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Rhode Island Slave History Medallions’ tour walks through the history of the enslaved people who lived and worked in homes and businesses here. Nearby, the Newport Historical Society’s latest exhibit, “A Name, A Voice, A Life: The Black Newporters of the 17th-19th Centuries,” brings more evidence to these narratives.
“This is another type of historical recognition for Newport. It’s not just a wedding facility, or an entertainment venue. We have a history that began here, first with the enslavement of Africans and Indigenous people, who were here first before colonists or slaves,” says Charles Roberts, executive director and founder of the nonprofit Rhode Island Slave History Medallions. “We’re trying to make the public aware of this history and the contributions of enslaved people.”
The walking tour begins at Bowen’s Wharf, where the enslaved people who survived the brutal voyage from Africa first disembarked. The tour ambles up to Trinity Church courtyard, where historians in Colonial attire discuss stonecutters Pompe Stevens and Cuffe Gibbs. The brothers are buried in God’s Little Acre burying ground, at the northern tip of the city.
The tour continues into the densely developed Historic Hill neighborhood, where the voices of previous generations seem to whisper from the cobbled roads and 17th- to 19th-century buildings. Visitors stop at the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hopkins House (ca. 1710) on Division Street, named for the first pastor to denounce slavery from the pulpit. Across the street at Peter Bours House, Newport Gardner was one of merchant Caleb Gardner’s slaves, according to tour guide Norman Desmarais. Gardner, originally named Occramar Marycoo, was arrived in Newport and was forced into slavery at age 14. He became a leader and activist in the Black community here, and opened his own music school. He bought freedom for himself, his wife and their children, and helped launch the city’s first Black church. With his friend Pompe Stevens, he helped form the country’s first Free African Union Society, a mutual aid organization for African Americans.
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Cato Vernon lived in what is now the William Vernon House (ca. 1708) on Clarke Street, owned by the Newport Restoration Foundation and a stop on the tour. He fought as a soldier in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment during the Revolutionary War. But he didn’t receive his military pension, according to tour guide Maria Hunter, and was imprisoned for failing to pay his debts after his enslaver, William Vernon, the famed slave merchant and president of the Eastern Navy Board, refused to help.
At each location on the tour, a bronze medallion with the figure of an angel memorializes the enslaved people who lived and worked there, and honors their legacies, while offering an education into a prominent piece of Newport’s cruel past. Roberts and Rhode Island Slave History Medallions have placed six medallions in Newport and 14 statewide so far, including in Bristol, North Kingstown, and East Greenwich. Seven more are under contract, with more than 35 slated for installation, he said.
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“The angel image is significant to Newport history, to have souls carried to heaven on the wings of angels,” Roberts said. “The medallions have a QR code, and you walk up to it and stand in the location where history was made, and you can see the stories right there on your phone.”
In the Newport Historical Society’s headquarters nearby at the Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House (ca. 1730), a new exhibit showcases a strong Black community from the city’s founding in 1639 to the abolition of slavery in Rhode Island’s Constitution in 1842. Illustrating years of research conducted for the historical society’s extensive “Voices from the NHS Archives” database, the exhibit showcases historic documents, artifacts, and artwork to bring enslaved peoples’ stories to life.
Kaela Bleho, collections and digital access manager and exhibit co-curator, says she and research assistant and exhibit co-curator Zoe Hume originally went looking for names of Black and Indigenous individuals. But they discovered so much personal information in ship logs, personal letters, and religious and medical records during their research that an exhibit was only natural.
“We started to find people showing up in multiple places in the historic record, and through quite a lot of digging, we were able to develop more of an understanding of their life stories and experiences,” Bleho says. “When this database launched in February of this year, we were so excited to share these stories that we thought, “Of course, this should be an exhibit as well.’ This is another way to help people connect with this history.”
They bring together many of these documents with original paintings commissioned by local Black artists and pieces of material culture on loan from other historic organizations to curate the life experience of five Black Newporters. A pair of leather boots represents soldier Hannibal Collins, who served with Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry during the War of 1812; a wooden laying top used in ropemaking represents ropemaker Arthur Tikey; and a mortar and pestle alongside a portrait by Rhode Island artist Eric Telfort represent Trinity Church congregant and healer Mereah Brenton.
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Bleho says that through selecting these objects and documents, they hope contemporary visitors will connect with these five stories on an individual level, and try to get to know a person who lived 200 years ago.
“It’s really hard to sum up someone’s life story in one object … so you’re trying to think of something that will give someone here and now a window into the past without reducing someone to the sum of objects they might have owned then,” explains Hume. “It’s kind of like leaving your smartphone on display. You could learn a lot from it, but not everything. So, you’ll see that everyone (in the exhibit) does have something that speaks to some element of their experience, or as much as we know about it.”
In the midst of these visual narratives, the names of 1700 Newporters of African descent written on white notecards hang from wire. They are among thousands of Black and Indigenous people identified by the Newport Historical Society during research, says executive director Rebecca Bertrand. Dozens of people across the city, from Rogers High School students to other nonprofit leaders and city councilors, hand-wrote these names for display, in a community-wide effort.
“One of the things I think is really interesting about this show is that it speaks so much to identity, and there’s a great focus on a person’s name. … In the process, we talked to people about identity and what their name means, where it came from, whether their name resonates with them, and if they like their name. It was an interesting process to talk to adults and children about that,” Bertrand says. “It’s a really powerful show for a lot of different reasons, but because of that connection to identity.”
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If You Go
Newport Black History Walking Tours
Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays at 10 a.m., June 22 through Nov. 30. 75 minutes. $10-$20.
Departs from the Pilot House at 13 Bowen’s Wharf, Newport.
newportblackhistorywalkingtours.com
“A Name, A Voice, A Life: The Black Newporters of the 17th-19th Centuries” exhibit
Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free, open to the public.
At the Newport Historical Society’s Richard I. Burnham Resource Center, 82 Touro St., Newport, 401-846-0813.
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