. The cost is $15 for members and $20 for non-members. For anyone unable to come to the Historical Society, the book will be available on Amazon.com beginning July 3. Local stores like Wilbur’s General Store and Partner’s Village Store will also be carrying the book. The Brownell Library will have borrowing copies.

Continue reading “2016 Season”

Day of Event Tickets ($40) are available at the Little Compton Community Center on the Little Compton Commons beginning at 11 a.m.

Tickets are limited.  Ticket sales will end at 4 p.m.

Will Call Tickets may be picked up at the Community Center.

Houses are open from noon to 5 p.m.

Restrooms and water are available at the Community Center, Wilbor House Museum and Friends Meeting House.

Children 12 and over are welcome with a ticket.

Tickets are non-refundable.

All proceeds benefit the Little Compton Historical Society.

No photography, cell phone, food, drink, high heel shoes or pets.

The opportunity to purchase advance tickets ends at 5 PM today.  $35

In-person – The Wilbor House Museum   1 – 5 PM   (548 West Main Road)

By phone – 401-635-4035

On-line   https://littlecompton.org/programs-events/historic-house-tour/historic-house-tour-order-form/

Tomorrow House Tour Tickets will be sold beginning at 11 am at the Little Compton Historical Society.

The House Tour features 10 historic properties and runs from 12 to 5 pm.  All proceeds benefit the Little Compton Historical Society.

For a list of houses see:  https://littlecompton.org/programs-events/historic-house-tour/