If Jane Should Want to Be Sold: Stories of Enslavement, Indenture and Freedom in Little Compton, Rhode Island

Discover the true stories of the 250 enslaved and forcibly indentured people who lived in Little Compton, Rhode Island from 1674 to 1816. Hundreds of primary source documents illuminate the lives of the community’s unfree people, like Jane whose owner gave her the choice to be sold or not, or Pardon who burned down his neighbor’s windmill in order to avoid a beating at the hands of his master. The stories of newly-free people, like Primus Collins who voted in Rhode Island elections or Moselle Gray who escaped slavery in the South, also come to light in the pages of this well-researched local history written in an engaging, easily-accessible style.