Exploring a rich vein of African American life provides novel perspectives on familiar North Kingstown figures.
Wickford’s Town Dock probably doesn’t rank on anyone’s map of black history landmarks, but Saturday morning local historian G. Timothy Cranston, author most recently of “Walking in Wickford,” wove the dock, the Old Narragansett Church, and several historic houses into a memorable tour of local African American history. Cranston’s history walk, the season’s first sponsored by the North Kingstown Free Library, took two dozen attentive history buffs from Colonial times to the 21st century. At the dock, for example, 18th-century ships disgorged molasses for two Wickford rum distilleries as part of the infamous “triangle trade.” As Cranston reminded his listeners, Wickford ships carried the rum to Africa, where it helped pay for slaves. Ships …
Educator and museum director Loren Spears presented snapshots of Native American history and answered questions at Dec. 1 library event.
About three dozen residents brought a variety of questions about the Narragansett tribe to the North Kingstown Free Library Wednesday evening, and Tribal Council member Loren Spears provided answers. Lois Salisbury, who recalled finding arrowheads in the Camp Avenue area as a child, asked if Narragansetts lived around Quonset Point before Europeans arrived. Yes, said Spears, who serves as executive director of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Exeter. In summers, the tribe followed waterways from winter quarters in the Great Swamp to the shores of Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, where they grew food and caught fish and shellfish. Spears also said that she has seen tribal members communicate with "rolling rocks" – a small …
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Richard Burda
4:03 am on Friday, June 17, 2011
Thank you for correctly identifying the Wickford Town Dock as being at the end of Main Street. more ›