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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — One of the darkest chapters of Rhode Island history involved the state’s pre-eminence in the slave trade, beginning in the 1700s. More than half of the slaving voyages from the United States left from ports in Providence, Newport and Bristol — so many, and so contrary to the popular image of slavery as primarily a scourge of the South, that Rhode Island has been called “the Deep North.”
That history will soon become more prominent as the Episcopal diocese here, which was steeped in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, establishes a museum dedicated to telling that story, the first in the country to do so, according to scholars.
A direct descendant of a prominent family in the slave is very involved helping to create the museum and center.
Quote:
Other slavery museums — notably the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, La., and the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston, S.C. — tell the story of slavery in the South. Some museums and historic sites touch on slavery in the North. But no museum is devoted to the region’s deep involvement, according to James DeWolf Perry VI, a direct descendant of the most prolific slave-trading family in the United States’ early years and a co-editor of a book called “Interpreting Slavery at Museums and Historic Sites.”
He is helping to plan the museum and reconciliation center, which are still in the organizing and fund-raising phases. They are to be housed at the 200-year-old stone Cathedral of St. John, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island. Because of dwindling membership, the majestic but deteriorating cathedral was closed in 2012.
The old church building probably was de-consecrated , were Jesus has no interest in the building today , as the people who had attended the Church have been sent to the new building
The old church building probably was de-consecrated , were Jesus has no interest in the building today , as the people who had attended the Church have been sent to the new building
Bishop Knisley seems to indicate that the cathedral is still in being. It is interesting indeed that your kneejerk response is that no active and still consecrated church and its congregation could ever allow an apologetic exhibit about the evils of the slave trade.
I have heard of this organization. It is the descendants of the DeWolfe family of Rhode Island, once the biggest slave traders in North America. Google "Traces of the "Trade" for more information. Fascinating story.
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