Pub['~h..-d byTh e RhoO. b 1M>d H" ' on ca l Soc,cty110 lltne-volC'l1l ~l rl'C'l

Pro.."kncc, Rhndo: bland 029Of>·H52.ond pnnlN b.. , lI:I' ,ntlrom the Su'c ..tRhoO. l~und ,nd Pfm"JeoIKC Punullon~,

Bruce G Sundlun, em.ClTK>t,

K..,hk c n S Conncll, """rn.,rv ot SUtc

;-.JOVEMBER I Y'-J2

Rhode Island HistoryVolume 50, Number ~

CONTENTS

_'-Uuncc A R''-Mlnnelle, pte.,dcmRORnL V,llIe....... VIU pttJJJtmThorn... r Rc. lIv, It. VIet' pUJldtm!".ancv f •• hcr Chu~..tl . •«ula,.,.!".arw;v K. C.a-.."dv, ""'Jlam >eertla".·..... ,III..m A ~lckru l , " ...,ml('fAlbrn T KlybrrK,d"«Wl

FEl LO WS OF THE SOCIETYCarl Bnoknb.ludtSydney V lamc'An""ncllc F Downml':R,cha rd K Sh"wm ..nG len n W l.af.am ....c

rURLI CATION S CO M .'1 ITT EEEdward I <'1''''lI:u, chairman[','d ra Budclod A . Co henNorman <, F,crmg

Ruhcn Allcn ".e,'''''ramd.. A KennedyWIlliam Mc Kenzlc W'K,dw..rd

<,T A FFAlben T Klyhetll:. cdu",Dcm... ' . Ba'l'en, 1C ,.,plll<"l edu mHllhard lI..tln, Wry fdu",c ..",l lluJ ,dl,' r, fJuullllJ a.'.'lI.am

Tht, Rhode 1, land H",um ·. 1S."'lt lV.""m,·"no "" I">n" btlllYlu, lh.,0rmlon' "j '''nmb""",

On and Off the Record:Town Clerks as Interpretersof Rhode Island HistoryRUTH WAlU<, IlER:--:DO!"

" A Giant of Embodied Conscience":Joseph M. Coldwell and the Socialist Partyin Rhode IslandrOSEPH W. SULLIVAN

Index to Volume SO

IUJ

I I?

lelO

• 1<l'92 b,' The RM.dc !<bnd H'.', ....... I !-o<",oc'v

RHOD E ISl....NO HISTORY II" '" OOH ' '''19 'IHIODE I~LA...n HlSTOIlY .. rubl,oIwd ,n .dwu"" \to, "'u.cu>l .nd ..., .",""" b, TM Rb.>do"~H, ..",,,.!'oo<~~ S«uDd-d__,.~••• ",,,I,, rn",,<Itno:. RIIndor 1.I.nd '-"><K'1' h<-t.. 'nnW<:tn ' ,. mcmhrnillphtnd" Lm."'u,,,,,,,,1 •..t-np<..... '" IlHt'JIl[ I\LA"!) H]\Ttllly.M .1>< """OC',. ""","•• 10ncwokt, f< '-ZoO)ann ....I!>- lodmdual «I,,, <una" >n4lt.ock n .. l.bl. ''''''' tb.<""'0<" tor s, 00 ..........lICnp.. and "'bt,con~t .......Jdb< '0 Ir,lben T K]'h<rc td." til< "'''''tn' f'I-,o,m••,., 'in><!.addrcu ,tun"n tu Rhodrldand H•••onu! <OO<",'v. IlO Iknn-nkn. \1 ..... ' I'r, hl.an4 0:_ ll'!

,f

'"""" 'or R!.!on/C 1,\'1:...:" "/). /(//.~ Jt }'f?1!I''II Iii.... !.;~ II- ·' t'y""I, J/""" '~

- The S1/~xe vI Rhode island, taken fmm MrBrmdlev's HU\Jw un tht' 251h vi AUKU,tl.J71H - Hand.cokeed enxra~'ITIJ: Plau fromGcmlemt:n'~ Md~Zmt· 4Y (1 7791. 10/RIHS Co/k(/wn IRlil Xl 17s.Ji

/I r,Ill/" t)I'kj;~fIt,;t.Jr.,

• r

RUTH WALLIS IIERNDON

Ruth Herndon I~;I lecturer In Americanhl~tory;ll Ihe Umvervuv oi Rhode leland

On and Off the Record:Town Clerks as Interpreters ofRhode Island History

JE' rom Abel Tanner'!'> pcrspccuvc, Hopkinton faced a drfficulr year in 171:\4 . AsHopkirnon's to wn clerk, Abel was an official chronicler of town government

affairs, and thus, like all recorder!' of town meeting and [Own council minutes. heserved as an interpreter of Rhode Island history and culture: by what he chose [0

record and by the way he recorded It , he conveyed hi!'> sense of the town's eco­

nomic, pohncal. and SOCial order and disorder. In 1784 disorder seemed [0 prevail.

The Revolutionary War had come to an end without physical damage toHopkinton, but the confhc r had left ItS mark 10 other ways. Before the war thefreemen had gathered m town mccune, Iivc or six times each year ; in 1784 theyconvened seventeen umcs. and economic woes appeared on the agenda almosteve ry time. Hard money was scarce; heavy town, state. and Continental taxesduring the war years had lett many Hopkmton residents financially devastated.Six men asked for and received complete cxcmpuon from ta.XI:S, and the three taxcollectors requested that the town excuse the "had rates " of another twenty-fourpeople whOM: assessments they had been unable to co llect. I

The town itself proc rastinated in paying its shan: of state taxes, As a result the

county sheriff jailed town treasurer loscph Th urston tw ice to force Hopkm nm to

pay up. ' Loo king for a way out of thei r problems, Hopk int on's freemen 10­

st ructed the tow n's deputies ro su pport a General Assembly act to issue papercu rrency. ' The act did not pas" that year, however, and Hopkint on's citizenscontinued to struggle with debt and delinquent taxes throughout the 17~Os.

Hopkinton 's six elec ted town councilmen experienced an equally di fficult year in1784, mee t ing sixteen times til discuss and reso lve pressin g social prchlems.Th ey warned forty tra ns ient furrulics til leave Hopkint on and to expect nosu ppo rt from th e fin.mciallv beleaguered townspeople. The town sergeant and hisconstables physically removed anot her nine fami lies from Hopkinton to othertowns wh ere the council decided they nghtfully belonged. Three ot her families,without land or opportunities, decided themselves that they might be better offelse whe re, and they applied to the Hop kin ton council tor certificates that wouldallow them to attempt scnlcrncm m another town .'

Edward Wells had been an overseer of the poor 10 Hopkinton since 1771; by 17S4his th irteen years 0 1 cxpcncncc qualified him a-, a veteran in hearing and resolv ­ing the problems of the povcnv-stnckcn . He had parucrpated in many decislon~

to remove transient families trom Hopkrmon to other towns, and his overseer',responsibiht ies included receiving into lu-, care any people scm hack from othertowns to Hopkint on. Thus It came ,l~ nu vurprtse to Edward when, in the autumnof that difficult year , the town sergeant trom neighboring Richmond broughtPhebe Perkins to his door ,

No one wanted Phebe Perkins. Pour, unmarned, and runeram . rwcmv-four-vear­old Phebe was about to deliver an illczrurnatc child, When Phebe's pregnancyhad become obvious and word ot u had reached the ears oi Richmond's council.

IO~ ON Al':D OFF THE RECORD

Cafchl"'nn\' engr<ll·lnK. orca 1760. PI' 8owle.~aI Carver, London RIH.\ ColleclIon rRHI XJ

6'"O,

men, they had ...ent her out 01 their town before thebahy was OOm.6 Since Phebe had been lrvmg In Rich­mond for some time, any child she delivered therewould have been that town's legal and tmancialresponsibility.-

Edward Wdb took Phebe in, found a place fur her 10

live, and saw to it that she had proper care durin): andafter her delivery. Noting the condition of her footwearwhen she arrived, he even arranged for her to rece iveanother pair of shoes."

Edward also immediately reported Phebe's presenceand condition to the town councilmen, who quicklyconvened " to consider wnh regard to an order for theremoval 01 one Phebe Perkins from Richmond to thistown."9 The council decided to appeal her removal bysuing Richmond In the county court. At rhcu nextmeeting the councilmen prepared for the lawsuu,appointing a committee "10 collect the circumstances

relating Ito] the order for removing Phebe Perkins fromRichmond to Hopkinton &. point out the reasons to

support the appealing therefrom. "In

One of the most obvious reasons for the appeal, In thatdifficult year of 1784 , was economic. The costs oj

caring for an impoverished woman and her newbornchild stretched the town's already thin finances .

Withm three months of her arrival. in payments authonzcd in January 17R5, Phebehad cost the town a considerable sum: Edward Well!> received 125. for providing

room and board for her and finding 3 place for her to hve, Cary Clarke received £7lOs. for boarding, nursing. and "assist ing" her " in her lone sickness"; Dr. RossCoon received ,k for bleeding her and giving her "strong drops"; Joseph Witter,lr. , received 5 1/1~. for prnvidmg her with shoes. ' ! In all of 17R4 Hopkinton hadspent slightly over .£21 on care of the poor. ll In one council meeting alone, in1785, the town had Spent £81-'l_ well over one-third of the previous year's total-con

the care of nne woman and her infant child.

By the time the town council met un 19 January 17HS, pht,k was well enough toundergo examination but apparently not able to travel very far, since the council­men carne to her.11 The council opened Its session at Abel Tanner's bouse thatday , hut aner most of ItS hu ...mess was completed, It adioumed and reconvened atSamuel Witter's house. where Phebe was staving." The councilmen asked her

questions about her past-e-questions aimed at discovering hich Rhode Islandtow n had prrrnarv responsibility ior her .....elfare. Her story as that 01 a womanon the edge oi poverty, moving with the seasons, counting time in harvests,

somehow surviving outside the trnduional network 01 family relationships. Theclerk recorded Phebe's story as follows:"

[Phctclon n.nh saith rhar she wa-, hom at Newport, rhnr she was bound anapprentice 10 Abraham Burden then of wcsrcrtv who earned her to StephenPerry's in Charlestown where she hvcd till said PeTT)' moved to Hopkinton, &.

wen! to Hopkuuon wnh said Perry where she hved till she W.lS oi age. whrch wasthe 25th dav oi AU,l{USI 1771'l; thaI chc knows oi no comrace between ,..aid Burden&. sard Pcrrv concermng her hvmg WIth "dId PeTT)'; Ihat she saw her Indentures at

10'> ON AND OFF THE RE CORD

Perry's but ,joth nut know how he came by the:m, that she JIJ not know whetherPerryclaime-da nghr to her nme or not; thaI In abmn three week...ancr her trrncwas out she went 10 one Avcnes 10 Conne-cncur 10 work .....here vhe staved threewe...ks &. rhcn returned III said Perry's &. ..raved there lill the begmnm~ (l j rhcwinter Iollowmg &. then !Ohe went 10 Bcruamm Wilhur'.. In Richmond, where ..helived till the spring followlllKwhen people beganto pick "reen.. for sauce; t1'1<l!then she went to Thos. Sweet's In Hopkinton, where she worked two weeks;then ..he wen! to Ttrruuhv Larkin's &. worked one week &. rhcn returned ro ..ardSweet's &. lived there till strawberries began to be ripe &. then she .....em to

LebcusSweel'" e, lived there till the iirsl oi Augu..t following c-: then returned 10

said Perry's s, slayed there one year &. then .....ent to Amo.. Collins's 10

Sromngrown & lived there ull the next ..pung &. then went 10 S""'l-'CI Peckham '..10 Westerl)' &. there lived utl rbe next fall &. then went 10 Charlestown & hvedat dJileTt'nl places 10 s,ltd Town near 2 year.. &. then removed 10 Ed.....ard Perkin..Esqr.m Richmond where she continued more than 2 ye,)rs,l.

in th e six years since she ha d come "01a~...-;" Phebe had moved tw elve ti mes. Herconnec tion to Ste phen Perry th rough indent ure papers proba bly gave Richmond'scouncil an excuse 10 ret urn Phebe to Hopkinton, but her continuous wanderingssince she turned eighteen made it diHicult for an yon e to determine where legalresponsibility for her welfare now lay.

Stephen Perry , for whom Phebe worked during and afte r her indenture term. IS anelusive character in Phebe's ..tory . His name appears on Hopkinton 's tax bstsrmerm m en rlv from 1777 through 1779 and from 178Hto 1789. Land cvid ....nee

records show no sale of property by Stephen, hu t he apparently moved OUt ofHopkinton , since his name disappears from the ta x lis ts b.... tween 17HOand 1788,

A wealthy man , Stephen paid three to four times more than the ave rage ta xpayerin eve ry assessm ent on which his name appears." But despite his wealt h there isno evidence that Stephen ever took part in the political life of Hopkinton . Theto...."T1 clerk never entered him on record as a freeman, nor docs his name appearon any voter lists made when he was a res rdem of the town. A survey of the townminutes shows tha t he never served the to...."T1 In any public capacity , even as a minorofficial, such a.... surveyor of fences. He did not have a permanent. settled comrruuncntto Hopkinton, and he was absent when Richmond se nt Phebe back. T he town

council could not look to him to take any rcsponstbilit v for lns former servant .

The history rela ted in Phebe's ora l test imony m ust have st rcruu bencd theHopkinton councilmen's reso lve to appeal he r removal, and they voted that veryday to carry on the case " to fma l judgment ." O ne mont h lat er the freemenofficially appointed Abel Tanner "agent lor this town " in Phebe's ca ..c and thenordered Ross Coon, the tax collector, to provide Abel with money to carryon thetown's appeal ." A few months later the freemen elected Thomas Well.. to

prosecute the case after Abel declined to do !M1 . 1 ~

The Hopkint on counci l planned to brin g the case to the COUrt uf Ge neral Scs.sions of the Peace for Washington Count y in August I 78:i.w The record s of thatcourt no longer exist, but Hopkinton 's to wn mee t ing an d cou ncil minu tes hintthat the town won its appeal. After June 1785 Phebe appears in Hopkinton'srecords only once: in September 1786 Zebulon Weaver received twelve shillings

for " keepi ng" Phebe and her child for eleven days and for auendmg council onhe r behalf ." The small amount and the short time Involved suggest that this wasan obligat ion remaming from Phebe's fus t few months In Hopkinton. Apart fromthis one referen ce. neither Phebe nor he r child eve r appears again. Ii the COUntycourt had ordered Hop kinton to lake legal rcsponsibihty lor the illegnirnarc child,the town records would cont ain me ntion of an inden ture for the ch ild- till'

\ 0 6 ON A N D OFF TilE RECORD

standard way town councils coped with the expense of raising fathe rless children .In all likeli hood , Phebe and he r child WeTC; removed to Richmond, there to hvc alife of servitude among "the poor of the town ."

Phebe Perkins's expenence illustrates the grtm life of ma ny powerless peopleliving on the ma rgms of society in eightccmh-ccmurv Rhode Island. But I havepresented he r sUlry for another reason: to make a pomt about the docu ments thatcon tain her history.

Phebe's personal resurnonv about her wandenng life came to light onJy when thepresent -day Hopkint on town cle rk discovered in the aruc of the town hall a cacheof documents dating from the eight eent h cent ury." T his remarkable find, inApril 199 1, included some miscellan eous papers collected by th e town clerks ofth e late 170(ls. Among the papers appeared the rough draft of the official tow ncounc il m inutes of 19 January 1785, when Phebe Perkins told her story.

Abel Tanner had ta ken minutes of th e meeting nn scrap paper. Later he editedthese minutes an d entered them in the leather-hound volume of town councilrecords whi ch he usually kept in his hom e, as did all town cle rks of th at day.Thi s volume's safekeeping was ent rus ted to on e tow n cler k after another unt il1861, when it and all other town document s were lodged permanently in rhcnewly bu ilt town hell." Thus carefu lly preserved, the records seemed an indrsput .able aut hority on town business of the past . But the discovery of the rough-draftminutes allowed a comparison between the first and final versions , a compansonwhich showed thai the cle rk had omitted certain items from the official record."Abel Tanner had reshaped the his torical record of the town.

The business of that January council meeung ranged over typical administrativeconcerns oi an erghicemh-cenrurv Rhod e Island town: carl' of the poor, policingof transient s, probat e of an esta te , an d rcrmbursemem of citizens who hadperformed serv ices for the town. This last business occupied th e greatest amountof time . Th om as Well s, Samuel Maxson , William Witt er, and Daniel Button allappli ed to the council lor reimbursement . Th om as Well s received a little over15s. for umber he had provided to repair a bridge. Samuel Maxson received nearl y£ 10 for "s upporting" Peleg Burdick for th e previous ten months and another 1.3for providing clothing for I'eleg. one of the POOT of th e lawn. William Witterreceived about 58. 10 cuve r eigh t days of room and hoard for Sam uel Button , anothertown charge. Daniel Button also asked for an unspecified amount for seven davs 'care of Ma ry Marshcl, a tran sient woman; hu t the counctrdcmcd this request .

Oth er men came to the council meenng tha t day with different needs. ElishaLarkin and Joshua C hurch wished to move ou t of Hopkinton and scn le else­where : Elisha in Char lestown and Joshua in Richmond. Neither of the~ me nowned enough real estate to qualify as a voting freem an, a status that would haveeased a move to another community within the sla te. Because of their landlessstatus, Elisha and loshua needed departure ccmncates from the Hopkinton TownCouncilm order to move to another town . These certificates, which the menwould present to the town cou ncils of Charlestown and Richmon d, vouched thatthe bea rers and their families were legal, settled mbabnanrs of Hopki nt on. andthat Hopkinton would receive them back again and lake responsibtlnv for themif th ey could not care for themselves.

T he council granted a certificate to Joshua Ch urch that same day. Th e certificatecovered Joshua and his " natural family under age," suggesn ng tha t Joshua hadboth adult children from an earlier marriage and stepch ildren from his presentmarriage. Unlike loshua. Elisha Larkin had to wait for his passport. He received it

107 O N A N D O FF TH E RECORD

seven weeks and three meenngs later, when the council granted a ccrnficarecoveri ng him, hrs "natural family ," and M.argaret Larkm . the orphaned daughterof a kinsman, who apparently completed Elisha's household."

There were three other pieces of bus iness . Ioseph Marshal. a newco mer to

Hopkinton , had failed to bring a ccmhcare for himself and his family to the tow ncounci l, and thc cou ncilmen ordered him to appear at their next meet ing " inorder to give an accou nt of his liN legal place of residence or procure a cert ifi­cate. " Stephen Potter presented papers to be included in the administ ration of theestate of Cesar Wells, who had died a few years earlier. And in th e last item onthe agenda , the council examined Phebe in preparation for an appeal to thecou nty COUrt .

All these matt ers appear in the rough-draft notes, but not ,III survived the cle rk'sedi t ing to be preserved In the offiCIal record . Although the cle rk recorded Phebe'sperso nal testimony in his notes, he orrnncd it altogether from the official rrun­utes. By answering the questions put to her hy the councilmen, Phebe lett arecord of her life, bu t Abel Tanner did not include that record when he redraftedhis minu tes; he recorded only wha t the cou nc ilmen decided abou t Phebe, and notwhat Phebe said about herself . By this omission he very near ly silenced a voicefrom among th e obscure ma sses in Rhode Island's past-e-the kind of voice wenow st rain to hear .

Abel followed commo n practice among town clerks of his day w hen he drattednotes during tha t lanuary mcenng and recorded the final version late r. In thetown meeting and town cou ncil records uf all towns, rrunu tcs some t imes appea rout of chronological order, indicatmg that the cle rks recorded their notes some­t ime afte r the meeting. In one case the South Kingstown town cle rk let his notesaccumulate because the town could not afford a new record book; eventually thefreemen voted " that the clerk make a mmute book of one qu ire paper &. recordthe minutes of the to.....n meet ings which are not recorded." Uneasy about this laxrecord keepi ng, the freemen also voted that the "[record] book be ior the futurebrought to the town meetings."M

In other cases th e elected clerk might be unable to atte nd a meet ing, and a cle rkpro tern (usually one of th e councilmen] would take minutes in hi s place, Laterth e elected clerk would enter th ese minutes in the officia l record . Sout h Kin gs­

town town cle rk William Pott er once had to guess who had taken minut es in hisabsence: " I don't find any clerk entered," he wrote at the end of the official recordof a council meeting, "but [the minutes] being sent to me irom leffry Watso nEsqr. &. the minutes entered in his handwn nng, I have ventured to enter thesame on record ."1'

Abel's omission of Phebe 's personal testimony, however, did not representcommon pracucc. In mos t other Rhude Island towns, the cle rks recorded asum ma ry of the transient s' examina tions that frequently occ upied the to.....ncouncils. Some cle rks included verbaum transcrip t ions of the questions put bycounc ilmen and th e an swers given hy the persons under examination, butHopkin ton's records cor uatn no such verbatim accounts. Up through IHOO,Hopkinton's clerk s recorded only two examination summaries in the officialrecord, and both arc in th e third person-the cle rk's paraphr ase of the t ransientperson's story .~ Th e discovery that Phebe Perkins's examinat ion existed m therough dran but not in the final version suggests that other exam inations mayhave disappeared also. Hopkinton quest ioned many transrcm s, a necessaryfeature of the legal process of remov ing unwanted people from the town. and well

10" ON AND O FF THE RECORD

over a hu ndred families were removed between 1757 and IHOO.N ButHopkinton's town clerks saw no reason to include the details of these manyexaminations in the omcial record

..':,,~•..-a-'. The deletion of Pheoc 's examination consntutcd the most substantial piece otediting, but a careful study of the two versions of the minutes shows that Abclmade other changes as well . One concerned the matter of race. In the rough -draftminutes , the cle rk wrote: "Stephen Potter's 2 papers to be recorded as cred itagainst the inventory of Cesar Wells, late deceased." In the official version, theentry reads : "Stephen Porter's 2 receipts ordered to be recorded." Cesar Wells 'sname had been dropped from the record ; and Cesar Well s was black.

James Wells, lr., the patriarch oi a large family an d one of rhc wealthiest land ­owners in Hopkint on, owned several slaves, Cesa r among them." But Cesa r wonhis freedom hy en listing in the Conti nental arm y during the Revolut ionary War."In Februa ry 1778 Rhode Island 's General Assembl y passed a law proclai ming"that every able-bodied negro, mu latto, or Indian man slave, in this state, mayenlist " in the Continental army. Upon passing muster before Co lonel Christo­pher Greene, who would lead this "Black Regiment," every enlisted slave would"be im media tely discharged from the service of his master or mistress, and beabsolutely FREE, as though he had neve r been encumbered with any kind ofservitude or slavery ."'l Cesar Wells responded qu ickly to thrs opporturutv. Heenlisted during the first week oi March 177K, and the state valued him at onehundred pounds In order to reimburse his owner for the loss of his labor.II

Cesar served in Rhode Island 's Black Regiment lor nearly four years . About twohundred blacks were drawn 1010 this unit over the course of the war. ... These menparticipated in the Rattle of Rhode Island in AURUst 1778, and they saw comhol t III

several other locanons during the war." In 17K I they were involved in a cam,paign that took them to w ilmington and Philadelphia. Although the war substan­t ially ended With the Briush surrender at York town on 19 October 17l:l1 , theBlack Regiment (now under Colonel Jeremiah Olney) lost 10f, me n between 17Octobe r 178I and If< March 1782, Cesar was one of these, he died on I I lan uarv1782 in th e Philadelphia barrack s. Th e cause of his dea th is not given, hut hisname is listed with those"who have been killed in Action ur Died in Hospital." '" Hehad remained a private the entire time and had drawn private 's pay (two poundsper mo nth for mos t of the war ) for his services," with the military providi ng hisfood, weapons, clot hing, and knapsack."

Cesar left an estate of clot hing and money when he died . T he conf usion in thewake of the war and the occurrence (If his death 10 anot her sta te slowedHopkinton's adrmrustranon 01this estate, and it was not until September 17K..\­nea rly twenty months later-that the town council finally named an admuusr ra­tor. Cesar had left behind a widow, Abigail. whom he had married in 1775, w hilehe was still a slave ." But Abigail , probably also black,"1 was nut offered theadministration of her husband's est ate , a.. would have been the ca..e if ..he werewhite. Instead, the councilmen appointed Stephen Putter, a white man , to settleCesar's estate."

Tax record... Indicate that Stephen owned only a rmddlmg amount oi land." buthe came from .1 politically prom inent family . Hi" father. Th omas, had beenHopki nton 's first town t reasurer, serving the new town lor nine years . In 17H7Stephen's you nger brothe r Calch would tak e Abel Tan ner 's place as town clerkand keep Hopkinton 's records for thirty-nne years." Although Step hen neve r held

-------------------------~

109 ON AND Off THE. RE.CORD

Catchpenny engraving. 'irea 1760. by Bowle5oJ Carver. London. RIHS Collection (Rill X3M IW.

a maier town office , he, .....ork as admin istrator oi Cesar's estate qualified as yetanother public service conm buuon from this crvrc-mmdcd family .

As adrrurusrrator, Stephen traveled to Providence and East Creen..... ich to obramcertificates verifying Cesar's military service and death . He also arranged lor aninventory of Cesar's possessions, which included a few articles of clothing, aknapsack, some "old linen," a chest, and a treasurer 's note worth .£18 [probablyhis savings from four years in the anny). The total value of Cesar's estate was.£30 71I1-s." (In 11)90 money this is equivalent to a litt le over SI,300.) The tworeceipts that Stephen presented during the council meeting on Iclanuary 1785diminished the estate's value by £4 180.\.1: Stephen had given 475. to Abigail , andthe other 3.l~ . had gone to reimburse Stephen for his travel and expenses onbehalf of the estate.' ;

Abigail Wells eventually received th e remainder of her husband's estate, but onlybecause the town meeting imcrvened to set aside the custom that towns had lustclaim to any property Negroes may have accumulated in their lifetime. InDecember 1785 the freemen Voted to give up their " right" to Cesar's estate In

favor of " the sard widow Abigail and her heirs &. assigns forever.'?" On 1 January1786 Abigail put her X on a receipt. venfvtng that Stephen Potter had given her£26, " it betng the remainder part of the estate oi my husband Cesar wen. ""The probate records n-ll the story of Cesar Wells's estate, and Abel did no penna­ncnr damage when he edited out Cesar's name in the council meeting records.But it was not the usual practice to abbreviate entries in this manner. Theoverwhelmmg matcntv of probate entries in the Hopkinton records cite hoth theadministrator and the deceased; when only one person's name appears, it is thedeceased's-c-thc one whose estate is in probate. The clerk's brevity 10 Ce3.1rWells's case sugges ts racial inscnsibilnies. A black man, although free, had nolegal status, and the town, by custom, had first claim to his estate. In Abel 'smind, perhaps, Cesar's property had become "public" property, and so Abel struckfrom the record the unnecessary informauon that the estate had belonged to Cesar.

Another omission from the final version of the council minutes concerned therequest of a poor white man. of the lour men who applied to the town council forreimbursement at that meeting, only three received payment: Thomas Wells,Samuel Maxson, and William Witter. The council refused Daniel Button'srequest for reimbursement, and Abel Tanner omitted Daniel entirely from thefinal version .

The rough-draft notes read: "Voted that Daniel Button hav e an order 10 thetreasury for £ [amount not filled in ] it being for what he did in suppornng MaryMarshel a transient person 7 days-c-Order given." Afterwards the clerk drewseveral lines through "Order given " to mdrcare that thc order had been rescinded.Then he drew a large X through thc entire entry. There is no hint In the oiflcl.11record that Darnel had ever applied for reimbursement , and so he too disappearedfrom that record.

Thomas Wells, Samuel Maxson, and William Witter could afford to support thepoor until the town paid them hack. These three men, who received repaymentthat day, possessed more than ave rage wealth. In the March 17R(i town tax , theaverage assessment was 14' 2S ., but William wtner paid Jn~ . , Thomas Wells OOs.,and Samuel Maxson 70s ." Daniel, on thc orher hand, had little to spend lor thesupport of others. HI.' was so poor that his name did not appear on any tax listfrom 1782 on . He had owned some property at one time, but It was a meageramount : in Ianuary 17XO he paid -rs. tax when the average was over :;.1~.·~Viewed

1 10 ON AND OFF THE B-E CORD

.",.....~

lndennue ~fwtenM arla " ('Ikner. IJxedrwe/l'e. and Laurence 5lCkd. d gentleman 0/Phlladelphsa. 15 OcWNt 18/0 RfHSCollecTlOll (RHI X3 68851

economically, Daniel 's need for payment exceeded that of the other three appli ­cants, and it is curious that the council singled him out for refusal.

The clerk did not state why th e councilmen had changed their minds about reim ­bursing Daniel, hut other records testify that Daniel's claim was valid. Twentymonths later, in September 1786, Daniel applied for and received a departurecertificate for himself and hi... wife "to remove to any town within the United Statesof America. " At the sam e time, the council reimbursed Daniel three shillings "forservice or support in the affair of Mary Marshcl. "~ Mary Marshel had been re­moved from Hopkinton to South Kingstown in December 178-1; in February 1785the council reimbursed Phinehas Edwards, Hopkinton's town sergeant, for thecosts of removing her." But Daniel. who had supported her for seven days beforeher removal, waited nearly two years for payment from the town.

Between the rough draft and the final version of the minutes of that Januarycouncil seSSIOn, Daniel Burton and Cesar Wells were deleted from the record andPhebe Perkins was reduced to no more than an abstract presence. Fortunately, thediscovery of the rough draft and a search through other town and Slate recordshave permitted the reconstruction of their stories . These are stories that wouldhave sounded familiar to most town councilmen of their time. Within RhodeIsland's borders Circulated a population of marginal people-blacks, indians,impoverished whites, transients, and the children of all of these. Their stories ofcontinuous migration and perpetual poverty expose the grim underside ofpreindustrial New England .

The edinng revealed by this comparison between the rough and final drafts of thecouncil minutes cautions us that offiCIal town records arc not the "original"historical documents that we may take them to be. They are in fact the product ofjudicious editing by the town clerks, who made decisions about what belonged andwhat did not belong in the permanent record. Other clerks may not have editedtheir rough-draft notes so dramatically as Abel Tanner did, but all town clerksacted as gatekeepers, allowing some material into the record and shutting othermaterial out. In doing so, they determined what would become the official histon .cal documents for the ir time. We do not have access to all the information thatthey had because of the choices that they made .

Abel Tanner, who made the choices we arc loo king at here, had been a pillar ofHopkinton's political life for sixteen years. In 17(,9, when Abel was twenty-eightyears old, the freemen had elected him as the second of two deputies to theGeneral Assembly, the first of many important public offices he would hold for thetown." By 1785, when he took the minutes of the council meeting discussedabove, he had served as first deputy, town councilman, overseer of the poor , taxassessor, and auditor, and he had been town clerk for eleven years." The freemenfrequently elected him to various commutccs tasked with drawing up petitions.making recommendations to the town meeting. or resolving town difficulties.Abel had won the confidence of his colleagues in the General Assembly as well :they elected him Judge for the COUnty court system several times in the 1780s, andeven Hopkinton residents occasionally referred to him as "Judge Tanner.">'

Abel Tanner had both the experience and the mature nrdgmem to deal competent lywith Phebe Perkins's transience, Cesar Wells's estate, and Dame! Button 's requestfor payment . No evidence suggests that Abel bore any particular malice againstwomen, blacks, or poor white men. Why, then, did he delete so much of the!>Cpeople's stories from the official record whil e leaving the stories of others Intact ,

IliON AND OFF THE. RE.CORD

J. r "". p, .

. • • v~ ~t.t:~6 ~~:~ (~(~

.;fa'~(~~ '11;~1t tllfJifl\ \ fj~ ~ c

iI.t.J ir. .m 1. ~l /..(,-9",. }{·,A"", :~q,,;;~''//':~~~" J( ~/fj/);5t;'~~ ~:~t /;(, '", "7.('~•. (, ..t!/7c. ///../hth" -e-: . .~ 7t .J,; .. /. J't..,'t :.r~..... -

...._<t".c" •• , ... " .,

I L\ Til pu~ anJ by thefe Presents, h. .'H , .. 100 TUt ~, ,£., ... t

4-f~ .-f.lfu( nOTlI f",lunurily, anJofh, <llln

fret ,\ ill and Accor.!, 1'111 ..- - or\l'pr~"lItic" I.., ...:.." ~ • .: <: ,,/": ,,(, /'

i"~ &/.. 7' Y/'./._///<A'.~ f.··h .to l~m~tl. Trade, :lIlJ ~Ir tcry, alld VIer the manner of an Appretlli.cctor.nt./'-,I' tt<c .... ~,< ./:ek/ J-- ~'('" :/'"...fro I '" On' of Ihe Dare hero:rf. ror anll tid' :mJ 10 the fuJI end and TCTr.l

til' " ·0""- i <-yro< ///"".. (nUl cnfuing. D urin... all which Term, rhe [aid Al'l'fCnlkc hdf{aid r.hl1cr

failhfully rh.JI [ern, hi. &<CW keel'. Ii, I... wful Ccmrn ..lld. UU}' "here rca,lily

Qbt::y.Jllc fh~ lI d" no damage 10 h""'faid :o.bllcf, nor f~" it tu be .tOile by

oil <T', wirheur krtitltl I r ~hi:,~ notice tit reof to h&froiJ l'Ililnu . .nl~ fl",ll

net wafle hl:tf~i ·J Mafter'. Gootll nor lend them Ini,'''lully to illl)·. jllt rlo;>lIn, r commit Fcmication, nur conluc1 l\buimony within the rilhl lelm.Jllt

11,~11 nut play ..I ClI.t., Diet', Dr illlY ether unl;>",tul <.Jame, \l;hCTeby b.... fili,J

1\1..:1,., lnal have dama e. Wuh ~~o\JIn Good•• nor the Good, of otheu,lIIithout Ikeller fr :n I"If,f id ~b!lcJbe lhilll neither buy nor fen.Jlle lh..lI

~ , all' ~I l ""-df D.., nc r N. III from h.laid Maller'. Service, 'll"irlloul hi.

Leave : ~ot haunl .... le houf , Taverns , 0' J·lay.boufca ; bUI in all thingo,

behave 1,r5Il:lf as il lail~!ul .... ppm>tkc oughl 10 do. during the faid Term.

Ami Ihe bid ~bfleT Ihall ure d'e ulmoR 01 bll lmlr:aro"T-I 10 ,r:a<h o' nuU'

[0 Ill; \.i;ughl or i.nftru.=tcd the f<lld pprelltice in the T rade ell ~hJ1ay of

$' t~,J'r/ J-- /*/ _ .< / ·'V - an.! ploc:uteand provide I<JT hM fuflicit-nt 'k~ t. Drin k , f:!'!/A'~: _y -- LoojOinli and ....:aP.,ing, fining for an ApN emk e. <lurioS the

f..hl Term ~f Z;;,~J' "'''''.~ ~po ~ c ,n 1'....., /fir" ..;.:. ,//~.1 z: e r- ~ J . d: ,.t';.. "" .........,,/7 u • • 7."","-: ....~,...., -4~ r"r.- r--r..4 ,./7' ''''',/,... .. .'-v": /~. ~: ., ~ . ~ ~~ •.. c

(/r;. ·rz,c ;¢..5~:'< :4';.. /. .,,'-'"..r':•• ..., 7"(£/4­".c7 ,.:» ,."r,,, .4"JA-,/ ~ ../ ~ .. , ~f~7"/'" ,d'... 4~(

,. //4.~;>

AXD lor the true Ptrwnr.a."let of ail and lingular tne Ccvenam and ....~emelll' aforetaid, Ih" f~iJ Paniel biad lJ.emfeJ'e& each unto Ihe tber , finnly

L, tbe I: I'refenu, IN \\'IT~r_ S whe.eof. the f~;d P.. Lie; hne inlerclun!:_

;ably fCl lil;,r IImq,: and Sa" hereu'll". Ilal J Ihe /j'k".. >7 /"n~y 01 ... /.1/.~ t ,\nnDqlle Domini, one Ih{>uf":ld . .,"Sht hundred ~ntl../'-

-r £.(,..v."" ~ .~..'" .. ., /.

(-.

•

112 ON Ai'D OFF T HE RE CORD

Perhaps the answer lies in a combmauon of the difficult ies of 1784 and thepolitical context in which Abel made his choices. In 1784 the town council hadmel sixteen tim es, and in 1785 it would meet twent y-two t imes, taxing th e timeami ene rgy of both council and cle rk. Needy Hopki nton residents Were drainingthe town's already low resources, even as numerous tran sient fami lies appeared intown and threatened 10 make demands on the budget . By January 1785 Abel hadserved for five years as a Justice m the County cou rt in addition 10 carrying out hisduties as town and cou ncil clerk, and he may have been weary of the persis tentsocial proble ms that took up so much of his and the cou ncil 's t ime. Whcn facedwit h th ree more people m need, he apparently viewed them more as problems to

he solved th an as people to be hea rd.

Ahd and the council did in fact "solve' the problems these people presented.They resolved to take Phebe Perkins 's case to cou rt . they recorded the receiptsrelat ing to Cesar Wells 's estate, and they refused Darnel Button's request formo ney. Abel rhen recorded the soluuons. not the problems. The solutionsrepresented the accomplish ments of the council, and Abel, as cle rk, recordedwha t reflected th e cou nci l's effectiveness. Th e message he sent via his mmutcsconcerned not the stories of individual probl em people but the stories of effect ivecouncilmen and decisio n makers. In this contex t. detail s about Phebe, Cesar, andDaniel were irrelevant; these details were pan of the problem, not the solution.The iron y for us is that in faithfully recording the solutions of the council, Abelsilenced the voices of the people on whose behalf the council met.

Even though town cle rks reco rded data from the town meeting and town cou ncilsess ions selectively, they sti llleft behind record.. tha t contain a wealth of infor­mation about the poli t ical , social, and eco nom ic condit ions in which peoplelived-including socia lly marginal people like Phebe Perkins, Cesar Wells, andDar nel Butt on. Despite their lim ita tions, the town cle rks ' records allow us to secfurther into the lives of voiceless people than any other eigh teenth-centurydocuments, Diaries, newspaper aruclcs. letters, and even autobiographies tell usof the lives of the educated. wealt hy elite. To hear the voices of the poor fanner ,the wande ring servant , and the black soldier, Wt.' mu st comb the records of theclerks, whose business brought th em regularly into contact wit h the mostdisadvantaged people of th eir day.

T he clerks themselves were among the elite , fonnmg a cadre of wealthy, lite rate,civic-minded white men around whom town bus iness revolved. of.111 electedtown leade rs. town clerks stayed in office the longest , with an average tenure offourteen year s. As a group, town clerks were th ree times wealt hier than theaverage taxpayer in their towns , and their record s reveal a level of literacy thatsurpassed that of the vast majorit y of their fellow townsmen "

Town clerks were in a unique positi on to com mu nicate thei r sense 0/ social orderth rough the records they maintained. Abel Ta nner's decision 10 omi t PhebePerkins's tes timony tel ls us something abo ut Abel 's sense of order 10 17M:;, afterhe had spent eleven years listening to, recording, and helping resolve the problemsof the poores t members of society. HIS edi ting suggests that we can read townmeeting and town council mi nutes not JUSt as chronicles of political. econom ic,an d social events hut also as diaries written hy the cle rks. When we read theirrecords, we sec th e world from th eir perspect ive.

That perspective could and did change. When Ahel Ta nner first took office astown clerk 10 rune 1774, he appended titles to the names of all other electedofficers: "Capt. Edward Wells," " Joseph witter, lr., Esqr.," "Mr. fessc xtaxson."

113 ON A ND Off T HE RE CORD

Even such minor officials as surveyors of highways and fence viewer!'> wererecorded as "Mr." and "Capt." and "Esqr. " in the new clerk 's official mi nutes. Inma rked cont rast , Abel recorded hi s own name as town clerk without any n rle atall.56 This unilateral deference did not last long. By the next year Abel hadbecome comfo rtable enough with his peers and sufficiently sensitized to thedistinctions of office to confine hrs U5e of titles to holden. of the most importantoftices.v Similarly, he took few lihcnies in hrs recording at first : his handwrmngis ini tially neat , careful. and conf ined. But within a year or two his wnnng grewlarger and he began to sign his name to the minutes with great curlicues andflourishes that could take up half a page." Through his official record keeping.Abel communicated his growing ease in his new position iust as surely as if hehad kept a journal.

The town records of Rhode Island tell us a good deal about people otherwiserendered nearly invisible to history by poverty and powerlessness. Yet it shouldbe remembered too that to a great extent these documents were shaped by thethinking of the men who wrote them. men who made choices in their recordkeeping that reflected their own perception of the social , economic, and politicalorder in which they lived. The town clerks have thus provided us not withunbiased chron icles of their towns but with cdned interpretat ions of their times.

114 ON AND OFF T HE RE CORD

NOle~

Each yeu the town clerk recorded 10 thetown mecnng rmnurcs the names of allpersons declared exempt irom taxes orwhose taxes were wntten oil as "badrat es " In 171'4 the freem en granted th eseexempllons and wme-ons 10 a number oiseparate town m«ungs between 5 Ianand 7 Dec . Hopkmton Town MeelingRecords, I :np. These 30 men representednearly II percent of the .\ &0 taJI.J\ilyershsred In the lotale I.1X as.....ssmem 01 16o..'C. 171'-"

2. To...n mt:t:l1nl:~ oj II~n ~nd!l Nov 17l'44.HopklnlOn To...n Meeun,i: Records , I :np

3. To...n meeung "i 21 Apr 17S4.Hcpkmton To...n Meelln,i: Records, I :np

4. The town counci l mmutes record alldeciSIons to either "warn out ~ or removetr~nslC:m people .1T\d to y~nt departureceruncares 10 poor senled farmhes who...anted 10 move else ....here In 17!l4 thesedeCISIOns occurred 10 \'UIOUS councilmeenegs lrom 26 Ian . 10 15 Dec .HOf'kIOWn Town Council Records, vol 2.

:;, Town councrl meeung of 9 Oc t 17M,Hopkinton Town CounCil Records. 2:144

6. Hop km ton's town council rrunutes of 3tan. 17115 refer IU Phebe's " IYlOg 10, " andthe council rmnutes of 8 Sept . 1711n refer10 " Phebe Perkins l';. child.' Hcp km tonTown Council Record.~,1:214. 2:259.Richmond's to wn council record" from11'!l,' th rough I!leX) arc mlsMng, and so we..In nnl know RIChmond's views onPhebe's rcmovalm Hopkmton

7, See "An Act. direcung .... hat shall!'oe ale"al Setlkment; dnd for thl' Removal ofp<lor I'l'rsons, dnd the Me thod of bmdml;out poor Chlldtl'n, " Act ,~ and L<lw~ 01The Enxh,h C%m' of RllOdl: ·I,~/onJ andjJwvrdenl'e l'/oOlao,m, In New.Eng/mld.In Aml'flfli (N.:wptl rt. S,lmuc! Hall ,17n71, 22"·.\1 . Town retor,h comaLOnum~rou" el(dmple~ oj Clluntib dULO':4UICkiv to r<:move pre"nant womcn IUothn IUwn~ tor Ihl~ "cry rea .-.o n

il . Tnwn counCIl m.:.:lLn" til 31an 171t'>,Hnpklnllln Town CounCil R~·cOTlh, 2:213·

"9, To ...n co unCil mttUng uf 9 Ocl 17.'44,

H"pklntnn Town Coun <: ll R«ord~ . 2:144

10, Town cou nCil mecun,i: 01.\ t"O\' 17ltJ ,HOf'klnlUn Town Cuuncil Record~ . 214n.

II . Town counCil mcetlnR of 3 Ian 178:;,HopklOton Town CounCil Record~, 2:213-

"]2, This I~ the Ullal 01 all expcndn ures 10

~urpon 0/ Ihe p' . ,r Ihat ....ere authOrized

during town council !o<;~slon~and townmcenngs m 17114,

13. Rough draft 01mmures lo r town councilmeeung 0/ 19 Ian . 1711'>, ICIO!oe p.apen,Hopkmron town cle rk 's oftree.

14. The minutes 01 the town couacrl meetlO,i:of 3 ,\.Ur. 1785 mdrcare rhar SamuelWiller had cared for Phebe In hiS homefrom 6 1.1T\. to 17 feb 178'>, HopkmtonTown Cocncrl Reco rds, 2:2Iii .

15. For reasons 0/ damy, I have brought thespelhng and capnehzanun In quolauon~

from town records Into conformity wuhtwenrreth-centurv srandards. aOl11 haveadded commas, periods, and apostrophes...hen the Ien~h or complexnv ofsentences seemed to warrane suchm terference.

16. Rough drafr 01 rrnmaes for town councilmeetmg 01 19 Ian. 1711.5, loose papers.Hopkinton town clerk 's office

17. He paid 47s. lthe mean was 14' 1~.! In IheHop kin ton lO...n tn assessed IJ Oct.1777; nearly £..ID trnean. £8 ' 1) In the stau:tax assessed 6 Apr . 1779; Inl'~ . [mean,45.~-I in the ~tate tax aurhonzed bv thetown rncettng on 7 AUl;, 171111; lOJ~.(mean, 5~.l in the tow n laX of September17118; and Ilro. [mean, 32s .11O the statetax avsessed a Apr, 171019. All In recordsarc at the Hopkin ton town clerk 's utncc.

III, Town meenng et IJ Feb. 178" , Hop kin tonTown ~kelLng Records, I:n p

19 Town mectmg of 7 lunc 1785, HnpkmronTown Meen ng Recurds, I:np,

20, Ibid,

21. To wn council meetLOI;uf It &I't . 17!l6,Hopkint un Towll CounCi l Record~. 2:259 .

22. We,~lCrJy Sun. 7 Apr, 1991; I'mv/(!cnrclouma]. II Apr, 199 1.

1.3. HopkInton Blcemcnmal COmmLUCC, 7'he}fi.~!Or.v of Ihe Town of HopkmtrJn . Rhooehland, I 757-/976 IWestcrly: Uner Co "1976l,131·.\1,

101, The Original clerk 's minutes lut theHopkinton town counCil sessIOn til 19 1~n

1711'> la lou r·page document! ate containedina collecuon of loose papers In thl:Hop klOlon IOwn clerk 's olhce. TheoffiCial record oj the S<tme ffieelLng I~ In

HopklOlOn Town CounCil Records, 2:150.

25 . Town <:ouncil meetlO!'01 7 ,..tar . I7lt5 ,Hopkm lon Town CounCil Rc~()rt.!s, 21 'i 'i

26 . To ...n meetmR olFlune 1777 , SouthKmgslOwn Town .' 1ect lnJ(Rl:1;otds. 2'15

27. Town council meeung of 20 Nov 1777,South Kmgstown Town CouncilRecords, 6 :61.

28, Examination 01 Latham Clarke, towncouncil meetings 01 101 May IHo,) and 30lulv 1759, Hopkmron Town Councilkecords, I :23, 1:26; exammanon 01 Mal1'Mar~hcl. town council meeting 01 15Dec . I7M4. Hopkinton To ....n CouncilRecords. 1:212.

29 Rhode leland la... empowered towncouncils " to enquue, either b)' the Darhof such poor Person or otherwise, inwhat Town he was lut legally settled; orif they cannot Imd he hath gamed anylegal Settlement. then m the sameManner to enquire after the Place of hisBmh. and upon the best lntormanonthey can obram, lO adrudge and deter­mtne to what To wn or Place he la...fullybelongs." ACI.sand Laws o f Rhode·Is/and j176 71. 228.

30 . lames Wells, Ir.'s ownership of Cesar ISvcnfrcd by state treasury records; see"Th e Treasurer 's Account ot rhe NegroSlaves Inhsted imo the ContinentalBattalions," In Sidney S, Rider. Annwoncot lnqunv amcetnmg theAuempt to Rarse a Regrment of Slavesby Rhooe is/lind durrng the Wat of theRe~'olutron , Rhode Islan d HrstorrcalT racts, no. 10 [Providence: Sidney S.RIder. 181101, 5.~. James fat hered ergh tchildren, recorded In Hopkmron VItalRecords. I 11726·94): 73. In the Apn l1779 state ta x assessment, he paid £J46.,.; the average was .£8 1O,~., and onlyeight men paid mo rl: Ihan he did.

31. To ....n meetmg uf 6 Dec. 178\Hop kmton Town Meeting Rcco rds, I :np .Cesar's enhst!\lcnt and h iS pre~encc 10

Col. Chtiswrh'cr G reene's "BlackRep meOl" is also confirmed by thcRevolutlona!)' W ar N ames Indel(, Rhudebland State Archl\'l:s, by M lliu l)'Papcrs, Rhode bland Histo rical SOCIety;and by LISI of Rlack ServicemenCompiled from the Wal DeplirrmentCol/eel ion of RI'\"oJullonary WarRecord,~ IWash lO,i:tun, D.C. : :-.<auonalArchIves and Records St:rvlcc, 1974 1. IS,21

.12. The la ... cre<lung Ihe Black Re,ll,lmem....as pasSt'ti 10 Februa!)' St'sswn, 17711lohn Rus!oCll amlett , ed.•Records of theStaIr o f Rhodr Island and PW\'ldencrI'lanlallom 10 New England. vol . IIjProvldence: Cookc, lack<;on, ~ Co "11I6J1, 3:-11..(,(l. The Gl:ne r.ll Assemhl)'repe.aled Ihe aCI a few months Ialer 10 ItS...,,\. !oesswns. thus bamng <Iny new

lI S ON AND OFF THE RE COR D

sla ves irom enhaung, but the regim entwa~ already complete. B.anJctl, Recordsof Rhode i slan d IU99. For furthercommentary on the law and us repea l,see "The Rhod e 1~land Black 'Regnnem'of 1771'. ," In Rider , All HISlorJClJltnounv , 9·20, 36 .

.n Cesar's eebscnem date IS venned In theRevolunonarv War :-.o ame~ Index, RhodeIsland Sta te Arclnves, and In "TheT reasurer's Accoum ot rhe NegroSlaves." In Ruk r, An HI SforlClJI lnqmry,S3 The lat te r also records Cesar's value.

3-1 RIde r eanmares lhat the total number ofmen enhsred In the batrahon ove r t heyears 0 1 the war " did nu t exceed ahundred and t hmy or a hundred andiony me n." ~The Rhode b land Black'Rcgrment.?" U , Lorenzo I Greene'sresea rch places the number ae between225 and 250 . " Some Observances on t heBlack Regsrnem oi Rhode Island In th eAmencan Revolu tion ," tovmal of NegroHI!ifOTV 27 (19521: 165, Beruarrun Quarlesaccept s Ih ls latt er est tmate In The NegroIn fhe AmerzClJn RevoluflOn INew Yurk :W. W Noreon, 1'-"731, 7<l , n. 1 1.

35, See Rider , " Th e Rhode Is!.and Black'ReJi:-l ment, '" 22·2 4; Gre ene, "The BlackRegiment 01 Rhode Island," 169·70;Quarl es, The Negro In rhe Amem;anRevoluuon. 110 ·112.

36 " Ret urn of Non Com miss ioned officers&. Soldi ers In the Rhode Island RCKi·rocm," MilJlary P<lpt'n , III Mar . 17112,Rhode leland Hrstoncal SllCkt y.

37 , lntormauon about Cesar's pay IS

contained in " Mili tary Returns,Revolutionary War, " ,t 23, 4:1, 4:10,Rhode Island State Archives; In " RhodeIsland Revolutionary Musler Rolls, 1774.1782: ' Shepley Ccllecnon, Rhode IslandHrst urrcal Sock ly; and In Military Parersundcx card lor Cesa r Well sl, RhodeIsland Historica l SOCiety .

31'. . Clothing list, tt fune 17111 , MiluaryParers, Rhode Island Hrsturrcal SocielY.

39 Elder john Gardner OffiCiated at themamaKe 01Ce sa r Well ~ and Abl~'lI l

Potter on 211 Ocr 1775. Hopkmeon VllalRecords, I :72. Abigai l apparently was afree woman, lor t he mamaKe recordtden uncs Cesa r's "U IUS as " se rvant" butgives no such status for Abigail.

40. Custom very likel y prevent ed mterr acealmamaKes at th e lime Ce!>.a' and Abigailwere married . lalet , In 17'-"8, th e RhodeIsland Ge ne ral As.....mbly passed a lawproh rhmng anyone Irum perforrrung a

marriage between a whnc per son an d aNeKTo. The PublIC L(lw.\of the State ofRbode- lsland and Providence Plama ­tlons (Providence: Caner and Wilkln'\(JO,17981, -t83.

41. Town counci l meenng ot I Sept . 17M],Hopkinton Town Council Records,2:119.

-t2. In the April 1779 Slate ta x '-~se~~ment,

Stephen Petter paid f II 8s .; Ih ls wasabout 34 percent more than Ihe averaJ(etax of £8 105. In th e ,\-\arc h 17"6assessment , he paid a lude Ie$!> than195., about JO percen t more t han t heaverage tax rx 14' '15 .

43. Stephen's lam ll)' reutlonshl J'Sareverified In Thomas PUller 's Will ,Hepkrntcn Proba te Recor ds, 2:24·26.Thomas Potter se rved a,;, Hopkinton 'stown u easurer from 17...7 to 1768; seeHop krmon Town MetllnKRecords, vu]I . Ca leb Potter se rved as to wn clerk from1787 throu,," 11'.1 8; see Hopk mton TownMeeting Records, vols. 2 and ,1

44 The mvemory was taken on 2l'1 Dec.1783 and recorded on II Feb. 171'1JHopkinton Probate Records, 2:2 1].

J ."> Probate entry of I June 171'1 .., HopkmtonProba te Reco rds, 2:123 .

46 . Town meeting uf 6 Dec. 171'.5,Hopkin ton Town Meetmj( Records, Inp.

47 . Probate entry uf 17 Feb. 17116, HopkmtonProbate Records , 2:240 .

48. Hopkinton town tax assessed 10 Mar ,1786, Hopk int on town clerk 's ofucc.

49 . Hopkint on town tax assessed 26 Ian.17110, Hopkrruon town clerk's utfrcc.

SO. Town council mecnng u/4 Sl'P'- 17Sf>,Hop km ron Town Council Records,2:2511,

51 Town council meetings of 15 Dec. 17!'1 4and 14 Pch. 1785, Hopkinton TownCouncil Records, 2:212, 2:216

51. Town meeting oi 19 Apr , 176'-",Hopkinton Town t.kcllng Record s, I:""

53. Abel 's clecnon to vannus ofil ces I"

recorded in th e annual Iune to wnrneeung rtunures , Hcp km ton Tow nMeellng Records, vols I and 2

54 , The General AS!>embly elected Abel asfilth justice ot rhe lnfenor Cou n 01Common Pleas and General wsslons forKing's County [later W~hmKton

County ] In Septe mber 17llO; he waselected founh /USIICC In May 17/i1,advanced 10 third rUM Ice In the sa me

scss ron, and reelected as rhrrd 1USUC C

yearly through 17!'15. Bartlett , Recurd" oiRhude Island 9 :221 , '-":3 !\J, '-":40.l, <,l::,42,9'691 and 10:22 . For a local reference 10

" I u~e Tanner : ' sec town meetm g of f>Oct . 1788, Hopkmton Town MccllngRecords. 2:,14--4 s.

55 Da la about town clerks' tenure, wealth,and edueano n IS irom Ruth WalliSHern don , drs sc rra non draft [Am ericanUmvc rsrtv, 199 11.

56 , Town meenng of 7 june 177J. Hupkm w nTown Meeti ng Records , 1.113

57, Town mccnn g ot 6 Jun e 1775, Hopkmto nTov.TI MeelLng Records, 1:117.

.">1'1 Hopkinton Tuw n t.ketlnl/: Records. vel. Cand Hopkinton TO"'TI Council Recordsvo l. 2.

IO SEPH w. SUL LIVAN

joseph Sullivan is an ad junct lecturer In

hl~tory at the Commumty College of RhodeIaland.

Broadside announcing tI 19/7 tln flWllr 1t1ll}'er which IQseph Coldwell was to speak Theevent was banned bll/he poIlu RIHSColJe<:!lOn (RHI X3 Nln)

" A Giant of Embodied Conscience":Joseph M. Coldwell and the Socialist Partyin Rhode Island

rn ne of the most rem ark able and end~ring features of Rhode Island political~ history has been the prominence 01 dissenters. From her Inception .IS arefuge for the otherwise-minded, Rhode Island has measured her political he roesm degrees of heterodoxy. The more obstreperous they were , the more we reverethem. The legacy of Roger Williams. passmg through Thomas Wilson Dorr,together with the frequent contentiousness of our legislature, may welliusutvreplacing the statue of The Independent Man atop the Sta te House with a revisedversion to be called The Obsunate Man.

Such a prospect may not be so un fort un ate, since obstinacy can be a virtue whenani ma ted by consc ience . And in choosing a model for that statue. Rhode Islandcould do much worse than to consider Joseph M. Co ldwell , a lahor leade r amisocia list who was the only Rhod e Island er tailed for scdinon under the EspionageAct of 191 7. Unlike williams an d Dorr, Joseph Coldwell is not a householdname. He neve r foun ded a colony or led a rebellion. But like his illustriouspredecessors, he espoused unpo pular causes, spoke out empha tically and fre­quen tly against injustice, took upo n himself the burdens of the oppressed, thedisadvantaged, and the disenfranchised, and w as expelled from society by thesentence of a COUrt .

The re is little primary material dealing WIth Coldwell: only occasional newsstories in the local radical press , a flurry of front-page art icles concerning hi~ trialand convict ion for sedition , a retrospect ive study or two written by friendlyreporters around the time of hi s death, some extant letters, and a Iasctnatmginterview with a man who kn c..... him well. Yet from these scraps one may view afigure of faith and int egrit y, a man who se conrribuuons to th e cau se oi hurldmgthe Cooperative Co m monwealth sho uld, at the very least , cam him a modestplace among Rhode Island's reve red disse nters.

loseph Maurice Coldwell was born on 1 June 1869 in Mon trea l. After a sum as arail.....av construction workcr in the Midwest , he scnh..J bncflv in New York andthen moved to Brockton, Massachusetts, where he found employment in theci ty 's shoe Iectoncs.' In 1898 the organizing ecuvnv of the Boot and ShoeworkersUnion coincided with the development of the SOCialist party In MJ.ssach u~tt !> .

With the support uf the shoe w orkcrs. Socialist Charles W. Coulter launched asuccessful campaign for the Brockton mayoralty in 1899, while other Socialistscontested sca ts in the city counci l and rhc state legisla ture.' In the spring of thatyear Eugen e V. Debs visited Broc kton to stu mp for the Socialist tic ket. Coldwellattended Debs's lectures and was soon won over to socia lism . He participat ed inthese and subseq uent campaigns for the Messachuscns p.tny, was chose nsec retary of the Brockton local , and in 1911 recei ved the party 's nom tnanon forMassachusett s state treasurer.\

During this period Co ldwell developed a reputation as an ctfccuve labor organizer.When an anbnnc ailment brought an end to his employment in the shoe mills,he sought a less taxing occupation by becoming a profes!>lllOal photographer.

118 "A G IA NT O F EM IIO DIED C O N S C I E NC E"

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~ .wn iir. afl• ...li._ Itt. lb. ,.-vic. J yO1M' .....wnW)' anI! me ".maa wh......v. it .f you.

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If yeu -, ...... Ifte .11. t. ell...... to o,..~ yGawtI ret •• el it wll ilJe a .....t••e ;. Praada.

... ,Tlns hauJhl11 W,H distnbured to promote Ih.,.\ OC: l(lh lt.,· 'land u}tmmr rhe WUI RIHSCfJlk crum ( R }l1 X.1f>ll71l)

Co ldwell operated a photographic stud io in Milford, Massachusetts, but hisdevotion to the labor movement too k precedence. In the spring of 1913 Co ldwel lwas asked to organize and lead a strike al the Draper Textile Machine Companyin Hopedale, Massach usetts." One of his lieutenants was a young Italian imm i­grant name d Nicola Sacco, a ma n who, like Coldwell , woul d become the subrectof a sensational mal. Anot her smkc acquaintance was the even younger LuigiDepasquale. late r to become the colorful ludge of Providence's Sixth DistrictCoun. Arrested at Hopedale for carrvmg a weapon, Coldwell was subsequentlyconvic ted of inc itmg a riot and spent th ree months in the Worcester House ofCorrection. He decamped for Providence upo n his release just as the: clouds of warwere gathering across Europe.

IIY NA G IANT OF E."1BODIED CONSCIE:-iCE "

Establishing his photographic st udio in an apartment at 1929 West minster Street ,Oln eyvill e, Joseph Coldwell cont inued hi s involvement in labor and Socialistactivities. The Providence City DlIec tory for 191Hidenuficd him as "state organizer.Socialist Pany of R.I." Larry Spitz, an official of the Independ ent Textile WorkersUnion, recalled that in a numbe r of strikes where workers were barn..zd by in junct ionfrom pickeung, Coldwell , tho ugh not an employee , and with a painfully arthri tichip , would walk the picket line in solitary defiance." Cold well worked hard forthe Socialist party m Rhode Island, speaking often and combining his agitation forecono mic democracy wit h his cha mp ioning of organized labor. A frequentdelegate to the part y's nationa l conv enti ons, he became a friend and correspon­dent of such other notable leftists of the period as John Reed and Jack London.'

Founded at the tum of the century, th e Rhode Islan d Socialist party was anama lgam of former Socialist Labor party mem bers, Populists, and followers ofEdward Bellamy 's Nationalist movement. Lacking an.... thmg like a stronghold, theparty did manage to wtn modest support in scanercd areas such as Olncyville, theFourth Ward of Pawtucket, and the town of E..ast Providence. Betwee n 1898 and1920 it ran candidates for nearly every statewide office in each elccuon andoffered mayoral and lcgislunvc can didat es in Providence, Pawtucke t, L ist Pmvi ­dcnce, and Woonsocket fairly regularl y. In addit ion, it organized social eventssuch as excu rsions to Rocky Point and card part ies at the various local !'>. \....henEugene Debs vrsncd Providence during hi!'> 1912 presidcnnal campaign, the LAborAdvocate reponed that "thousand!' cheered " ius speech. 8U1 despite all thi...acu v-itv,local Social ist candidates seldom .....on mo re than 2 to 3 percent of the vote in anyelec tion. Though "t housands" ma y have cheered, barely two thousand RhodeIslanders vote d for Debs in 1912.~

Alth ough Socialist candidates won im portant mu nicipal victories in Massach u.se ll!'>, Ohi o, Penn sylvania, Wisconsin and Montana, Socialists were never able topenetrate the feudalism of Rhode Island poli ncs. With the state's workmg classbitterly divided along ethnic, cultural, religious, and pohucallmes. Rhode Island'sworkers were tOO busy fi#ltin~ each other to unite again ..t a common capitalistfoe . Added to this was the cons iderable opposition of the Roman Ca tho licChurch, to which a substanti al nu mhc r of workers belonged. Ignoring her ownsocialist t raditions. evident in the writ ings of Th omas More and the col lccnvisrnof the monasteries, the C hu rch launched shrill attac ks on the Socialist party and,afte r his 191 I elec tion , on state rcprcseruauvc lam e!'> P. Reld, an Olncvv illcdent ist , nominal Catholic, and the state's only Socialist officeholder. Other thanReid's single-term victory, Rhode Island'!'> Socialists had httle to show after adecade of orgamzauon . Municipal corruption and labor strife were often the keysto Socialist vtctoncs m Milwaukee. jn Sche nec tady , New York, and in Butte,Montana, where ma yors, aldermen, sta te legisla tors, and schoo l officials wereelected in abundance." Rut in Rhode lsland-c squa lor, greedy employers, anddeplorable working coruhnon..notwithstanding- socialism was the mid not taken.

A!'> the clouds of World War I darkened, the Socialist Party of America met at anemergency convention in Samt Louis to denounce Amencan mtcrvcnnon. Theresult was the Saint Louis Resolunon . which condemned the combatant nationsand urged that Socialist s and workers 10 solidanry refuse to aid the war. Uponpresident Wil!'>on 's war declaration nn 17 Arril1 91 7, the part y reite rated the SaintLouis Resolut ion and pledged its resistance to the draft, In a pledge echoed bySocialis t!'> in Rhode Island. An antiwar meet ing in Providence scheduled for 20May was prohibited by the Board of Police Comrmssionc r... Superintendent JohnA. Murray puhlic ly warned Coldwell, former state legislator lames P. Reid.

OF"~l!RS :

LUCIUS f.(.GARVIN_ ....tOe...,.

JACOB CONN~. I"HSIDCI'fT

",",Ill! 1STAHDISHTM.....u ....

M,ufiARET 1. DEASYJaC. lTAAY

120 "A G IAN T O F E M BODI ED COr-.;SC IEN CE "

PEOPLES FORUMOF RHODE ISLAHD~

=~.605 UNION TRUST BlD6..PROVlDENCE

MEETS SUNDAYEVEniNGS e TO 10

PROVIDENCEPAWTUCKET

WOONSOCKETRIVERSIDE

1

PLATFORM OF PRINCIPLES

THE OPEN FORUM STANDS FOR:1. The complete development of democracy in America.2. A common meefing-ground for all the people, in the interest of truth and mutual

understanding, and for the cultivation of community spirit.3. The fullest and Ireeet open public diecusslon of all vita I questions affecting human

welfare.4. Free participation from the foru m floor, either by questions or discussion,5. Th E" f reedom of forum management from responsibility for u t teranees by speakers

from the platform or the floor.

" l.ft nwr. & Li6ht"

f'lallmm of the Peuple'_, Forum ~IH5

Collecuon {RH I X3 6879/Lincoln fanner Edwa rd Thcinert [a frequent Socialis t candidate], and othe rSocialist figures that any suc h dis loyal rallies woul d result in their arrest s.'! On ,mMarch the Providence Journal noted tha t anndraft broadsides had been posted indozens of places through out Pawtucket. On 4 June, Coldwell was arrested onWestminster Street for drsm bunng handbills with ou t a permit. While beingdetained at Providence Police Headquarters, he was again arrested, thi s time byagents of the Justic e Department, and charged with cons piring to obstruct th edraft. On 8 lun c a federal grand iury indicted him on two counts of interferingwith conscription , After a bearing, he was released on five thousand dollar s bond.For som e unknown reason no furth er act ion was taken on th e indi ctment.Coldwell cont inued to speak publicly against the war aftc his release."

In the latter ha lf of 1917 a numhcr of prominent Socialists were arrested, chargedwith variou s offenses under th e Espion age Act, and sent enced to long prisonterm s. With the passage of this law on l.'i lun c 1917, the United States embarkedupon a program of repression equaled on ly by the measures employed during theCiv il War. The Espionage Act made it a cnrne to "convey false reports or falsesta teme nts with intent to interfere with the operat ion or success of th e militaryor naval forces of the United States, to promote the success of its enemies, or to

attempt to cause insubordmarion , disloyalty , [or]m unny" in the armed scrvi({_~

"or [Q willful ly obst ruct rccrumng or cnlrsuncm."! ' Such nat ional figures in theSocialist party as Rose Pastor Stoke s, Kate Richards O' Hare, and her husbandFrank O 'Hare were among the fUM of many radicals convicted m what wasessentially the beginning of the Red scare. All over the nation Socialis ts andmembers of the synd icalist Indusm al Workers of the World were arrested, theiroffices raided and smashed. Radical newspapers were banned from the mails byPostmaster General Albert Burleson . The U.S. House of Representatives expelled

121 " A GIANT OF EMBODIED C O N SC I EN C E

wisconsin 's Socialist congressma n Victor L Berger shonlv attcr hc had won hissecond term. Occasionally the repression reached absurd proportions as politi­cally innocuous persons were arrested on the basrs oi trivial remarks that fewsensible people could construe as scduious."

In an atmosphere redolent with fear, suspicion, and violence, and though he wasal ready under mdictmem, Joseph Coldwell continued to speak out agamst thewar. On 30 November 1917, at a cmm-martia] convened at Fon Adams, Provi­dence draftees Theodore Hiller, Adolph Yanyar, and John T , Dunn were con ­victed of desertion from the draft and received twenty-year prison sentences . Thenext January, at a public discussion known as the People 's Forum, held weekly .nProvidence's Gaiety Theatre, Coldwell attacked the army's sentence and referredto u.s. soldiers as "murderers in uniform " Hiller, Yanyar, and Dunn, accordingto Coldwell, were "victims of a damnable system 01 government. I .....clcome theday when the people of America will ovenhro..... their ext ...ring Government andset up one based on the lofty ideals of the Bolshevik movement."!'

Allegmg that young men of draft age were in the audience, federal agents whohad witnessed the speech filed cornplamrs, and these resulted in another Espio­nage Act indictment on 25 February 1918. This time the government pursued thematter. After being released nn twenty thousand dollars hail, Coldwell went ontrial in federal court in Providence on L3 March. Under the provisions of theEspionage and Selective Draft acts, all the government needed to show was thathis utterances counseled, incited, or encouraged draft -eltgtblc men to refuse to

register for the dratt, or to avoid duty once drafted, and [rather redundantly] thathis words advocated resistance to the war effort."

luIe ph .\1 Coldw ell, tederal pmvncr 10057,Atlanta Federal Pennentsarv /9/9 wmneldTownley x-olt Papers. Brown Unj\"erslt~·

LJt'f<1n'

In a packed courtroom fourteen wunesses. including new s reporters and draft -agemen, resufied to Coldwell 's "damnable svsrem of government" remark" . In hi!'>o .....n defense Cold.....ell claimed that his ....-ords wer e "damnable system III .~OCI·

erv," but It IS likely that he was mort: specific in his denunciations. U.S. attorneyThomas Raker introduced anndran cards that had been mailed to sundry draft-agemen in Providence as propaganda urging them not to register. The signature onthese cards matched Coldwell's signature. A postal superintendent testified thatColdwell had sent a great deal of disloyal material th rough the u.s. mails. Sometime was spent in pointing out the physical distance between the Gaiety Theatreand the U.S, Army recruiting office in the Caesar Mi ...ch Building on WeyhossetStreet, as if patriotic young men, IJ1l their way to enlist, ....,h e led astray by thetreasonous oranons inside the vaudeville theater. But the mOM damaging tcsn­many concerned the defendant 's reference 10 soldiers a... "m urderer... in un iform."when asked if she believed that soldiers were murderers, wnncss Margaret T.Deasy, a stenographer for the People's Forum , probably spoke for many RhodeIslanders when she replied that her brother was In urmorm and he was not amurderer. Fin,llly, on U March. after an unsuccc......!ul attempt to Introduceevidence pcrtammg to Coldwell's 191.' Hopedale weapon... charge, the pro ...ccu .non rested."

Defense attorney Anthony V. Pettine sought to show that the limitations uponfree speech imposed hy the Espionage Act were unfair and that Coldwell'scomment... were in nn way disloyal. Pettine's first rack W.1S useless, since the rurywas not asked to iudge the law . Introducing wnnc...ses who testified thatColdwell 's remarks did not seem to be seditious made little impact upon the jury.and the revclauon that federal agents had secretly placed a dicrcgraph machine inhis apartment may actually have increased suspicmn... a~lnst him. Pettine's onlycase for the defendant ....-a-, the defendant himself and Coldwell spent appmxi-

122 " A GIANT OF EMBODIED C O N SC I E N C E"

A Lecture I IFor Workers About Workers _~L

By JOSEPH M. COLDWELLMili/anl La6.>, L~GJ•• ""d CIO" 'UlG, Pri.on~., ~", Iy •• /.,...d f, ,,,,,AI I",,'a. Go., p,i_. WM" h. "TNQ " ..."1,,,,,. of l_ nly>,;>: ",onl h •

...,' 10 EUGENE V. DEBS (", ~io/ol , on 01 ,10. C.p;""", . Ad

Support the Fight for th e Release of Fellow Workers

,, ~ . ..- ".', -- - ..-." y'" ,.. _ ".....•_" _, _ .._ ' ~.. .I , ' _h,. .._........ to , , , "'N ,.._,I."

_,.1_ "

--~...-..._.._............_ -~"-_.._.-, -.....~- , ~._ --......._._-'--"- ..-_..........-- ...~.." .. , ~_ ....<--... . --_ ........ .. • _ ..... .M-

~-

H..., ,hi. m .....ifi....' p."...nl. lion of II." "n..... lif...nd c• .....,of A....,'ic.n 0 ........ Pr j. onn .

Bmadsute advett isiug Co/dwelt.s 1922lectu res. R/ HS Collection (RHi X3 681'10).

A_ ,",'ORKlRS P"ltTY .I "' '''[M ICA

mutely tWO and a half hours on the stand answering a variety of questions regard­ing his views on war and conscription."

Apparently thi s desultory rehashing failed to impress the iurv . On 19 March,Joseph Coldwell was found guilty on two counts of interfering with [he draft andtwo counts of sedition. A motion for a new trial was unsuccessful, and on 30March 1919 U.S. District Court iudge Arthur Brown sentenced Coldwell to fourconcurrent three-year sentences in Atlanta Penitentiary . A wri t of error filed byPett ine was also denied. Even while waiting for the outcome of his appeals,Coldwell continued to speak at the People 's Forum, attacking the Espionage Actas an infringement upon the First Amendment ." He began serving his sentence atAtlanta Federal Pen itent iary on 30 October 19 19.

As Coldwell 's appeals were being considered, federal agents arrested Eugene Debsin Cleveland and charged him with violating the Espionage Act. Elderly, ill, andretired, Debs had abstained from any vigorous denunciations of the war , preferringto simply go on record as supporting the Saint Louis Resolution. But with thearrests of Rose Stokes, the O'Harcs, and ultimately Coldwell, he became con­vinced that he could not remain silent while so many of his old comrades werebeing prosecuted.

A speech Debs had delivered on IS June 1918 at Canton, Ohio, was used by thegovernment as the basis for its prosecution. Despi te a sensational plea to the juryand attempts at int ercession by such notables as Upton Sinclair and Helen Keller,Debs was sentenced to ten years at the penitent iary in Atlanta . Assigned to thesame cell , Joseph Coldwell-now federal prisoner No. l00S7-was wit h Debswhen a delegat ion of Socialists visited the prison in an effort to mend a nationalparty that had been tom apart by official repression and a serious split betweenmoderates and pro-Soviet lcit-wingers . Coldwell attended the meeting as arepresentative of the latt er group."

123 ' A GIANT OF EMBODIED CONS CIENCE "

The armistice on 18 November 191~ brought an end to the fighung, hut not tothe hysteria , On 2 january 1920 hundreds of federal agents and local police seizedtwenty-t hree hundred persons in more than thirty cities throughout the count!')'.In Rhode Island, police ra ids in Providence, Paw tuc ket, Central Falls, andWoonsocket netted lust sixteen suspects, all of them foreign -born. In Providence,

agents searched the Russian Socialist Club and boardinghouse in Randall Square,the Young People 's Socialist League on Benefit Street, and the Socialist partyheadquarters in Olnevville's Textile Hall , Police also confiscated a cache of

pamphlets from James Reid 's home on Atwells Avenue and from his dentistoffice in Olncvville Square." Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer pronouncedthe campaign a success, hut popular disgust wit h the hysteria and a growingsympathy for the prisoners of conscience welled up until even Palmer urged tha tDebs be released before Wilson left office.

In 1920 Dehs conducted his fifth presidential campaign, thi s time from his prisoncell . His total of 919,OCXJ votes, or 3.5 percent of the total cast, was regarded bymany as a sympathy vote for the release of the nation's political prisoners.President Ha rding 's quest for "norm alcy" required the healing of old war wounds,and America's political prisoners were an embarrassing reminder of the terribletoll exacted from civilliberties. On Christmas Eve, 1921, Harding pardoned Debs.Coldwell, and a number of others who had been imprisoned for political reasons.. .1l

Coldwell 's return to Providence was marked bv a reception at Textile Hall on 2[anuary 1922 . At this and at subsequent receptions, Coldwell exhibited the sametenaci ty thai had earned him his prison term. "The grand IU!')' indicted mebecause they said I had said that war is organized murder and that soldiers areuniformed murderers," he declared. "Whether I said it or not , I still believe it. Irepeat- war is organized murder; soldiers arc uniformed murderers." After urgingworker'> to msist upon the release of Sacco and Vanzett i, Culdwell discussed hispnson experienc es and reiterated his belief that capnahs m was doomed . In asecond speech, given at the Mayflower Theatre on 23 lanuarv, he responded to

sensational sto ries in the Providence Journal regarding the deplorable conditionsat the Georgia State Prison hy commenting that condit ions at the ACI In

Cranston were no better. Expanding upon h is ea rlier talk, Coldwell rem inded hisaudience that "I went to jail for no other reason than daring to protest a,!.;ai ns t my

fellow man being used as cannon fodder . But I'll speak my mind. prison or noprison.">'

Coldwell's ideological position on the left wmg all owed him to remain comfon.able with the Red Socialist s who organized the new Communist party. He wasone of the first Socialists to break with the prewar Socialist party and align with

the Communist part y, as a majority of Rhode Island 's Socialists did. However.membership in the Corruntern had its price , and as Coldwell soon learned, LeninW<lS capable of as much violence and repression as Morgan and Rockefeller.Eventually Coldwell's obiccnons to the Soviet slaughter of the kulaks resulted inhis expulsion from the Com mun ist party. Ever the dis senter , Coldwell refused totolerate rmndlessncs, and Injustice for any cau se . By the mid·1920s he hadreentered the Socialist fold."

Battered by wartime hysteria and decimated by defect ions III the Communists,the Social ist party suf fered another hlow with the death of its founder andspokesman, Eugene Debs, in November 1926. While the party remained dormantnationally, with the exception of a lew enclaves, Joseph Coldwell did not . Hecontinued to involve himself in th e interests of labor; though elderly and mnrm,

124 " A G I ANT OF EM BOD IE D CO NSC I ENC E "

1

When violena erupted In the Tutlle Srrikeof 1934. GoVUfI01 G,un UJlled out theNQfJonQ1GUlUd sun irame from FoxMovietone Newsreel 23·209. -TextileSmkers 8mlle WIth NauonQ1Guard.Say/e,o;ville.· RIHS Collect ion (RHi X3 6881).

he frequent ly manned th e picket linewhen striking unions were enjoinedfrom doing so. With th e collapse ofWall Street in 1929, the party expert­enced a modest nati onal resurgence,with Norman Thomas inheritingDebs's man tle. As the parry 'sstatesecretary, Coldwell invited Th oma sto Rhode Island for a series of lecturesand otfcn..-d Socialis t speakers to thestat e's trade unions. what the panyhad to say about the Depre ssion,wrot e Coldwell, was worth hearing"even if you do not agree with th eSocialists' conclusions. " Among thetopics Coldwell was prepared todiscuss were "Th e Roosevelt Pro­gram-Will It Work~ " and "wh at theBankers Have Done to Us." In July1934 Joseph Coldwell received theSocialist endorsement for governor."

In September of that year the United Textile Workers struck in respon se to payCUts. Although most of the mills in the Blackstone Valley agreed to close to avoidpossible violence, the managers of the Sayles Blcachery in Savlesville and theWoonsocket Rayon plant refused to be intimidated. Inevitably confrontationsamong scabs, strikers, and privately paid deputy sheriffs developed into skir­mishes that left several persons injured and mill property damaged . The strikeviolence posed a panicular dilemma to Governor Theodore Francis Green, whodesperately wanted to quell the disorders without appearing to be antilabor. Todeflect the possibility of a labor revolt ,11 the polls, Grecn attempted to iustifycalling in the National Guard by declaring the strike to be a Com munist uprising.The result was an exacerbated crisis that featured strikers battling with militia.men in the streets of Central Falls and Woonsocket. At least six persons wereshot , three of them fatally. To bolster his "Communist uprising" assertions,Green ordered the arrest of an assortment of fifteen alleged radicals , Commu..rusts , and labor activists such as 'ames Reid and Larry Spit\;. Included on this listwas Joseph Coldwell, whom police could not locate .e

The gunning down of textile workers in a heavily blue-collar state one monthbefore the election may have given the Socialists cause to expect, at the veryleast , some significant support for a labor champion such as Coldwell. But RhodeIsland's workers continued to spurn new ideas, choosing instead to embrace aDemocratic party thinly disguised as the workers' friend. Coldwell's total of2,333 votes amounted to less than I percent of the total cast. Only in certainwards of Pawtucket and Central Falls did his support run as high as 4 percent."Undaunted, Coldwell challenged the political system again in 1936 as the party'scandidate for U.S. senator, and once again he received a negligible tally.

Following its revival in the first desperate days of the Depression, the Socialistpany began a second, gradual decline. Nearing seventy as the decade drew towarda close, Coldwell cont inued to fulfill his role as state spokesman for the part). andas a labor organizer. In April 1938 Coldwell responded to a misrepresentation ofsocialist ideology propounded by Wisconsin governor Robert M. La Follette, Jr.

12 5 ~ A G I A N T Of EMBO DIED C O N 5CIENC E"

Armed nauoool ~ald.s.men on (he sueas ofWoon.sockel during the 1934 u:xtilesmke.Photograph by Raymond Ball. RIH SCollU:(ion (RH I X3 6466}.

According to La Follette, who should have known better, socialism proposed to

reward all workers whether th e)' toiled or not, thereby robbing them of Incentiveand ensuring economic collapse. "1have been a socialist for more than fon yyears," Coldwell retorted. "During that time 1ha ve read considerable literatureon the su biect of socialism, bu t, strange to relate, I do not recall having read orhea rd of a proposal to reward work and achievement on th e same basis regard­

less of indiv idual contribuuon.?" In what may have been his last unionizingeffort, Coldwe ll took advantage of the National Industrial Recovery Act to

organize the Associ ated Employees of th e Oil Burner Industry for oil burnerinsta llers and service mechanics . In February 1939 Coldwell noted sadly that thenew union "died of malnutrition. A. F. of L. refused help, aid or assistance.'?"

Coldwell also defended socialism from erosion within the party itself. Att em ptsto dilute its a ims or a failure to live up to its principles provoked his scorn. Thushe sneered at the administrat ion of Bridgepo rt, Connect icut, mayor JasperMcLevy, whose efforts toward effecting the Cooperat ive Commonwealth seldomrose above sewer projec ts and playground ma intenance. McLevy also crushed astrike by sannaucn workers, and th e city's Socialist sheriffs evicted working­class fam ilies who could no longer afford exorbitant rents. When ProvidenceJuurnal reporter and longtime friend Winfield Townley Scott suggested tongue­in-check that Coldwell campaign for mayor of Providence in 1942, Coldwelloffered a facetious response. Among Coldwell's more McLevyesq ue suggest ionswere substituting plast ic streetcar tokens for metal ones to save money, puttingthe city firemen to work cleaning streets " instead of pla ying chec kers," andplacing new sidewal ks in the middle of city streets in parody of Mctevv'sconstruction of safety islands in Bridgeport..lO

With the rise of fascism in Europe, Coldwell's pacifism see med much less

pronounced. In his last public appearan ce, at a rally on Bost on Common in 1938,Coldwell denounced the Nazi menace but declared that American workers hadno reason to involve themselves in yet another senseless European conflict.

However, somewhat inconsistently,

he offered free passport photographsto anyone willing to fight for the

Loyalis ts in Spain." With the attackon Pearl Harbor , the threat of afascist world ~tatorship over­whelmed any remaining pacifistconsiderations. The man who

denounced so ldiers as "murderers in

~ uniform " in 1918 invested his tin ysavings in war bonds in 1942..ll

Perhaps heartened by this loyalstance, or perhaps because there was

no longe r anything to fear from this

which had howled for Coldwell'shead in 1918, now provi ded a forumfor his ideas. The loumal obliginglyprinted his many letters calling forAmerican war solidarity and analyz­

ing the struggle from a socialist

12 6 " A GIANT O F E M BOD IED CO NSC I E NC E"

1'0 Joseph .II. Coldwell

The Sword on the Table

WHAT SAY YOU, PRlSO~ER: WILL YOU BE TRIEDBY TH,\T .JCROlI OR :-;0'1':

[April gO-~la)' 6 1844]

roices at the Trial:

. Have I no right to show the intent in which I acted? '

'TIle Court understands that the prisoner, Thomas Dorr,Sow desires to show that he was no usurper:Taker of arms against his lawful State, hut not a traitor.\\'Hfnl seizer of governorship, but not a traitor.Wrecker of peace and property nud soeiety, but-So long ns in his wisdom he thought thi s wise-no traitor.So any .John Smith might steal his neighbor's pig,'111en being haled to court cry "Ycs, I stole it;I admit the thievery. gentlemen. hut let me show youI felt it m.y inherent right!"-ilIul think to acquit himself. •This is worse than folly-it is legal foil)'As the accused should know.'

'\Vhen we gathered with Dorr atAcote's Hill

To defend the people's rights, few of the people came.'

'As counsel for the State. I charge the prisoner"'ith the crime of levvinz war nsrainst the State. Thi s Court• 0 0

Properly holds by law this crim e is treason. '

'The night

wmheld TO",711er $COII dedlC~ltd TheSword on [he Tahle, his celeb ration ofThomas WIlson Don, to lo.\eph Coldwell.Courtewof Brown Um versnv Ubrary.

127 "A G IANT O F EMBOD IED CONSCIENC E"

perspective. As a sornenme Journal contributor , Coldwell established fnendlvcontacts with several reporters. no tably Winston Phelps, Winfield TownlcvScott , and George W. Pot ter. Through the 1940s these me n seem to havedeveloped and shared an appreciat ion of Co ldwe ll's cou rage and integrity. ForScott, Co ldwell was "a want of embodied consc ience" who peppered him withletters denouncing the Journal's Republ ican bias, reque st ing funds for th e WarResisters League an d othe r radica l orgaruzaucns, and suggesting articles he feltScot t should wri te in defense of labor , the poor, and the disadvantaged. In 19~2

Scott published a verse paean to Thomas Wilson Dorr en titled The Sword on theTable and dedicated the work to Coldwell. The old Socrahsr was deeplymoved." Winston Phelps honored Coldwell with a feature story m the Journalfor Labor Day, 1946. Refemng to him as an " Apostl e of Socialism," Phelpsoffered an affect iona te port rait of Co ldwell's difficult life. Co rnme nnng on thestr ides labor had made since th e days of Debs , Co ldwell was quoted as agreeingthat "we have come a long way. The labormg man has won a lot of advantagesin a half century." Co ldwell took no credit for these advances; he was, as Phelpsobserved. "a humble ma n."'"

"You are young and hvmg m a very interesting period oi the world 's lus torv. 'Coldwell wrote to Scott. " You have before you the experience of all those wholived from the Stone Age to the Electric Age. You have seen the mighty toppleand fall. you have seen the ins ignificant man rise from oblivion to world widepower [a reference to Hitl er], which should teach you that nothing is permane nt,not even ou r present economic system . Classes change and demand cha ngingcondit ions. Keep your ideals, they are the most precious things.,,"

Recogni tion and belated acco lades must have provided hi m With some comfort.but as Larry Spitz recalled, JO'M..'Ph Coldwell was a lonel y man in lus last years.When he died on 3 April 19~9, his body lay unclaimed for twenty-four hours inthe morgue at Rhode Islan d Hospital. HiS ret inue of mourners was small .Among the few who attended his funeral were Marguerite DWight , a wealthyProvidence woman who regularly provided hail money tor radicals; the ReverendRobert Schacht; Dr s. Gennaro Onorato and Eric Stone; Larry Spitz ; Iudgc LuigiDepasqu ale, whom Coldwe ll named executor of his minusc ule es ta te; and someano nymous Ol ncvville neighbors. After cremation, Coldwell's ashes werescattered in Narragansett Bav. It- Larry Spitz rem em bers with some hitterness theconsp icuous dearth of um on officials at Co ldwe ll 's funeral. Having been a victimof the first Red scare , Coldwell died as a new Red sca re was begmmng. Whetherfearful of being discovered attending obsequies for a notonous lei tis t, or whetherSimply indifferent , Rhode Island 's union men st ayed away. It was not then finesthour . On the other hand, line might sUMest thai these comfortable unionleaders, lacking in courage, had no place at the funeral oj a courageous unionist.

In at tem pting to sum up Col dwell's life, Geor ge Potter reca lled an argument thathad occurred betw een Col dwell and some Journal report ers. Coldwe ll W;ISreacting to smug asse rtions ahout his advocacy of socialism when he encapsu­lated his ph ilosophy in a memorahle vent in,.:; of spleen: " I am 70 yeah old," hethundered, "and I do not have a cent to my name. I own nothing in the worldbut a few rags and I may die m the poorhouse. But as long as I have lived. I havenever upped my hat to anybody or worn any man's collar. J can walk the streetswit h my head high and I can sleep in my bed at night, or in jail. without myconscience bothering me . I have paid for H , don 't think that J haven 't, hu t I am afree ma n and I think that's more than any of you can say!" The connection

loseph Cold well and lllbor leade r Latrysons fJtJl~lde fhe Woom oc kel R<lronComponv during <l 'mke HI 19J9. RIHSCoIleclwn rRlfi XJ 6H82),

128 " A GIANT OF EMRODI[D C O NSC I ENC E"

between the crotchety labor hero 's independence and Rhode Island's dissemcrtradition was not lost on Potter: "He was of <1 breed that came to Rhode Islandwith Roger Williams and made the non-contorrmsr conscience a power toreckon with in the world ."J' Porter extended the analogy farther afield hylikening Coldwell to Thore-au and William Lloyd Garrison, but there is everymdicanon that the world docs not actually reckon with such men. In an age offlaccid unions, political bromides, and lazy confonnny, the world has yet to

reckon with Joseph Coldwell.

1

.

IH ' A GIANT OF E ,"'1BOniED CONSCIE~CE "

:'I:OIt"~

Wm~lOn Phel ps, " Joe Culdwcll-c-Apostlc01 Socrahsrn," providence $WldIH'toumal I Sept 1940

l , Brockton was the secon d city In theUOlted "tales to elec t a S.oC\.,lh sladmimstrauon. Th e Iusl was Haverhill,Mas"dchu~tts. th e I'revlOW< year SeeHenry f Bedford. MI(:l<IlI~m and theWorker, 10 Mtlssl! chu.\el!.~ . 1886·1 912[Am herst: Umvcr-nv oj Mass.lChusl: tt,Pre,s . 19M !.

.t Phelps. "Ioc Coldwell "

4 Labor Adl'OCale jPrm' ldence!. 11 lun e191 t ."'.'ew York Tim es. 0 lune 19lJ:Coldwell 10 wmneld Townlev sco«. ,.Dec. 19.N, Wmneld Townley Scunpapers [nhn Hay Librarv , BrownUnwcrvnv.

... Wmhc:ld To wnley Swtt, " Portr ait til dFree Man," m b(JJe' and Fub"CtlI "m~

(Garden Cit y. N Y Doubled.iY, l l}on ,145.

6. Imcrvrc... WIth L.uT)' "PllZ . 14 "crt 19"9.Spit: holds a deep admiration lorColdwell . whom he describes asIm usu dlly hlj;h-mm.!ed and h"nl'sl . " afrscnd and mentor " tor more than twrntvyears ,

7. SCOtl, "Pnrtrart 01 a Free Man," 146

II, wbut Advocate. 120ct 1<J 12. S<xlaiNsuppon m Olncvville cente red un th epersonal populaeuv ol lames Rerd, wh owon a vmglc term m 1911 and narrowlvlosl reelccuon m 1912, 1914 , ,lOU 1916

9, David A Shannon, The ,~o(ltlh"r l'tlrtv 01Amenco ' A Histurv INew York :Macm llLlO. 19';."0 \ ,"Kldhsi leadership InRhode Island rendcd m he atvprcal tli thestdle 's SOCloecuno mlC dcmo!,!aph,'Soc lallsl cJo nul\i.nes lnr olt lce dunn~ thtstl m o:: (19 12-1,,1Included ~hema\Onal

candIdate Fred Hursl . ....ho owned a shoestore In Ihe AIude, and 1'ru\,ldl'n ( emayoral canuHL le lohn W HIAAlns . whowaS .I toolmaker, Cennal A"emllly(andl<.bfes Gem>:e Walsh and EdwardTheln l'Tt were . rl's\'CcIlVeh'. a lewelryslore prupnelOr and a JaIn' idrmer InWoon...:,e kel the S"(l.Il1sl candlJale iormayor. EU!l:en e F ,\ 'orn sse)'. ""as aplumber , he shared th e tleket wllh '>taleSt.'nale can,h date Warren L. Fuller. anInsurance a.l:Cnt . and Il n U>e canUtWIICsjoseph T Gnmsha.... , a Chembt, ~nd lohnW Dunn, a machinist In Cranslon theSoclall,t ( andlJatc lor mdYor. Dr. AlherlDc Kon . wa'>a VClermanan. A, small ·bUSiness owners or , kI lled mdependenttradesmen, many ot Ihe~ Soctahstsalread" n....ned Ihe mcJons 01ploduCIIOn.

and <I, prosperous nanvc-bom Yankees orchildren of aSSim ilated unrrugranrs.usually lnv h or Canadian, Soctahstcandidates m Rhode Ist.,,".! rnav haveheld lill ie Arrea1 to Ihe ,>ta te' s \'a'tethn ic, unsk tlled pwlelanat

10, Ibid ., Ill,

II . Provtdenn' loumal . \ v !'oldy I~\ 7

12 I'mvldt'n('f loul/wl. 5 lune , <) lune 1~17 .

1.1 .to u.s. Slat " 230. 1.5 lunc 19 17.

l -l Shannon..~(J<.·lahsl I'or/l' of A m erll' a. 1M

15. ProVIdence Journal. I Dec . 11}\ 7, l -l IanI~ I R. The moderator 01 the People'sForum wa s another mdcpendcrn thmkcr.iunner \ Iso z.at governor Lucius f . C.Carvm .

lo .!'rovidell<:l'!oumal. 2(, Fcb., 14 MarI I} I 8.

17 Pro\' ldence luumoJ.I S .\1.u 1911'l

Is Providence tocmot. I.'> ....'loll 1918 , Bureauof InvesuRatlon records reveal thdlCold well ....a'> Indeed under vurvcrllancc.as were rhc aCIlVIIIl:S "i the i'L'OP!c"forum . Invc-uga nvc Cas<' Files oj t heBureau oj Invesngancn. Record GroupoS. N at rona] Ar,hives. Washingto n, n c.

19 l'ulI'ldence lnutnal. I I} Mar , .u ....lar" .HOce 19HI

20 N Ick Salvatore . EUKene \' Debs, Cnrzenand Sonall'f IChICd/;o' Umvers.rv 01IIImulS Prl's,. 19k21. 117

21. PruvldenC(' kmmal. .l Ian .• 4 l.m \ e,l20.

22 . Shannon. .Socialist PIIIII' of AmHlul. 20=;,

2.\ /'rovldcna loumal. 2 tao . 2.l Jan 1922.

2-l Georll:e W r Olter , " An Independent.\1dn." Pm" ld" na IOll1IJal, (, Apr 194'>1

25 Shanntm, ~)(;lalISI Par/I' o / Ama na.l40:SpllZ mlen'lew; loseph ....1.Coldwdl InAll Tr d'!e Umons (I t Rhotle Island. SWIIPapers,

2(, . !'mvid"na !"uma!. 2 5l:pt . 10 Sel' t " 14Sep l. 19.\4 Textl le unilln leader 'useph5)'lnd ({)opc raled With the ,tale byprovtJmJo: police olll t:lah wllh th e ndme..oj unum actiVIstS he pe-r..nna ll ~· ulsllked ,LaITy Spit: wa~ one <ll lhe ....:

21. /'ro vld t'IJce Inum al. 7 Nov 193-l,

21i , 'V" w Yor k TlInr, . 9 Apr , 19.1k

2e,1. Coldwell In Senti, l .t Ft'h 19J9 . Sentii'dpers

l,() Coldwe ll I" "cun .11l lkl 1<}42. S<:;OItParer~ , For more on Ihe S.lCldh sts 01

Bnd,r;ei" 'n, Sl"l' BnK e M 'ita\'\:, "The

Depression and Urban Continui ty ," inSociahsm III lhe Cin es [t'on WaShlnll:lon.NY.: Kenmkar Press. 1<}7.\1, IS7·lU

j I Cold....ell was Amung those w ho supportedrccraurncnt ettu rh for the "DebsColumn, " a '\.oclah sl vclum eer rrulnarvur,ll:dni~tiun rarccd to trght ior the SpdOlshrepublic. Absolute P;l.(lllsts m theSocrahst party opposed thl~ move , Theptruntervenuon argument i~ presented Ill'Edward Grove to Whr th e Debs Column lINcw York Pncnd, ul Debs Colu mn.1~,\6t a bookl et tnund 10 the johnWhedwnghl Parers , Iohn H;lV Lrbrarvllrow n Uruver Ill' .

.n. Phel"" . -roe ColJ",'c1 l."

,~,l Scou, "Ponrau " I a fr ee Man : ' 153

,~ 4 I'hl'lp~. "foe Coldwell. "

.IS. Cold well 10 .'",utt, unda ted Iprohablv19-1 51. Scou 1'.Ipe- rs

~6 Scott . "Ponran ut a f ree "an 152 .

P Potter , "An Independent ....bn

Adams. Inhn Q UInCV, 91'1Ainu.n ·Amenun~ an~ prolO'am~ . SO;

vOt!nKIranchl..e, 74 1'1 ('\Almt'l' Imu~ leal _how l, 4 ~

Aldnch , Donald, M~ AIJl:enne Law " In Don Rebelh on , 7..\ ·75,

77 111-11.1, Il'> , 'l 1-92, '>14- '>1;Aha~ SUJl:e u oupe. ~II

All Chl l .!re n' ~ Theata, 59Allen , PhIlip , WAmerican Peace ""lC ICI)', HAmencan Revnlullun , "The U!>C~ 01 law

ami the G.BpU AII.I1I," ' ·21Ame s. Samuel. I''J, <,I-lAmpersand Ir ressl, '>'>1And rew s. lohn . -l. 1\ , 1f>· 11'Amhony, Burttngton. 77.7 /'., 111 ·113Anthony, Henrv Bowen , 72·7]Arnold, Lemuel H , 93An In Ihe Workplace program. '>-1Am_Is bucmanonalc. -In.-I7Arls an'! AKlnK proKum, ..\2Ans and l;reaIIVlty, " A SIIVCf Ltmng:

Twentv-Frve Ycar~ oj the Rhude IslandSlate Council on the An s," y, .1'i..\

Art, and e u/t uru! Tsme . .'i'iAns Inc. ui Rhude "land, 5-1Ans In Correcuons program. -l2Arts In Educauon program. -10, -12, -In, -1'>1,

';5·57Atwell , Samuel, 75Auchrnutv. Rober t, '>1 .15

Habhrn, Milton, n2Baker, Thomas, 121Baltrmore Ft'dcrdl H."(lu!,hcdn, 15Bancroft , George. <,)1\Hankbcad, lames, II'> , 117, <,)0Baumel, Wilham, n2Reover ( ~h l pl. 7, JU·12Bellamy . Edward , 11<,)Benson . Richard, 57gcmoo. Thuma' Hart , 711Berger, vrcrorL. 121BcrT)' , Rohm , -1-1 , -In·47, ,1',1

BluJ..:et, Leonard , ".~

Bonaparte, Sal'l ,leon. 17, ,m· ] \aomec ou . Lee . ; 1Bool and Shoe Workcr' Unum, 111Borden , Luther M., <,Iii

Bnl:Jo:~ , Aamn, 11·l nBrown, Anne KlnwlvlOJI:. 57gro...-n. Anhur, 122Brown, Dann:1.1l2Brown , lohn. 12·1-1

Index to Volume 50

Brown . John A , 75, 711Brown . John Caner, 73Brown . IO!>Cph, 12·14Brown, xtoses. 31Brown , Shertlvn. 56Brown. Wilham, 1l\l-90Brownson, Orestes. 112, 911Bryant , Wilham Cullen, 82Buonnano, Vincent, -II , 4--t , 6--tBurden , ,",braham, 10..\Burdrck, Pelcg, 10l>Burges Walter S., 112, 11('\ ·117, "'J·90 , 95Burge"'s. Thomas, 87Burke , Edrnund,Il'l. 'l 2, 94Burleson, ..,Iben, 120Burning Deck Press , 5'JBUSiness volunteers In the An~ , 53Button. Samuel, 106

Calhoun. john c; 78. so, 911Callahan. Harry , 57Carpenter, Thomas F., 75Caus!n, Iohn, 92Chaiee, Iohn, 311·311. -IIChanning, Ccorgc. 2SCheever, Bartholomew, 11Che,~are<lke IshiI'\' 2..1Chrhulv, Dale. 57Church, Joshua, 106Clarke, Cal")'. 10..\ ·5CIOlY, Henr y, <,)1'1Cleveland, Chauncey , 115Clifford, Nathan, <').'i

Clinton, e - w,«. 2t'Cold....ell. loseph M_, '''A GianI of Embodied

Conscience': Ioseph M, Cui dwell and theSocralrsr Party In Rhodc I ~ l and , " 111·2<,)

Coles, Thomas 2t'Collins. Amos, 105Colomal Rhode laland , "The u.e, oj Law

and the G ll Spt'l' Affair, " 3·2 1Commerce and trade, " Rhode Island and the

War of 11112," 2.l-UCornmu r ut v Poundauon Parmcrshrp

program, 53Conley, Ramara , 57·5"Conley, Patrick T , ~ So Tempest In a

Teapot The Don Rebelhon In SallnnalPctspecerve." 67·\00

Consmuuonal gnvernmcru . Don Rebelhon .67-100

Consuumonal pan)', 6 '>1Cooley. franklin . 7j

Coolidge, Allan. 57Coon. R~~ , 104Coover. Roben, 57

Copper Beech press. 59Coulter, Charles W_, 117Cranston, Henry , 92Cumberland Company, 59Cu mm ing, RIchard . 57C urne, lames . 26Custer, Anhur. 40, 56

Dance Alliance, 59Dantorrh, Mrs . Murray S., 57Danforth, Walter R., 73DaOleh, DaVid, 116Dan lsh lpl, 211Dartmouth, carl oj (Y'll lh Ol ml, 9, 11, I.'; , 11Deasv. Margarel T ., IIIDeb",. Eugene , 117,119, 122·13Demol:ratz c Renew, 82. 91Depasquale. Luigi, 118. 127Devere, Lawrence. 16Dickinson, "Ihlham. IO-llDuldlcv, Bo,-I2Digan. joseph, -15Dirnan, Byron. 96Dtrnan, lohn , 9f>Drr'rcec , Edward. 54DIsney. Drane M" 47.49Dobhms, lona B" 49·50, 52·53 .60,6.3Dun, Henry. 69Dun. Thomas wilson, 117, 125; " N o

Tem pest In a Teapot: The Dun RebellionIn National Perspccuv e." 67·100

Downing, Amcnncuc. 57Draper Texrile Machine Company. 1111Dudmgsron. Wilh am, 5·111Dudley, Charld'l-l. 7Dufi, Hcnrv l.. <,)-1Dunn. lohn T .• 121Durfee, 10h, 71·72 , 75, Rl . YO, <,)7·<,)11Dwight . Marguente. 127nwou, Hcnrv. 11'>1Dvcr . EI1~hOl , 89

Eark Patrick, I IEducation, Arts In Educaucn program, -10.

41, .16, -1<,) , 55·57Edwards, Phmchas. 110EIchenberg, Prttz , 57Ellerv , William, 26, IIIEngland- and autonomy 01colonial Rhode

leland . the Gaspee Aiian, 3·21; "RhodeIsland and the War oi 1812, 13·3 .!

Everett Dance Company. 59Expansmn An~ program, 59

fain , Barnet . _H, ,N --.1 I....7, I'i..\

Farrell. Eileen. 57

131 INDEX

Fazzano . Joseph , \9Feldman, Waher, 57Fenner, Anhur, 92Fenner, lames. H , 26 , 76, 91-92FII~t NIght. (,()Fleet Nanunal gank , 53Hesschner. Richard. 57Folk Arts Prog ram . 47 , 55Ford Foundation, JIiPort Green, 28fort Wilham Henry, 28foundauon lor Repertory Theater, .UFoundry Lc.f.lslature, rr. ~2Francis. lohn Brown . 74, 71i , 1000, i'l4 , ",6, 91Freemen's ILandholders'l COnSILlUtlOn, 68 ,

72-75, 79-1\6, 100f n d, Ta/;e ,'i7Fneze, jacob, 75Frohnrnaver, Iohn, 6 1

Garn.hy. 1 10seph. 46Gospee jshlpl, NT he Uses of Law and the

Gaspee Affair , N,\ -21Cco rge III. ktn~ 01 England. 9Glhbs. Cora Lee, 57Gibbs. Wilham , 92Gtn/oVlch, Arnold, 45C.odJard. Wilham G " 72-73.92COlO. loseph . ',7Gould. Stephen W,. 2.\Gray. Channing, 50·S1Grear. Malcolm, 57Greeley, Horace. 91lGreen, Theodore francis. 124Greene, Cbn-t..phee. IrniGulley, Stephen, 13

Halle, U:VI, 71Hall , Adnan, 44 .45Hallen. Beruamm P. 92 , 94.95, 9HHanks, Nancy, 41Hannah Ishlpl, IIIHarding, Warren G .• 12.\Harp er , Mrchael, 57Ham s. luhn S" HIHartford anuwar convermon, 29·JOHartford 51;11:e Cumpanv. 41Hawkes, john. 57Hazard, Edwin, 90Herndon, Ruth Walhs, " On and On rhe

Record: Town Clerks as lnrcrpreters ofRhode Island Hrstory, N1n\.I.'>

Haller , Theodore. 121Hrllsborough. carl 01. 4-5,7·11 .14,17Hlslory from town records, "On and Off the

Record: Town Clerks as Int erp reters 01Rhode Island Hrsturv," 1m·!.,

Hogan, Gary, 'onHolloway, loh n H_, IIHHOnig. Edwtn, 57Horktns. Sterhen, 6,10,1.\·14, (7 ·18Hopktnton, "O n and Oil the Record Town

Clerh as lnterrr..u:n oi Rhn..Je IsLmdHJswry.H lo.~ .115

Horsmanden. Daniel. 9,12, I SHorham, Henry, 2HI-Iuhbard. H..nl")' , 1\9Hunter (shlpl . 2n

Hunungron. Iabea. 78

Insh C.athohcs and vonng lranehl~e, 69 , 72·7.\, 79, ~6

Island MO\'IOJo: Company, 59

Jackson, Andrew, H4jackson, Charles, 91. 9,~. 9"Jackson, Richard, Ir., ISlansson, Douglas, 47Iavuv, lacoh .-lllIdkrson. Thomas. 2.\·24kWISh Home lor the Aged, .14john Stevens Shop . S7johnson. Diana. 52· :.3, 64lohnson, Phrhp. 62Innes. Bnan. 4n[ones. William , 24·19. 31lordy, Willi am. J':Jloshn, Joseph. ~2lumor Chamber oi Commerce. I'rovrdcnce.

.17

Keeney, ~rnahy,J~Keller . Helen. 122Kent , George. 57King. Samuel Ward , 7.a·7n, 7ij, !iQ..H!, l:\9·90.

92 ,97Kmnell. Galwav, 57Krwams Club. Pruvldence, .\7Kneeland, Richard, 57Krasner, LoUiS. .,7Kurtz . Cleveland. 42

Labor Advoctlle. 119Labor unions, "'A GI.ant oi Embuched

Consc ience' I.."eph M , Coldwell and theSoclahsl Pany m Rhode Island, 117-29

Lafollette. Robert M , lr., 12.1Lambrecht wnutred. 47, 55LandholdervConvenrron, nil, 7<~ ·74, Ill'>. 100Lang, Bruce . MLukin. Elushd, IonLarkin, Margaret . 107Larkin, Timothy. lOSLatham, RIChard, 4n, 52UW and Order partv, 69 .72,7.1.75. N·H1 ,

M·"n.91 ·92Leander [shrpl, 2Jtechr, Darnel, 47 ·51 , 53, MLeckey , Hugo, ,\9 .41Lee. Eugene, 51Lee. ManulIe, SOLeopard (sh lpl, IJLmzee. lohn, 10·12 , IS· Ini.izard [slup], 7London, lack, 111,/Lord, Hcnrv, 81Lowry , Bate", 57Luther, Marlin, 9.1,\0>5, 97Luther. Rachel . 9.1·95. 97Lym.an, Daniel, 29

Ma~ulay , DaVId. :;7McClemand. lohn A , 92McKenna, DaVId. ."1Mctevy.l.1'rer. 125McNeIll, Wilham Gibbs. H9.1,ll

.\-1cPherso n, AIm ee Semple. 45Madeira. fr;lnCI", 57.' b d,so n. lames, !4 ,1€4, ,~ I

Mahont:y, lane. 56Man, Samuel F" 9,~

Manume nghrs. "Rhode Island and the Warnf 1812," 2J ·,n

Marshal, Joseph. 107Marshd, Mary , Ion. I()<)-IOMaxson. Ievse . 112~lollt~on . Samuel, 106, 109Mensel , Karen , o.~ -M

Mlller,S.1r;lh , 110.\lunu ,i;U. lohn, .a, 6 ,7,10-12,1"· \7."'"ore, Ely, 1\2Mn.... rv. Arthur Ma) ', 77,91Muhly, Frank , " A Silver LIOIOR: Twenty­

Five Years IIi the Rhod .. Island SUIt:Council on the Arts." 35·(,4

Mu rray . lohn A., 119Museum of Art . Rhude Island Sch..ol oi

Design, ,~6·3 1, .\9, 41. 51 ·51 . 57, 59

Soluonal Comrnu ecc. Ans tor the Handrcapped, "7

Nanonal Endowment tor the Arts. J l:l· 4 I, .10;,47 , .'>3-54, 56. 59

Nanve Americans and th .. ans, '06Nauvrvrn m con-urcuonat debates. 72-73Nero. rat. 37'\'I'W A.l':c, n9, 82N..w England Fnund.mon for the Arts, .52Newman. Anhur. ·HN l'wport ,o,facury, \0>,",/1' '''' YOlk Evenm.l': 1'0 <;/ , 82....'ew York Tru th Teller. Btcoel , Pluhp, 44Norumercourse Act 10 War oi 11\11, 2.lNonh . Lord [Prcdcnc k], 9·10, 16·17NOlie, Iohn , n

O'Hare, Frank. 120. 122o'tLuc, Kale Richards, 120. 122Old Stone Developme nt Corporall<lO, 'iJOliver. Peter, \0>,15Olney, Iercrmah. 101-1O 'Sulilvan,lohn >\2,92

P....:hanm. john . 64Palmer, A \1 ltch ell ,123Palmt:r, Robert R . 9/1Partnershrp for Lueracv 10 th e An~, 57Pearc e. Duree [ 6H, 77.71'. , HI·H2.119, 9 1-92.

94-9:'Peckham, Sweet, 105l'cfl, Clarbomc. .14, .{H. 41\, S7. 621'e loqure. C. Alexander. 57Penulogv. Arts In Conecnons. 42People 's ConsmulLon. " :'Ill) Tcmpest 10 a

Tc:apOI . Tht' Don Rd:>elhun 10 !'..tlUnalPc:r~pectlve , 67 ·100

Pl'orle'~ mrum , 121·22ren~hable Th....ter. <'9l'erklOs. Edward , IO~

I'erklns. Phebe. IOJ·", 110. 112l'crT)', Stcphen. 1().t ,Sr~tlLne. Anthony, 121·22l'hdps, WIO,\on. 121

132 INDEX

Plraq, "Rhode lvland and t he War oj 1" 12,"13·31

Pnman.fohn, 7~·7 .~ , ~2. 95 . 97·91'1Pulk, lames " nnlt, 9.~

Pornone (shlpl. 2'>lPOller, Caleb, Iill!Poncr . Ehsha. 25Poner. Eh~ha.lr 1J, 1,11 , -o.sr. flf) . 'J2Potter, George W 127·21tPotter. ROli:cr , X2POllcr. SImeon, 12, IJPotter. Stephen. 107-9Potter, wrlham . 107

Preston, ]ACOO, '/2Pres ton , Wilham C; 1"PrLp. lohn. <; 7Providence Exmess. 1\9Providence Foundation, /'10Providence Ga.:.-ru , 9, I". 25Providence loumal And Don Rebellion. 72·

n . /17 ; on "'>Clah~l PAIlY, 120, 123, 125;and SI.itc Councrl on the A"~ ,\6· .17, J I..19·~

Providence 10urnAI Trust, 5.~

Providence r'rescrvauon S.>Clely . ..w,::'1Public Ans Ernplovmem plll~um. ..wPublic welta re . NO n And Ot l the RecordTown Clerk~ a~ lnterp rete rs of Rhode laland

HISIOr)', " lo.\·I~

PUlIh' , Eilla h F" Il2

Randolph , RIch ard " .,IlO. 1:1 .1Rath bun, George , 92Rathbu n, J"shw 8. , HReed. john, 119ReId. Jam es r. 111:1·1,/. 113·2 .1Reid , john Phillip. 1-1Revclunonarv War . "The Uses ul Law and

rhe Ga~p<:e Affair," .\ · 2 1Rhode Ivland Alliance for Arl Educa tion, 57Rhode Ivland Am Fund. 5,lRholk Island Black Hcruage S< >C le l~. 50Rhod e lvland Ccmmutcc fur t he Humaru-

uc s. 5(,Rhode Island Cnmprchcnsrve Art s Planrnng

Prn!:r;lm . 57Rhode island CUl1-\!HU1Wn()/i,t. 7URhude Island C ultura l Art' Comrm-sron, .19Rhode Islan d Pou ndanon . 4 7• .~,l. 511·59Rhude bland H"spual Trus t. '.,~

Rhode bl and Peace S"ciI'1y, 31Rhode bland Philharmomc Orche~rra . ,17,

51Rhode leland Schooltor Ihe DcAI. -1.1Rhudl' Island School oj DeSIgn Museum oj

Art, 3(d7, ,\ 9, .II , 51·52 . 57, 59Rhod o; Is tand SU le Counul on rhe Art s, " A

S,h'cr l mmg: Twent y,F,ve Yurs oj theRhode Isl.and SUte CounC il on Ihe Arts,"35·6.1

Rhode l ~bnJ suli raRe AS'M lClal mn. 67-61', 9"RIchmond, B.am llal. 12Rmd. Wilham . 9Rohhm~, DAnld, .11Roomson, Fran kh n, :'9Rom.in Catholic Chunh and SoclahM part\"

m Rhode IslAnd, 119RU~Slan Socl.alis r Club, ILl

Sacco, Nicola . II S; and Bartolomeo vanzcru.123

Say les Bleachcrv. 12-1Say les, Welcome B" Il2Schacht. Robe rt , 127Scheviil , lames. 51Schmur, Tom. -1(,SCUll . wmhel d, 91sco n , wmneld Townley, 127Sessions. Danus. 5'("Il, 11,1 -1 , 16. IIISeward. WIlh am, 90Srrms tet , Florence, ,>1Simmons, IAme~ fowle r, 111, 9.lSmclau. Upton, 122Srskmd, Aaron, 57Slamm. U:VI. 82Slater , Agnes. HSmuh. Perrv. 7t'oSmuggling and coloma! au tonomv. " The

Uses of Law and the C aspee Allan, .l·21Sm vth. Frederick, 9,1 5Socialist party III Rhode leland. '''A GIant 01

Ernbodred Conscience ' Ioscph ,\,Coldwell and the Souah" rany m RhudeIsland, ' 117·29

Spencer, lohn c., IH, ,,1SpHZ, Larry , 119. 12.1 . 127Sprague. Wilh am. 7::. . tr-rs, ,,1.1,2. I\ -I.ll~,

87,89.92Staples. Wi lhAm R., 71Ste vens, Ro~cl . .lR, -10Ste wart, Rovena. ~'''2, MStokes, Rose ra~tor . 120. 122Stone , Enc , 127Story, Icseph, 7 1. 7-1,1\2, 90lStrum. Ha rvey, " Rhode Island and the War

0/ 111 12," 2.'1-,nSullivan, [oscph W,. "' A GIAnt oj Embodi ed

Co nscience': losep b M Coldwell and t heSOCialist Party m Rhode Isla nd," 117·29

Su ndlu n, Bruce . -I'>Swan, Bradford, ol '>Sweet , Lebcus, 105Sweet , Thom av, lOSSylvester, Philip Cartere t. 9

Tallmadge, Nar ha mcl, 711Tamm any Hall ,1l2-K'ITam many soctc ucs m Rhude ts!..nd. H ,25TAney , Rogcr , 97Tanner . Abel. " On an d O il Ihe Reco rd

Town Clerks as lr ucrp rct er s o j Rhod eIslan d Histo ry," 103 ·1 5

Th eater, r ublic suppurt ui , ,\7, 3Y, .1J'ol5. 51 ·52,5.1,.'>9

Th emen. Edward, 120Th omas, Norman . 12-1Thur low . Edw ard. 9, 17Th urston, loseph, Io.~

Ti lde n, SAmuel J.. x2T illes. Nonnan, .11 , MTilhnPtasl , lose ph L ,ll7Titus, Jonah . 1:12TownIe)'. Hu~h . 57T nnl1YPersona Compan~·, .1~

T n nlty Repe rtory Comp.iny, .\7, -1.1 ...." . 51 ·52, :>.\,59

Tnm !)' Square Theatre, 57

Turn er , George. 9-1Tvlcr.Tohn, 7-1.7'1, so-at. liS. 11 7, 92 . 97

Unued Art s Fund. .16, 53Uncr. Anne, .\9, H-.13Van Allsburg, Chns. 57Yaughan, Darnel, 12vc rrncl. An ne , -I1..1olvcne. Estelle, .1.'1VCr)' Speci al Arts Rhode lvland, 5!'V,gilant ishlpl, 21'V"gmw Gazette. <,IVogel, Paula , 57

WAldrop , Ros man e. 7WAlsh, MIke, sz.S9wanton, Joseph . -1- I 7W.arner, wrlham, <;7War 01 1~12 , ,.Rhode I~bnd And the War oi

ISI2,N2.l ..uWar ReSlstcr~ League. 127Waehm gron Benevolent Socrew. Newpo rt .

2'iWatso n, Ieijr)', 107Weaver , Zebulon, 105w ebsrer, Darnel, 72. rt, W-~I , as. 95 , 91 .

YHwedderburn, Alexander, 9,17Weed , Thurlow. 90Weeden. wager , 7,"Well s, Ab,,lta,l, 108·9Wells. Cesar, 107·10, I IIwens, Edw ard, IUl--I, 112wells . james. lr. 101'1Wells. Thomas, 105-6. 109w esterlv An Ce nter. -1 2Whee ler . john, II.!whipple, lohn, 72, 7-1 , st .sz. 1:1.1 , <,IS. 97whue, Aa ron, 82. 9Swh uc . Chnsnna. 49wilbur , Benrarm n, 105WIIl l'[ . Joseph, lr., 104. 112wmcr. Surncel. 104wmcr. Will iam, 106 . 109Wolll, Geo ii rey, 57w oodbury, Levi, 18. 97w o onsoc ket Ra,on Plant. 124World War 1. 119-2.3Wnght, C. D.. 57Wfl~h t . SILls. IT. , 7'1WSHE IChannd 361. -19

Yanvar. Adolp h. 121York , Nell L., "The Uses oi Law an d the

Ga~pt'e Alial r," .3-21You n,i; People 's S()Clali~t l eA):ue. 113