June 15-16, 2024: Ocean State Histories: Further Reading

[250 yearsago this week, Rhode Island banned theslave trade. That significant moment was just one of many in this littleststate’s story, so this week I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of Ocean Statehistories, leading up to this special post on works through which you can learnmore about Rhode Island!]

On five worksthat should be on any Little Rhodey reading list.

1)     William McLoughlin, RhodeIsland: A Bicentennial History (1978): From what I can tell, there isn’ta more recent book-length history of the colony and state, and certainly notone as comprehensive as McLoughlin’s.

2)     John Barry, RogerWilliams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth ofLiberty (2012): I hope this week’s series has made clear how much morethere is to Rhode Island than just Roger Williams—but there’s no way to tellthe story of the Ocean State that doesn’t include its founder in a prominent role.Of the many bios and analyses, Barry’s seems particularly interesting in itssense of what it would mean to likewise see Williams as an American origin point.

3)     S.T. Joshi, IAm Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft (2013): Weird Taleexpert 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-volumeedition captures the full scope of Joshi’s biography of the complex, dark inevery sense, foundational speculative author who is unquestionably Rhode Island’smost famous literary legacy.

4)     Christy Clark-Pujara, DarkWork: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island (2016): I’ve writtenmultiple times in this space, including in Monday’s post on Roger Williams,about Wendy Warren’s NewEngland Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America (2016). PerhapsWarren’s scope is broader than Clark-Pujara’s project (published in the sameyear), but that just means they complement each other, with Clark-Pujara ableto dive far more deeply into the histories and legacies of slavery in RhodeIsland.

5)     SowamsHeritage Area website (2017+): Scholarly and historical writing no longerhappen only in hard-copy publications, of course (and duh, since you’re readingthis blog). After I wrote this July4th column on Bristol in 2022, I was contacted by DaveWeed, the historian who runs the Sowams Heritage Area website and publishesits blog,newsletter, and other layers to this important local history work. I’velearned a lot from Weed and the site, and would recommend them to anyoneinterested in Rhode Island histories and stories—which, as I hope this week hasmade clear, are all of ours.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other Ocean State texts or histories you’d highlight?