This July 4th marks the semiquincentennial of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. This milestone isn’t about when Rhode Island was settled (140 years prior, thank you very much), or even a history of a region inhabited by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, but reflections on the past 250. Looking back at the often-complicated past, there can still be a sense of patriotic spirit knowing that not only was Rhode Island the first US colony to renounce British rule, but more than a year before the Boston Tea Party, our colonists led the first uprising against the Crown with the burning of the HMS Gaspee in Warwick.
After winning independence, Rhode Island was the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution, refusing to sign until the Bill of Rights was added in 1791. Over the centuries, our state has been at the center of innovation as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution – where river-powered mills led workers from farm to factory (and resulted in all of those small village names) – and party to progressive movements like the Dorr Rebellion which aimed to expand voting rights in the 1840s, or having five capital cities to balance power until Providence became the sole capital in 1900. After the Civil War, manufacturing shifted from textiles to metals, and the smallest state became a world leader in the jewelry industry throughout the 20th century. To many of us who make our home in the Ocean State, any quirks are offset by a close proximity to everything from the ocean, to the arts, to a rich tapestry of dining, and vestiges of the past juxtaposed alongside the present.
Through 2026, discover a historical thread weaving through our pages, connecting Rhode Island’s past with the present and future.
1. Barrington: Even though the 21st Amendment ended prohibition in 1933, Barrington remained a “dry” town – meaning you couldn’t order a drink or buy alcohol – until 2011, when the town council approved the opening of two liquor stores.
2. Bristol: Following the American Revolution, King and Queen streets became Church and Constitution streets, to reflect the independence of the colonies as the United States.
3. Burrillville: The Harrisville Post Office was built by entrepreneur and philanthropist Austin T. Levy in 1950, and marked the first time a private citizen built a post office as a gift to the federal government.
4. Central Falls: By land area, the smallest city in the smallest state featured one of North America’s earliest water-powered chocolate mills. For more than 25 years, the smell of roasting cocoa beans permeated a stretch of the Blackstone River.
5. Charlestown: Quonochontaug Pond was the setting of a short-lived mining operation financed by inventor and businessman Thomas Edison, where magnets separated iron from sand.
6. Coventry: Waterman Tavern was one of the first stops taken by Count de Rochambeau’s army during its 1781 march from Providence to Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolution. The officers stayed at the tavern while the main army camped nearby.
7. Cranston: Hi Neighbor! In 1890, Narragansett Brewery was originally founded by six German-American entrepreneurs and later became one of the largest brewers in the region. The brand fell on hard times by the 1980s, but was revitalized under new ownership in 2005.
8. Cumberland: In 1980 a Cumberland High School student successfully sued the school for the right to take his boyfriend to prom (Aaron Fricke v. Richard B. Lynch). A federal court ruled that taking a same-sex date to a prom is a matter of free expression under the First Amendment, and the pair was allowed to attend together.
9. East Greenwich: Benjamin Franklin was such a frequent guest at the home of his friends Governor William Greene and his wife Catharine Ray, that a window on the west side where he enjoyed sitting is called “Franklin’s Window.”
10. East Providence: Nearly 12 million people (and counting) have taken a spin on the Crescent Park Carousel since it was built in 1895 by Charles I.D. Loof. Featuring 62 hand-carved figures and four chariots, it’s known as the largest and most elaborate example of Loof’s work.
11. Exeter: Scholars suggest that Bram Stoker based the character Lucy Westenra, in his novel Dracula, on Mercy Brown. The Exeter woman’s story made international headlines surrounding her death from consumption and exhuming, spawning the New England vampire panic in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
12. Foster: Built in the early 1900s, local lore has it that The Old Jail only ever held one prisoner for one day.
13. Glocester: On May 25, 1826, Hakaliah Bailey walked Betty the Learned Elephant around Chepachet on a Sunday; a religious type didn’t like the diversion from church and gunned her down. Find the commemorative plaque on the Chepachet River Bridge, and note that May 25 is Elephant Day in the village.
14. Hopkinton: The town was named for Founding Father Stephen Hopkins, who, among other things, introduced a bill in 1774 while serving in the Rhode Island General Assembly, which prohibited the importation of slaves into the colony; one of the first anti-slave trade laws in the United States.
15. Jamestown: Beavertail Lighthouse is the third-oldest lighthouse in North America. Built in 1856, it marks the entrance to Narragansett Bay.
16. Johnston: During the Revolutionary War, the village of Graniteville was the site of the state’s only gunpowder mill, which was run by James Goff until it exploded in 1779, killing Goff and destroying the mill.
17. Lincoln: Lincoln Woods State Reservation was named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln and opened on his birthday: February, 12, 1909. Until the 1940s, the park was known as Quinsnicket, a faux Indian name invented by white settlers.
18. Little Compton: In the 1830s, poultry farmers cross-bred chickens to create the Rhode Island Red, with the goal of outstanding egg production in a bird large enough to eat. The poultry became one of the most successful and widespread of farm breeds, and our state bird.
19. Middletown: While British forces occupied Isaac Barker’s home, the farmer pretended to be a loyalist while gathering intel in an elaborate spy operation where he employed a system of signals to inform American troops across the Sakonnet River in Little Compton of British activities.
20. Narragansett: The Narragansett Pier Casino was designed by McKim, Mead and White, the most prominent American architectural firm of the era, and landscaped by the revered Frederick Law Olmstead, whose portfolio includes Central Park.
21. Newport: Obour Tanner was an enslaved woman who corresponded with and acted as an agent for Phillis Wheatley, the first professional African-American woman poet in America and the first African-American woman whose writings were published.
22. New Shoreham: In the 1690s, notorious Scottish privateer Captain Kidd visited the island where he was supplied with provisions by Mrs. Mercy Raymond. The story goes that before his exit, he asked Raymond to hold-out her apron, which he then filled with gold and jewels as payment for her hospitality.
23. North Kingstown: Born on December 3, 1755 in a room above his father’s snuff mill, artist Gilbert Stuart left a legacy of over one thousand portraits. His unfinished Athenaeum portrait of George Washington appears on the US one-dollar bill.
24. North Providence: At the turn of the 20th century, the village of Fruit Hill was an arts district, and among its residents was landscape painter George William Whitaker. Known as the “Dean of Providence painters,” he was a founding member of the Providence Art Club, and RISD’s first oil painting instructor.
25. North Smithfield: The Marquis de Lafayette is said to have dined at Seth Allen Tavern in Union Village during a visit in 1825. Then a transportation hub, the first bank in the area opened here in 1805, hence being called Bank Village back in the day.
26. Pawtucket: The birthplace of industry was also home to the first organized labor strike when in May 1824, 100 women walked off the job in protest of cut wages at area mills. After an “incendiary device” was tossed into Walcott’s Mill causing a small fire, a settlement was reached, and workers were back at their machines by early June.
27. Portsmouth: From 1862 to 1865, Lovell General Hospital treated more than 10,500 sick and wounded Union and Confederate soldiers who arrived by steamship. Prior to the Civil War, it was the Portsmouth Grove House, a hotel with amusements and clambakes.
28. Providence: Born in Providence in 1878, George M. Cohan is considered the father of the American musical comedy. He wrote 300 songs, including “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and “(I’m a) Yankee Doodle Dandy”. Find a statue of Cohan in Times Square, NYC, and closer to home at the corner of Wickenden and Governor streets.
29. Richmond: While residents supported the American Revolution by sending troops and setting aside monies for the manufacture of munitions, in March, 1787 they voted against the adoption of The Constitution, which was widely unpopular across Rhode Island.
30. Scituate: A Chopmist Hill farmhouse served as a top-secret listening post and intercepted messages during World War II. Also known as the Scituate Monitoring Station, it was the largest and most effective of 13 similar installations that comprised a national network. The site was later considered for the headquarters of the United Nations.
31. Smithfield: Born in 1806, Elizabeth Buffum Chace became a well-known anti-slavery activist and women’s suffrage advocate, and was the first woman to be memorialized with a statue in the Rhode Island State House.
32. South Kingstown: At the South Kingstown Public Library in Peace Dale, take a look at The Weaver, a bronze high-relief sculpture by Daniel Chester French, a sculptor best known as the creator of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and The Minute Man in Concord, MA.
33. Tiverton: During the British occupation of what is now Aquidneck Island, Tiverton was a refuge for colonists, and a gathering spot for colonial forces during the American Revolution.
34. Warren: New England’s oldest Masonic Temple was built in the 18th century with timbers from British frigates sunk in Newport Harbor during the American Revolution. Washington Lodge No. 3 is the second oldest continuously operating Freemason’s Lodge in the United States, first opened in June of 1796.
35. Warwick: The Fruit of the Loom brand, once housed in Pontiac Mills, was a major producer of Union uniforms for the Civil War. Local legends say its bell tower was dedicated by President Lincoln at its grand opening in 1863, but alas, this is unsubstantiated.
36. Westerly: Rhody’s first Yale graduate, Dr. Joshua Babcock, hosted both Ben Franklin and General George Washington at his Georgian mansion. He also served as a state militia general, as Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, and as Westerly’s first postmaster, operating the post office and a general store out of his home, now the Babcock-Smith House museum.
37. West Greenwich: The New London Turnpike was one of the earliest toll roads. Opened in 1821, it shortened the distance between Providence and New York by 12 miles and transformed the area into a bustling thoroughfare. Competition from steamboats, railroads, and public roads led to its failure and the road fell into disrepair – as did its reputation – becoming known as Hell’s Half Acre.
38. West Warwick: Incorporated in 1913, West Warwick is the youngest town in Rhode Island. Home to the third oldest cotton textile mill in the state, Lippitt Mill; among its founders was Christopher Lippitt, an officer in the American Revolution.
39. Woonsocket: The Woonsocket Harris Public Library, then-known as the Harris Institute Library, opened its doors to the public on October 3, 1868. The library has the distinction of being the first fee- and subscription-free public library in the state. The library was located directly below Harris Hall, where Abraham Lincoln delivered an anti-slavery address in 1860.
History lovers, get ready to binge. Documentarian and unofficial national historian Ken Burns is back with a revealing new PBS series. Alongside co-directors Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, Burns’ latest, The American Revolution, is six-part, 12-hour extravaganza that premiered in November, and is streaming on PBS Passport. The series looks at the struggle that upended an empire and gave birth to a new nation – the war, the politics, and the people, the tale of “how America’s founding turned the world upside-down.”
The series revisits the era of the American Revolution with fresh eyes, presenting the conflict as more than simply a war of independence, but more a war of conquest, a civil war, and a world war simultaneously. With no video or photographic evidence from the era to draw upon, the documentary focuses on the written and illustrated record, and includes voices from across the spectrum – rank-and-file Continental soldiers, British officers, Native Americans, enslaved and free African Americans, Loyalists, and civilians. It’s not always pretty – the conflict frequently divided neighbors and families. Moreover, the military picture was often bleak; at times, more soldiers died from disease and exposure than in battle.
Botstein and Schmidt share more about the series in a recent interview. Both worked with Burns on numerous prior projects including Jazz, The Vietnam War and The US and the Holocaust. “At the heart of the film is the dynamic between the idea of the American Revolution, this total upheaval about what it means to have a revolution, kicking the British monarchy aside and winning. It’s such an unlikely underdog story, and really important to study when it comes to that American Revolution of ideas,” says Botstein. “But it’s also a really bloody, deeply complicated, and brutal civil war, which becomes a world war. And you have to understand both those things at the same time to understand what’s important.”
For the documentary’s live-action scenes, the filmmakers attended and recorded numerous historical reenactments. “We spent some time with the reenactment groups without our cameras,” says Schmidt. “We filmed the big reenactments that they do, and then we spent the last couple of years sort of curating specialized groups, Hessian soldiers, the First Rhode Island, the New Jersey Grays, and British reenactors to do small-scale shoots that were much more impressionistic and specific to what we were doing,” says Botstein. Those reenactments included coverage of the famed First Rhode Island Division, and a profile of RI native Nathanial Greene, “Washington’s most trusted lieutenant,” notes Schmidt.
Rhode Island’s Gaspee incident gets some attention as well. “After the Boston Massacre (1770), the British withdrew from occupying Boston,” says Schmidt. “There was a time of relative lull, which somebody like Samuel Adams was a little anxious about. He wanted to keep up the scare, as it were, keep the momentum going for this revolution that he was invested in. It kind of went by the wayside for a bit until the Gaspee Affair (1772) and a few other events, which reignited the engine of revolution. That’s the big one, it really started raising the temperature again. And then it picks up, of course, with the Tea Party.”
The film presents a more nuanced view of the “enemy,” including loyalists living in America, plus many enslaved Americans, who were promised freedom if they fought on the British side. “I think it’s really important when doing a story of any war, to try to explain or understand why and have empathy and context for why different people make different decisions,” says Botstein.
“If you look at Rhode Island itself, Providence had a much closer tie to the mainland than Newport, which had a closer tie to the sea,” adds Schmidt. “Newport was occupied for much of the war by the British and later the French army. I think in places like that, you have to understand that an awful lot of Americans are people who will make the best decision that they can make in that moment in time. And sometimes, whose army is in my city right now? What can I do to protect myself, my property, my family?
Other times it’s ideological. You can’t fault somebody for making the decision that this has been working out pretty well for me, I don’t want to break the law, I want to go along with what’s gotten us to where we are now, and that person might call themselves a loyalist.”
Schmidt recalls an insight during the film’s production. “Sarah’s probably sick of me saying this, but there’s a moment in episode three where (Harvard) historian Maya Jasanoff says the United States was born out of violence. Millions of people went through a real ordeal over the course of eight years of war and many more years of uncertainty and emerged on the other side with something that we’re still dealing with today. The country was divided at our founding. We have a great tradition of political divisions.” Stream The American Revolution at PBS.org
Babcock-Smith House Museum: Visit the home of Dr. Joshua Babcock, a 1734 Georgian mansion that hosted the likes of George Washington and Ben Franklin, while serving as a post office and general store. Westerly, BabcockSmithHouse.org
Choosing Sides in Revolutionary Newport: This two-guide 90-minute walking tour brings both perspectives to life, asking you to decide whose cause you would follow in a city torn between rebellion and loyalty. Newport, NewportHistoryTours.org
The John Brown House Museum: Exhibits and objects reflecting Rhode Island’s role in the Revolution and participation in slavery and the slave trade. Providence, RIHS.org
Museum of Work and Culture: Explore the transformation of this textile city over 200 years on an interactive touch table. Exhibits are presented in both French and English. Woonsocket, RIHS.org
Sowams Heritage Area: Ten self-guided tours offer a unique way to explore Sowams’ past and present, connecting visitors to Indigenous landmarks, historical sites, and cultural pathways that shaped this land. Warren, Sowams.org
Varnum House Museum: The 250-year-old house of James Mitchell Varnum, a general serving under Washington, he was a brilliant lawyer who proposed the formation of the Black Regiment; its guests included Generals Washington and Lafayette. East Greenwich, VarnumContinentals.org
Chances are good that you’ve come across those blue, red, and gold W3R signs on local roads and wondered what they meant. It’s the National Park Service’s Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail, and follows the path taken by the French army under Rochambeau on its journey from Providence to the battle of Yorktown in 1781. Spanning more than 680 miles through nine states and the District of Columbia, the trail commemorates the land and water routes that secured American independence, while emphasizing that the march to Yorktown was not just a military route, but a vibrant network of real communities whose stories continue to shape America’s identity. Find maps, merch, and more at W3R-US.org
January 1: America’s Tapestry Embroidery Event, Narragansett | SouthCountyMuseum.org
February-December: Occupied! Newport and the Fight for Independence, Newport | NewportHistory.org
February 7: Saugatucket Skirmish, South Kingstown | SouthKingstownRI.gov
March 13-15: Behind the Lines: Unsung Women of the American Revolution, Portsmouth | Brigade.org
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