Rhode Island Slavery

Stephen Hopkins House // 1743

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The Stephen Hopkins House is a Colonial-era house in the East Side neighborhood of Providence, and has survived waves of commercialization and redevelopment for nearly 300 years. The home is associated with Founding Father of the United States, Stephen Hopkins (1707–1785), who served as Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and was a signer of both the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence. In 1742, Stephen Hopkins purchased a one-story cottage built in 1707 on Main Street, and enlarged the original house to its present size by 1743, incorporating the original cottage as the rear ell. The eight-room residence was occupied by Gov. Hopkins, his family, as well as enslaved Africans who lived under the same roof until his death in 1785. During his ownership, George Washington slept here, twice. After 150 years of successive ownership, in 1928, the house was moved to its current location at the corner of Hopkins and Benefit Streets to facilitate the construction of the new Providence County Courthouse complex. The Hopkins House was restored by architectural historian and architect, Norman M. Isham, and is owned by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, operating it as a historic house museum. The Gov. Stephen Hopkins House is a National Historic Landmark.

C & J Mauran Company Warehouse // c.1820

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In Providence, even industrial warehouses are architecturally interesting to look at! This is the C & J Mauran Company Warehouse at 369 South Main Street in Providence’s East Side neighborhood. The building was constructed around 1820 for brothers, Carlo (1779-1844) and Joshua Mauran (1782-1847), who were wealthy merchants who stored goods from their ships trading in the Indies here. Before all of this, the site was home to an earlier structure from the 1770s, built by Deacon Joseph Sheldon, and the site was occupied by a warehouse, later owned by his son, Christopher Sheldon, and was known as the “Slave Pen” for its use of holding and transporting enslaved people. The “slave pen” burned in 1801 and the structure was later rebuilt by the Earle Brothers, and then again (the current structure) by Carlo and Joshua Mauran. Later in the 19th century, a brick façade and storefront were added to the building as the street shifted firmly to commercial uses, with noxious industrial buildings moving further to the periphery of the established College Hill neighborhood. From 1856 to 1939, the Ferry Coal Yard Company and the National Coal Company stored coal in the building After WWII, the City of Providence took the building and adjacent block by eminent domain to make way for urban renewal, and luckily for us, the building was rehabilitated rather than demolished at this time. The structure was converted to office use, and was again restored in the 2010s by Newport Collaborative Architects.

Brattle-Thurston House // c.1749

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This early Colonial house with unique, rusticated wood coursing carved, treated, and painted to resemble ashlar stone, can be found on Prospect Hill Street in Newport, Rhode Island. This is the Brattle-Thurston House, a circa 1749 Georgian residence of an appropriate gray color, yet when I stopped by in early 2024, had peeling paint. The house was originally part of the Latham Thurston estate, and was later rented or purchased by Robert Brattle (Brattell), who lived here with his wife, children, and an enslaved person according to the 1790 census. The home would later be owned by William Thurston, a hatter and dyer, who likely inherited the residence from his ancestor. Beyond the unique rusticated wood siding, the design features splayed lintels, the main entrance on the side elevation and a later entrance facing the street with segmental pediment above.

Eddy-Cutler House // c.1806

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Located next door to the Rebecca Maxwell Phillips House on State Street in Warren, Rhode Island the Eddy-Cutler House stands as possibly the finest brick Federal style building in the waterfront town. In July 1806, Benjamin Eddy purchased this house lot and began construction on his new mansion. Born in Warren in August 1772, he married Abigail Kelly in 1794 and began a career as a sea captain. Like many of the town’s wealthiest residents, Benjamin Eddy was engaged in the slave trade. Captain Benjamin Eddy was captain of at least three slave voyages, delivering 139 captives to the Charleston docks in June 1806 alone. In 1808, just before the “Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves” he purchased and imprisoned 176 Africans – the largest number ever carried on a Warren slave ship. Nineteen died during the return voyage. When he reached Charleston, South Carolina the remaining 157 people were sold into slavery. At the time, the sale would have returned nearly $33,000. He would return home to this mansion on money profited from human suffering, a story as American as apple pie. In 1871, the Eddy Homestead was transferred to Charles R. Cutler, a ship master and whaler who had many successful voyages to the Indian Ocean.

Rebecca Maxwell Phillips House // 1804

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Another of the “wedding gift houses” in Warren, Rhode Island is this Federal style mansion on State Street! The house was funded by James Maxwell, a wealthy local merchant who profited by the transport and sale of enslaved Africans. A large part of Maxwell’s wealth was attributable to the sale of enslaved captives, such as those aboard Maxwell’s schooner Abigail, which left Warren in September 1789. The captain of the vessel, Charles Collins, purchased 64 slaves on the coast of Africa, and sold them in the Americas by June of 1790. Of the 64 captives embarked on the ship, only 53 survived the voyage. This home was built as a wedding gift to his daughter Rebecca and her new husband, William Phillips. The three-story mansion exhibits a pedimented fanlight transom, corner quoins, and a shallow hipped roof. The property has always included two lots, the other lot has long had a Japanese Beech tree, brought from Japan by Commodore Joel Abbot in 1853.

Governor Lyndon House // 1751

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One of the more significant old homes in Warren, Rhode Island is this gambrel-roofed Georgian residence. Built in 1751, the home was occupied by Josias Lyndon (1704-1778) his wife and enslaved Africans he purchased in Rhode Island. He had no children. Lyndon worked as Clerk of the Assembly for the colony and in 1768, he was appointed Rhode Island’s last Colonial Governor, serving until 1769. He declined re-election and served as chief clerk for the General Assembly of the Superior Court of the County of Newport, until his death from smallpox in 1778. Josias enslaved Caesar Lyndon in this house. Caesar was a highly literate African man enslaved by Josiah Lyndon who carried out Lyndon’s business, acting as both a purchasing agent and a secretary. Josias allowed Caesar to marry, and he did marry to a Sarah Searing. It is unclear what happened to Caesar, Sarah and their children, but the Lyndon House lives on as a visual reminder of the complexities and harsh reality of slavery in New England, many often overlook.

Rufus Barton House // 1782

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Warren, Rhode Island is an often overlooked town for tourists, making it my favorite hidden gem in the Ocean State. The town is home to a bunch of Colonial-era homes, stunning institutional buildings, and industrial sites, oh and a lot of local businesses and restaurants. This charming house was built in 1782 for Rufus Barton and his wife, Prudence Cole. Rufus Barton sold the property to Nathan Burr for $775 in 1797 and the family moved to New York. Nathan Miller Burr sold the home to William Eastabrook two years later. Captain Eastabrook/Easterbrook had just returned from an illegal* slave voyage on the “Betsey” to Africa that resulted in the enslavement of 79 Africans who were sold into slavery in Havana, and purchased this home soon after with money he earned on that voyage. The new owners have done an amazing job restoring the house and telling the full story of the ownership, a task not many want to undertake with such complex and troubling past, but it is important!

Captain Caleb Godfrey House // c.1740

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In Newport, Rhode Island, you can find that even the more regular-looking historic buildings often hold an interesting (and sometimes troubling) past. Little information was available on this Georgian-era house, but I did some digging and turned up a lot. Rhode Island and Newport specifically had been a hub of trade going back to its founding by white settlers. Even though it was the smallest of the colonies, the great majority of slave ships leaving British North America came from Rhode Island ports. Historian Christy Clark-Pujara, in her book Dark Work, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island, indicates that during “the colonial period in total, Rhode Island sent 514 slave ships to the coast of West Africa, while the rest of the colonies sent just 189.” Captain Caleb Godfrey, who owned this home on Franklin Street in Newport, was a sea captain and hired by wealthy merchants to pick up slaves in West Africa and bring them back to the British colonies. In 1754, Samuel and William Vernon of Newport hired Caleb to take their ship, “Hare“, taking captives from Sierra Leone and embarking them from South Carolina. Godfrey left Sierra Leone with 84 slaves aboard, but 16 died on the 10-week voyage or soon after the ship arrived in Charleston, their bodies were dumped at night into the sea. In South Carolina, a prominent slave dealer named Henry Laurens handled the sale of African captives from the Hare, placing an advertisement to attract the attention of local rice planters. Godfrey’s Newport home is a visual reminder on New England’s direct ties to the enslavement of African people and how the colonies benefited financially from this terrible trade.

Captain George Benson House // 1797

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One of the finest Federal period mansions in Providence is this well-sited home on College Hill known as the Captain George Benson House. George Benson was a partner of the mercantile firm of Brown, Benson & Ives, who made immense sums of money at the end of the 18th century. The firm did well as the movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade grew at the time in Rhode Island, many abolitionists placed their faith in so-called “legitimate commerce,” an African trade centered on commodities other than enslaved people. In 1794, the firm run by Nicholas Brown, Jr., and his partners George Benson and Thomas Ives, tried the legitimate trade, and dispatched the ship Charlotte to Freetown Africa, under the command of Benson’s half brother, Martin. George’s half-brother Martin was a slave trader, a job that may have accounted for the unusually explicit tone in a 1794 letter of instructions: “by no means take any Slaves on board the Ship on any terms whatever as we desire to have nothing to do with business.” Three years later, George had this Federal style mansion constructed on the peak of College Hill which remains one of the best in the area over 200 years later.

Bull-Mawdsley House // c.1680

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One of the oldest houses in Rhode Island, this beautiful home has a full history that will be hard to fit in a post, but here goes! The earliest, two-room rear part of this house was built around 1680, probably by Jireh Bull near the time of his first marriage to Godsgift Arnold, the daughter of Benedict Arnold, the first Governor of Rhode Island. After Bull’s death, the wealthy businessman and privateer Captain John Mawdsley acquired the house and he enlarged it in keeping with his prominent social status, adding elements inspired by the Georgian classicism. Mawdsley in 1774 owned 20 slaves, many of which likely worked on his ships as crew or cooks. He was a Loyalist, and fled Newport during the American Revolution. During the winter of 1780-81, this was the home of French Major-General François chevalier Beauvoir de Chastellux, who was third in command of French forces in America under the French expeditionary force led by general Rochambeau. After the War, Mawdsley was actually allowed to return to Newport, and resided at the home until his death in 1795. In 1795, after Mawdsley’s death, the house was purchased by slave ship captain and wealthy merchant Caleb Gardner, who is said to have brought thousands of humans in bondage to the shores of Rhode Island and in the Caribbean. Gardner is responsible for the Federal period entry and marble front steps we see today. The home was purchased by Historic New England in the 20th century, and was documented as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey. It is now a private home.